Michigan’s Republican State Sen. Bruce Caswell wants the poor to dress appropriately to their station in life — that is, with second-hand clothes. Caswell introduced legislation to require children in the state’s foster care system to buy clothes at stores like Goodwill and Salvation Army under restrictive “gift cards” that would give $79 clothing allowance for the kids. Caswell is the chairman of the DHS Appropriations Subcommittee.
Caswell believes that poor children should not be better dressed than he was:
“I never had anything new,” Caswell says. “I got all the hand-me-downs. And my dad, he did a lot of shopping at the Salvation Army, and his comment was — and quite frankly it’s true — once you’re out of the store and you walk down the street, nobody knows where you bought your clothes.”
Everyone except Caswell, that is.
The legislation was pulled from a bill at the last minute, according to the article below.
Source:Michigan Messenger
@ Sean D.
To say that it is a silly article, it’s not. It’s absolutely ridiculous. There are a ton of problems that a foster child faces and then to be made to feel that they are somehow less is making them to suffer even more abuse. Maybe a good human being wouldn’t say anything to a child dressed in nasty old clothes, but if you think children in middle school and high school are good human beings then you are sadly mistaken.
From the time I was 13, I was in foster care. I had come up from Florida in the middle of the winter here in Michigan and I did not have the appropriate clothing for the weather here. The state gave my foster parents 500 dollars to buy me an entire new wardrobe and I maybe got to spend 150 of it at salvation army and other second hand stores. The other 350 dollars went into the foster parents pocket to buy their cigarettes and other things that had nothing to do with my care.
The foster care system needs a total overhaul. This is just part of the truth being spat into people’s face. But, I’m sure that people will forget all about this and let it go because even though children are the future of this nation, we would rather forget them than protect them.
And not every child is taken from a bad parent. I had better clothes and better care with my mother than I ever did in foster care. And if that isn’t the state abusing it’s power, I don’t know what is.
Dude, jsut because YOU have issues about your upbringing, it doesn’t mean you have to inflict your psychosis’s on the rest of us. Resign your office and go see a professional.
I grew up in foster care and was shuttled around to eleven different homes. Of all eleven homes only one set of foster parents actually bought me and my siblings new clothes with the stipend that the state furnished for clothing. The other ten sets of foster parents spent the money on their biological children and we foster kids wore horrid thrift store cast-off clothing. So foster kids already know what “second hand” is. Senator Caswell should not have made his distain for foster children so apparent to the public eye. By the way- I was in foster care because my mother caught polio and not because I was a hoodlum. I have never even had a parking ticket in my life. I lead a normal life, work hard, pay taxes, and raised my children to be good citizens. My mother taught me that and not the foster care system. That said- I do shop where the best American made bargains are whether they are in thrift stores or department stores. Foster parents should shop at the same places for all the children in their home and not single out foster kids for “second best”. That is child abuse.
@ Dana…I agree with you 100%!!! Most of these poor children have already been put through hell and have no idea if they are coming or going. I volunteered at the Goodwill by my house just recently, and the clothes are not nice at all. I am not against second-hand, but come on now. These chldren deserve better, and putting them in ‘hand-me-donws’ is only going to bring there self-esteem down even more. It sounds to me like this guy is just jealous, because he didn’t have nice things when he was growing up. Well that isn’t everybody else’s fault, and he should not be taking his ‘growing up’ on the children today. I myself am not rich my any means and am considered poor, so I took much offense to this ‘garbage’ he is talking. Even being poor, my children still don’t wear second hand clothing though. I want them to feel good about themselves. When I read this it made me sick, and I will be even sicker if it passes!!!!
Not a damn thing wrong with second hand clothes as that’s what we had in the 50s. It’s fricking 2011 and I paid my dues to keep this state going. Foster children nowadays deserve the same as everyone else out there, especially when parents are buying/using every technological thing agoing.
Mike S.,
The so-called pro life believers only believe in life for zygotes, but not for children.
“then add to their already shattered self-esteem and feelings of self-worth and allow them to ONLY where second hand clothes. Really?”
Having also worked in Child Welfare and the foster Care System I can attest that Dana knows what she/he is talking about. Despite the many dedicated people who work in these systems, they are and always have been a disgrace. Thank you Mespo for the Dickens quotes, because overall the foster care system is Dickensian in nature. This derives from politicians who are quick to favor those with cash and likewise to ignore the needs of innocents. All these anti-abortion types do little to reform the system to which they have now negatively contributed by expanding its population. Sadly, they deem themselves pious, when in fact they are slow witted frauds, lacking the intelligence to understand their own culpability.
I’m not suggesting that abortion is the answer, but the truth is that the anti-abortionist (anti-life) movement also objects to distribution of information and methodology to ensure birth control. Concomitant with this is that another contribution to foster care comes from abuse/neglect removals. If the state has a duty to protect children from these horrid depredations, then it also has a duty to take care of the children affected and removed from the horror. This duty extends to providing a lot more than just barely adequate care.
@Benjamin May – Yes, Foster kids get a stipend, at least they did 10 years ago – a Teenager got $200 for clothing twice a year, around when school starts and again around when summer starts. Which when a kid goes from “failure-to-thrive” to getting regular meals in addition to normal growth spurts, $200 really isn’t that much in the scheme of things.
This is a silly article about a silly proposal that twists the quote totally out of contect. He proposes a $79 clothing allowance via a gift card restricted to a cheap store simply as a way to get more bang for the taxpayer’s buck… His quote is simply stating his personal frugal beliefs – he grew up perfectly happy using second-hand clothes. This is not about a Republican saying foster kids must only shop in certain stores, but an ill-thought out idea of how to stretch the limited resources available for these programs.
The valid critisism of this of the libertarian angle that it would be yet more excessive government micro-management… we trust these foster parents to take care of these kids, but we don’t trust their judgement of where to buy the kids’ clothes? As a Republican, he should know better.
And as for all you liberal partisans jumping up and down howling that this is another example of Republicans wanting to impose class restrictions and distinctions, you should know better too.
I work with foster kids… let’s see…we’ll just let them live in homes where they are abused and neglected. Remove them to live in foster homes (fingers crossed they get a good one) and then add to their already shattered self-esteem and feelings of self-worth and allow them to ONLY where second hand clothes. Really?
Sounds like a second-hand idea (a.k.a. scripted idea) …
Lotta,
This guy is a creep of the highest order.
The allowances that foster parents receive for food, clothing, etc. are fairly meager. It’s doubtful that these children, who typically have been removed from neglectful or abusive homes aren’t getting outfitted at Nordstrom.The GOP campaign to turn any entitlement (or insurance program) into “welfare” clearly has exhausted its targets but not its perpetrators. In swing states, the biggest grandstanders on this stuff tend to be rural Republicans who represent districts with substantial amounts of poverty.
This is IMO a craven political stunt that has no basis in reality. This is an issue like the ‘welfare queen’ that rolls up to the welfare office in a cadillac. It was a non-issue he could seize on to make political points with a narrow, small-minded group of voters.
I used to spend a lot of time in the Goodwill-type shops and any other ‘seconds’ shop I could find. I was looking for antiques and collectables but I also would buy cloths depending on the ‘style’ (or lack there-of) I was going through. I did spend time in the clothing sections so I got to see what went on there.
The clothing isles were never empty of mothers with their kid including school age kids, or women with carts piled precariously high with children’s clothing in sizes from ‘infant’ to ‘young adult’. Kids clothes were hot items. Even the working women I worked with that made ‘good’ money and had kids shopped the second-hand shops for kids clothing. I’d see them do it. Kids grow fast and keeping them in cloths is an expensive operation.
If this elected Grinch thinks that foster parents are getting their monthly foster care check and taking it to the local full price clothing stores and boutique’s to buy new cloths for their kids then he’s simply not in touch with reality or he’s an opportunist, playing to the grinch-inclined voters. I suspect it’s the latter.
MOMMIE, i donwanna were that underware,it makes me itch
and they should only get second hand heat and second hand food, the good stuff should only go to the good children.
I like3d his reasoning: I didn’t have nice stuff when I was a kid!
By that reasoning nobody can have more than the poorest of us – does the name Karl Marx ring a bell? I hope this asshole chokes to death on his 5 martini dinner.
Until they stop swallowing flashlights?
how long do we have to suffer these ‘leaders’ who run around with their heads up their own asses all the while thinking they see light?
Oh! Those wacky Compassionate Christian Conservatives! The fun never ends. How about making the kids bob for apples before the parents get their food stamps! And how about making poor people wear a yellow star on their clothing so we know who they are! HaHaHaHaHa! Oh, excuse me- gotta run- I’m late for church.