Anyone remember Michael Milken? The Junk Bond king? Who went to prison?
Michael Milken's been into the
daycare business big time for quite some time. From an articles written
by Kenneth J. Saltman in 2003:
"In the 1980s Michael Milken was sent to prison for his illicit
financial dealings - fraud and insider trading.
However, even his legal activities in the junk
bond market were destructive to companies, to
retirees, and to the general public.
He was a major factor in the
Savings and Loan collapse that cost the public
billions. He invented the junk bond market and
promoted its use in hostile corporate takeovers
that destroyed businesses, labor unions, and job security while
enriching a tiny corporate elite."
Also from Saltman's article:
"Wall Street considers the "early-childhood" market to be a $30 billion opportunity for corporations."
"...opportunity..."
Remember in the Robert Redford film All the President's Men when Deep Throat (Mark Feldt) told newspaper investigative reporter Bob Woodward, "Follow the money."?
It's a billion, billion, billion dollar business where the greedy want your children younger and younger to warehouse them in institutional settings for the benefit of their love of money.
These institutional settings are hurting our children, our families and our country. The few pockets of good can not out weigh the harm.
Something to think about and observe if you have children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews in day care settings. If you see something wrong, speak up immediately and speak up to others. Shine the light.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
State of the Union on Child Day Care - 2013 Washington State Department of Early Learning and DSHS
The State of the State of Washington State as well as the State of the Union Related to Day Care Regulations.
Having worked thirteen years as a day care licensor and investigator; and now seven years as a analyst and expert witness on day care licensing in Washington State as well as nationally, the state of the state and the state of the union as related to day care bureaucratic state employees continue to ignore their respective citizen legislators.
HOW you might ask? Through ignoring laws passed by the citizens you elected who listened to you, the parent, the grandparent, the auntie, the uncle and other concerned citizens in state after state across these United States of America.
Supervisors, mid-managers, upper managers and line workers by their behaviors and actions for the most part seemingly do whatever they choose in spite of the citizen legislators passing child day care laws such as in Washington State:
RCW 43.215.370Reporting — Actions against agency licensees — Agencies notified of licensing requirement — Posting on web site. |
This law was passed in 2007. Not until February 2012 did the Department of Early make a show to implement this law, but continues to violate this law by not advising parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles and other concerned citizen if a license was revoked, denied or suspended. The DEL website only advises on all former license holders whose licenses are "closed" with no information as to WHY. It is now almost six years DEL has ignored this law.
Licenses are revoked per RCW 43.215.005(4)(c) : " To safeguard and promote the health, safety, and well-being of children receiving child care and early learning assistance, which is paramount over the right of any person to provide care;"
WHY is it important for parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles to know WHY?
Because such persons it has been documented have returned to doing child day care, unlicensed child day care. Even in such cases as to when a baby died at such a day care.
WHY are DSHS and DEL upper managers, middle managers, supervisors and line workers not held accountable to uphold the laws your citizen legislators enacted on behalf of the "health, safety and well-being of the child" in licensed child day care?
A big piece is that we have the Attorney General who does not and has not held DSHS and DEL accountable to the law and in fact has supported through his state employees, assistant attorneys general (AAGs) upper managers, middle managers and supervisors in their violations of RCW, WAC and policies, supported them in breaking the laws of Washington State.
Historically Attorneys General claimed they don't have the legislative authority to take such actions. It is well documented that Attorneys General on many occasions had public comments to the legislature to change this law, that law or create new laws. The Attorney General has a VOICE.
When the day care licensing agency whether under DSHS or the Department of Early Learning (DEL) failed in protecting a child instead of manning up to their failure they fight bereaved parents, grandparents, godparents, aunties and uncles as in the case of two year old Gabriel Tobin who drowned in 2004 while in the care of a licensed day care provider.
The Attorneys General (Christine Gregoire and then Rob McKenna in that time period) fought Gabriel's bereaved parents (and other parents) in court.
I testified to the Gabriel Tobin jury and the jury got it. There is perhaps nothing more mind numbing then listening to bureaucratic state workers and bureaucratic state attorneys trying to numb out a jury with a plethora of state paperwork forms accompanied by choking, gagging, bureaucratic language. The jury got the poor quality of work done ( which was in violation of law) by the state's employees and the state's attorneys.
The jury got how state workers, supervisors and middle managers looked the other way in processing that particular applicant who was asking for the privilege of obtaining a license. They gave her a license not once, but...twice without doing the proper process based on the laws the citizen legislature passed.
In their testimonies the licensors, supervisors and managers acted, in my experience and observation, in my most charitable view disconnected perhaps in deep denial that their failure to act caused the death of a child which does not absolve them from their duties to read and apply the laws and in my most analytic view and opinion, manipulative and disingenuous when faced with their failure in that duty under law.
Gabriel died in 2004, the jury in 2008 came back with an $11.8 million dollar judgment against the state. DEL went into a lengthy, an excruciatingly long process of reviewing their day care regulations to implement the laws passed by the citizen legislature.
After Gabriel drowned the child death review was ONLY done in-house and the upper managers, middle managers, supervisors and assistant attorneys general step after Gabriel's death was to weaken the existing water safety regulation.
Four LONG years after a citizen jury told the state you licensed a home that couldn't have been licensed under the law and eight years after Gabriel died, in May 2012 this water hazard WAC was put into the day care regulations (WAC Chapter 170-296A) and ONLY put in the regulations because Gabriel parents' stood up in their grief and asked the citizens of the State of Washington to make an examination, an evaluation and a judgment. Here is that new WAC:
WAC 170-296A-5250 |
Agency filings affecting this section |
Bodies of water outside and near licensed space. |
|
(a) Ponds, lakes, storm retention ponds, ditches, fountains, fish ponds, landscape pools or similar bodies of water located outside and near (in close proximity to) the licensed space, regardless of whether the body of water is on or off the premises; or
To honor Gabriel Tobin, it should be titled the Gabriel Tobin WAC regulation.
The amount of courage and stamina it takes for a parent who has lost a child to step forward to speak up for their child and of great importance in that moment to speak up in a public forum to take steps to protect future children is beyond most parents; and I am humbled by parents who go beyond their grief to make a difference. To go up against state bureaucrats, the regulators, state employees and most painful of all their state attorneys, all paid for by us the taxpayers is a bit beyond most of our comprehension.
Parents are at such a disadvantage in their attempts to interface with DSHS and DEL. The real "customer" for DEL is not the child, it is not the parent and it is the licensed day care provider. There are many examples across the nation of the regulated taking over the regulatory agency. In Gabriel's case the State put forward as their "expert witness" the head of the national regulatory association, Judy Collins, to support the upper managers, middle managers, supervisors and licensors in their failure to follow law, regulations and policies.
If justice is to remain in our country, in our states and in this case the State of Washington, it is still, we, the people who sit on juries that hold the government accountable. It is the courage of the individual to bring a case to we, the people, we the jury in a court of law that creates a change.
Perhaps the Attorney General, Rob McKenna, will step up to the plate, will ask the legislature this legislative session to make the laws of the Attorney General's Office such as to hold upper managers, middle managers, program managers, licensors and clerical state employee staff responsible for applying the laws as passed by the citizen legislature in Washington State.
Perhaps our new governor, Jay Inslee will understand the importance of high elected government officials stepping up to the plate and stating, "yes", all state employees must obey the laws as passed by our citizen legislature and that the Attorney General's Office cannot protect those that fail to obey those laws.
In the meantime, God Bless, the parents who have lost children due to being in day care and God Bless the many children who have been hurt and/or traumatized in day care. There are so many secrets, so many stories of children being hurt that don't see the light of day because this state and other states craft their systems and public websites in such ways to hide information from the public citizen as well as the state legislators themselves.
Please remember two year old Gabriel Tobin. Please remember that if a regulation exists does not mean the Department of Early Learning will enforce it. It will be due diligence by citizens pressing their government, it will take juries to find out if DEL and other such state agencies across the nation are following the laws enacted by citizen legislators.
Please remember Gabriel Tobin.
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