struggling teens comment on industry reaction to GAO hearing

[Oz girl]

REACTIONS

By: Lon Woodbury

The Congressional Hearings by Congressman Miller's Committee on Education and Labor held on the 10th of October sent shock waves through the network of private parent-choice residential schools and programs for teens. There were two initial reactions. One was a kind of "grin and bear it," not get defensive, see the hearings as just politics and work to get on the record the facts of positive accomplishments schools and programs have made in helping children's lives. The other reaction was anger at the misrepresentations made and unfairness at the mischaracterization of private programs.

As some time has passed, this thinking has started to evolve in a direction of taking this as a challenge. The creativity that was the basis of the founding of the private parent-choice industry is again rising to meet this challenge in a way that could make the schools and programs more effective. This is a healthy development that could motivate schools and programs to take an honest look at what they are doing to improve their programs and staffing. A good example of suggestions along these lines is found in an essay in this issue by Dr. Bill Valentine and Dr. Jim Powell called OPPORTUNITY KNOCKING.

Only time will tell whether the resulting changes from this call for program introspection will mean more effective services for the children of parents choosing residential resources or whether they will just provide better cover to satisfy regulators. In the meantime, it will be wise to keep in mind the realities of politics in Washington D.C. Congress is not necessarily a temple of wisdom. Power is the name of the game and decisions are not made so much on the basis of "seeing the light" as they are based on "feeling the heat!"

[Anonymous]

I wonder if he has any idea how badly he's owning himself by even mentioning Miller on the front page?

[ZenAgent]

Lon's "reactions" are nothing but rationalizations and a lot of Polly Anna dreck for his cronies.  Rise to the challenge?  Sending someone like Jan Moss to front the industry's interests shows they can't possibly raise the bar for themselves.

Too mentally challenged to "rise to the challenge".

[Che Gookin]

Having someone like Sharon Laney get up in front of congress to represent NATSAP would prove unwise. Having worked with the woman before I'm fairly positive she would have told Georgie off. Having a bumbling passive representative diminishes their profile in this congressional crusade. Natsap isn't so stupid that they want to draw the attention of the entire world for having a representative light up the entire committee with some good programmie rhetoric and verbally knee bombing the parental photo opprotunities.

 Let's be candid here and be honest enough to admit that this sad charade won't be over until George can nail someone's scalp to the back of his office door. Once he has secured whatever meager draw of votes he can manage from this crowd he'll move onto something else. He is a politician.. that is the way of things.

The only upside here is the possibility of a some token arrest possibly occuring and a government report that can be cited later.

[ZenAgent]

Having someone like Sharon Laney get up in front of congress to represent NATSAP would prove unwise. Having worked with the woman before I'm fairly positive she would have told Georgie off. Having a bumbling passive representative diminishes their profile in this congressional crusade. Natsap isn't so stupid that they want to draw the attention of the entire world for having a representative light up the entire committee with some good programmie rhetoric and verbally knee bombing the parental photo opprotunities.

 Let's be candid here and be honest enough to admit that this sad charade won't be over until George can nail someone's scalp to the back of his office door. Once he has secured whatever meager draw of votes he can manage from this crowd he'll move onto something else. He is a politician.. that is the way of things.

The only upside here is the possibility of a some token arrest possibly occuring and a government report that can be cited later.

It did seem like Jan Moss provoked a rare bipartisan disgust, and the two shysters who were sitting behind her looked like they would rather crawl up their own asses than be there.

I'm old enough to run for state Senator, let me run the show for a while.  Lon won't be able to write a damn thing when he's in a public stockade being pelted with unmentionable filth.

[Che Gookin]

I hate to point out the obvious... The congress has no powers of arrest...

Better off getting in with the next pres and becoming Director of Homeland Insecurity. Least there you can use those black choppers for more than counting Bison in Yellowstone national forest.