By Matt Furlong, Helena
“Our Kids Cry Too” Rally will be held Thursday, August 23 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the State Capitol in Helena.
While 2000 children are claimed to have been separated from their parents, some of them were actually being transported into human trafficking. But the story you are not being told is that approximately 440,000 children in America are separated from their families and placed in foster care. Montana has 4000 children which is double the national average per capita. Sure, some of these children absolutely need to be removed and placed in safe care, but many children are removed because of poverty, and large sums of money follow them to assist in building a system while a little support to the family could have stabilized matters using substantially less money. The bottom line is we have a system that follows a financial entitlement for kids while they are out of their homes, and once they enter the financial hamster wheel, there is very few who get out, and their outcomes are no better for it. 75 % of children in Foster Care make up our prison population, are homeless, addicted to drugs, or have been trafficked. We can do better!