| Statement of The Honorable Michele Bachmann, a Representative in Congress from the State of Minnesota Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support
of the House Committee on Ways and Means June 19, 2007
Mr. Chairman, Congressman Weller, and members of the Subcommittee, thank you
for inviting me to discuss the educational challenges faced by disconnected and
disadvantaged youth; specifically foster children.
I am Michele Bachmann, a first-term Member of Congress serving Minnesota’s
Sixth District. I have a special interest in the quality of education
received by foster children because over the course of six years, my family
cared for twenty-three high-need teenagers through the Lutheran Social Services’
Treatment Foster Care program.
I believe every child deserves the chance to gain a high-quality education.
Growing up, I attended public schools where I was taught using a rigorous
curriculum despite the fact that my community was not particularly affluent.
While I was in school, my parents divorced and almost overnight my stable,
middle-class family was changed forever. Although times were extremely
tough, whenever my three brothers and I would become frustrated my mother would
tell us to concentrate on our schoolwork, because no matter what happened, no
one could ever take our educations away from us. She was right—I left my
public high school with a quality education and went on to graduate from
college, then law school, and finally to earn an L.L.M in tax law.
Years later, when my family began to take in foster children, I felt that
although our circumstances were very different, I could identify with their pain
and frustration. All of them had challenges considered serious enough that
they were unable to be placed through the traditional county foster care
systems, and our family’s role was to provide them with a safe home and see them
through to their high school graduations.
We quickly learned that our foster children had very different needs than
most children. Almost all of them had been given Individualized Education
Plans—individual plans designed for students with special educational needs.
Many of the kids had been under the care of counselors, many suffered from
eating disorders, and others had difficult behavioral or learning issues.
All of them had switched schools at least once, and as a result of their
tumultuous home lives, none of them had very strong educational backgrounds.
While through the years some of our foster children performed better in
school than others, my husband and I noticed some common problems. Many
times, we got the impression that the kids were seen by both their peers and
their teachers as if they were only going to be there short term. Although
their teachers were welcoming, little special attention was provided to ensure
that they caught up to their classmates, and their other needs were often not
considered because there were so many other students to attend to. They
became small fish swimming in a very large pond.
We also began to notice that not all of our foster children were presented
with the quality of coursework we had thought they would receive. Many of
them were placed in lower-level classes, as if they were not expected to
succeed. One of the kids remarked to me once that she was in “stupid
people math.” Another brought home an 11th grade math
assignment that involved coloring a poster. Yet another told me she had
spent an entire week of classes watching movies, and others were being selected
for the “School to Work” program, in which high school students attended classes
for half of the day and were then sent to work minimum-wage jobs at local
businesses. Although it had been evident to us from the beginning that
because of their backgrounds, our foster children were going to struggle in
school, it was frustrating to see that rather than being given the leg up they
needed, so many of them felt that they were being left behind.
Unfortunately, national studies indicate that this is an extremely common
experience for foster children.
What made this experience so heartbreaking is we could clearly see that
despite our wishes, our foster children did not get the same opportunities or
attention that our biological children received in their school. Our
biological children’s classes were smaller and more rigorous, the teachers knew
all of the students, the students knew each other, and parents were able to be
much more involved in their children’s educations—all goals which are not always
attainable in a large school, but which could have done wonders for our foster
children.
As a result of these experiences, I believe it is imperative that Congress
examine creating a federal school choice program for foster children, through
which foster parents are given the option to place children in their care in
either a public or private school long-term, depending on their specific needs.
Such a plan would allow foster children requiring more individual attention to
attend a school better equipped to help them. Just as important, for the
first time in their lives, these children who have become so used to being
uprooted would have the chance to be placed in an environment where they could
have their special educational needs met and feel as if they belong, where they
could remain enrolled even if their homes changed.
Currently, the federal government operates a program for older foster
children—the Chafee Foster Care Independence Program—which assists them in
transitioning from foster care to life on their own. Among other things,
the Chafee Program provides vouchers of up to $5,000 to foster children ages 16
through 18 for education and training. Congress should consider extending
this voucher program to foster children of all ages, so foster parents are able
to best meet the educational needs of the children in their care by either
allowing them to choose a private school or providing them with the funds
necessary to transport their children to their original school even if it is
outside of their immediate area.
Additionally, Congress should consider extending the extremely successful
D.C. school choice program aimed at low-income students, which has drawn more
than three times the number of applications as there are available spots.
Creating a similar program to serve D.C. foster children as well as those who
come from low-income families would be an important step in the direction of
giving the option of school choice to all foster children.
In closing, even if placed in the best families, foster children often face
the possibility that they will have to change homes, and as a result they must
find a safe place of their own where they can become accepted and gain a sense
of stability. Although for many foster children school can be such a
place, the cases of many others show that under the current system, this is not
always possible. I hope my family’s experiences highlight the special
challenges facing foster children as well as the need for an examination of
whether limiting their educational options is truly in their best interests.
I thank the Subcommittee for holding this hearing, and I thank you, Mr.
Chairman, Congressman Weller, and Subcommittee Members for the opportunity to
share our story today.
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