When the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) recently scored Idaho with the worst day care standards and oversight (52nd in 52 rankings), many thought our legislature would finally pass meaningful reform. When even the Department of Defense (one of the biggest federal bureaucracies) gets high marks for running child care centers while Idaho fails, something must be changed.
Many have discovered again that relying on common sense in Idaho’s legislature is as reliable as playing Russian Roulette. Unfortunately, the dangerous end is pointed at Idaho children and families, and Idaho lawmakers clearly reveal that they do not care.
These legislators reveal their hypocrisy most through their supposed right-to-life beliefs. They lobby hard and are most vocal about abortion activities. They know they have little real influence over abortion because of federal regulations. However, they play abortion as their prized trump card, using it to stir up their constituents and grandstanding with anti-abortion legislation that only serves to drag Idaho into losing costly court battles.
I do not mean to stir up the debate about abortion, but do mean to point out our legislature’s inconsistent approach to this issue. I can respect their positions on abortion, but I cannot respect them bawling loudly on one philosophy and then consistently voting against that philosophy.
You have to wonder why their rhetoric is so strong on preventing abortions and why their rhetoric is so strong against helping the young kids that are actually born in Idaho? Why are they on a crusade to save babies, and then they drop the ball in helping to care for those babies and children? They drop the ball in caring for Idaho’s kids by:
- Failing to curb illegal immigration that drives down Idaho wages.
- Failing to fund Head Start
- Failing to increase Idaho’s minimum wage
- Failing to repeal Right-To-Work (for less) rules
- Failing to pass meaningful grocery tax reduction
- Shifting property taxes to sales taxes (a burden shift from richer to poorer)
- Failing to strengthen day care standards
These legislators vocally express their desire to see kids stay at home more with mothers. This is admirable and ideal. However, these same legislators use their next breath to vehemently oppose changes that could raise Idaho’s wages and actually help mothers stay at home with their kids. How can they think they are being consistent across the big picture?
The most galling display of contempt for Idaho citizen’s intelligence came in the form of today’s Op-Ed submission to the Post Register. Four legislators tried to make a strong argument for why improved day care standards and oversight is unnecessary in Idaho.
These legislators’ first flawed logic was that cities and counties can enact tougher oversight, but fail to acknowledge that Idaho cities are small and it is nothing for a day care provider to move outside city limits and still operate. The nine cities who have enacted tougher rules acknowledge this reality circumvents the solution. They also fail to acknowledge the burden they are placing on city councils and county commissioners to enact rules piecemeal that could drive taxable business just outside their jurisdiction.
These legislators’ second flawed logic was to trump up Idaho’s existing regulations for daycares with thirteen or more children, failing completely to acknowledge that most Idaho day cares have fewer children. If these rules are so awesome for the few biggest providers, why are they so horrible for many smaller providers? If Idaho daycares were themselves asking for these increased regulations, who do these legislator’s think they are to dispute?
These legislators represent naked hypocrisy when it comes to family values. These legislators claim the market on common sense, and then they act and think aloud in manners that prove they lack any common sense. These legislators act as silly as teenagers who wish for a baby but fail to plan for how to care for it. These legislators represent irresponsibility at its worst.
These legislators are living in the past, and are clueless to what is really happening in our current day. When four out of five Idaho children under age five spend time in child care, these legislators clearly fail to represent the majority of Idahoans.
Feel free to use the “Share it with others: Email this article to a friend” link below to email to one or more of these legislators, and ask them why they consistently fail to represent working Idaho families, why they consistently fail to express care for Idaho’s children, and how they can explain their hypocrisy.
Our local Tom Loertscher: tloertsc@house.idaho.gov AND/OR Legislative contact form
Our local Janice McGeachin: jmcgeach@house.idaho.gov AND/OR Legislative contact form
What do you think?
Popularity: 12%
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Gato got runned over by Marcus many moons ago. Be ye daft, 2486? 
Let's have a new poll, alright, Joe?
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{ 89 comments… read them below or add one }
The reality disconnect appears to originate somewhere between our legislator’s loud mouths and closed minds.
It is time for Idahoans to make ourselves perfectly clear to these legislators.
Furthermore, the legislature places their priority on making Idaho English only, saying it will bring Idaho closer together. They think this is the real problem in Idaho.
Do you feel closer to me now? I don’t feel any closer to anyone else because of this.
Does anyone think Mexicans or other foreign-language immigrants feel closer to English-speaking Idahoans now?
Right on with this article. I am disgusted by the way in which the Idaho legislature continues to act. No community colleges, no regulation on childcare and refusal to help with the sub standard wages throughout the state. Instead they bend over backwards to help get tax breaks for business. My wife and I have our daughter in daycare which runs us $155 a week. Both of us have to work full time in order to meet our daily living costs. Not that raising the minimum wage would help either. We are both college educated, my wife with a B.A. and I have a masters. Both of us have large student loans due to the fact that Idaho continues to pass the cost of higher education onto the student. The least the state could provide is some comfort in knowing that our daycare has some type of oversight.
Thanks for bringing up yet another way that these hypocritical legislators do not really support family values: the $100 business tax break they either will or have already passed.
How were they planning to compensate for that $100 million shortfall?
Yes, from top to bottom, from cradle to grave, Idaho legislators prove time and time again that they do not really value Idaho families.
I support the language declaration, Joe, though I fear it won’t make much of a difference. Nobody’s going to learn a language simply because it’s the right thing to do. So long as we continue to accommodate non-English speaking residents of Idaho, we’ll never achieve the cohesiveness of a common language.
I agree. I didn’t think the English only thing would really make a difference, but it also won’t hurt anything and if Mel Richardson gets his grandstanding kicks from it then who really cares.
I am just upset that they prioritize time wasters like that and fail to recognize the real issues that could help real Idaho families.
Joe,
For those of us who are too busy or too lazy to do our homework–who are our local politicians that we need to hold accountable? Got any links to websites that might be keeping a track record on their voting? Who are the corporate contributors to their campaign chests? Lots of questions come to mind. What’s the church’s roll in “getting out the vote” with their ultra conservative stance on issues? Can a politician from this area get elected without currying favor from that predominant religion–with their tendency to vote en masse on hot button, conservative issues like gay rights or abortion, etc. Should a church be an advocate, from the pulpit, on political issues?
This looks like a job for Jeremy. Given he has the time, that young man should jump on this with both feet.
I don’t know about church issues related to this, but I don’t know they matter.
I think the issue is broadly about families, no matter what religion. Many Idaho families pay for childcare, regardless of their church.
How can legislators claim to represent family values and yet vote along the lines of those bullet points I listed above. They would all seem to be anti-family.
I think Tom Loertscher and Janice McGeachin are both anti-family values, based on their rhetoric and their voting history.
Oh, so now I’m the idle kid with sooo much time on his hands?
I guess I have that one coming. I contribute way too much to this site. Well, I write lots. I don’t know about contributing.
I really should go to class, but I’ll do some research and see what comes of it.
Jeremy,
You may not be the idle kid but you are the kid on the block with the most moxie. I’ve gotta say…you handled yourself with a certain aplomb on that last spate of comments in the religion thread. Great work kid! Hurry back from class.
Why even BOTHER with this thread!
These politicians know that they are SAFE FOR RE-ELECTION in red state Idaho and don’t CARE about “family values” or anything but the O’Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity, Republican rhetorical NONSENSE.
Idaho voters will continue to elect these regardless! We DESERVE everything they give us!
What a joke!
You can get information on all Idaho lawmakers and their Boise contact information by logging onto http://www.legislature.idaho.gov . It’s a handy site that also allows the public to track any proposed legislation, the fiscal impacts of each bill, where it is at in the process and who voted for and against it. It’s a great tool for media and the general public.
Kortny Rolston
City Editor
Post Register
Unfortunately I know you are right. I have been trying to stay away from these topics because there is such a feeling of helplessness associated with how Idaho legislators act.
I had previously heard of both the report card, and the legislature voting down the new requirements, but I said nothing until I read that hypocritical justification today.
The whole thing was written in a voice that is half trying to convince us Idaho families and half trying to convince themselves.
Why bother? You’re probably right, and they probably just laughed if they even read this. They do not care about Idaho’s families, and they only have to pay occasional lip service to cover it up.
Thanks Kortny…I’ll put it on my favorites.
Joe Vandal wrote -
I cannot respect them bawling loudly on one philosophy and then consistently voting against that philosophy.
You have to wonder why their rhetoric is so strong on preventing abortions and why their rhetoric is so strong against helping the young kids that are actually born in Idaho?
I write -
Have you ever considered that you could be misunderstanding the philosophy they are “bawling” about?
Consider this, please.
The legislators in Idaho maybe aren’t so much “against abortion” as they “for control”.
I think the fact that they refuse to put their money where their mouth is offers evidence of that.
If they “cared” so much for the unborn life then it would logically follow that they would continue to “care” once the little one is delivered to the world.
But most times that’s not reeeeeeeally how it goes. Your points above explain evidence of that.
I don’t think “anti abortion” is about the little babies so much as it is about control of what a person may do with (in this case) her body.
Having said that – if we want the legislators to take more of an interest in our kids then we might want to start getting a lot more vocal. We live in a VERY red state. Our leaders want to “stay out of our business” (hence the tax cuts for businesses) but oddly enough they want to stay IN our “personal business”. Control.
So much effort goes into controlling our personal choices – and colorfully, emotionally supporting the rights of unborn fetuses is a GREAT carrot to dangle in front of those you wish to control. Make them feel pity and compassion on the one hand, while stripping the focus from the other half of the issue. (I’m not so much pro-choice as I am pro-CHOICE).
I realize that’s a volitile opinion – I do not express it to offend – I am sure many disagree with me and that’s fine. My POINT is – we allow ourselves to get sidetracked far too often – and in the interest of “doing what’s right” – we lose some of ours. (Homeland Security comes to mind.)
If we want changes the ONLY way to get them is to band together – to stand up for our choices. I have no children, but my guess is that those who desire change are having trouble getting others who think like they do to band together and become a mighty force.
People who want things to change must become a Big Blue Mighty Force. I notice in Idaho that is hard to do – people of a progressive mind rarely group together in large numbers. I don’t know if this is because there are too few of us, or if there are too few of us who are interested.
If you want Idaho legislators to care about Idaho’s families then the only way to do that is to speak up, stand up, refuse to back down.
The squeakiest wheel gets the grease.
I’m not going into some of those hot-bed areas, but I appreciate your point of view, and I agree on your concept that they want ‘control’.
Some of these legislators obviously feel they are the moral and intellectual authority over Idahoans, not just our voting representative in state democracy.
The PR jeered the legislators this morning, noting that the proposed plan was just to examine tougher standards, not enacting them! These legislators would not even give them the chance to see if the ideas were feasible, because they think they know better. The arrogance astounds me.
The PR also wondered why legislators like Lenore Barrett linked the idea to Soviet Russia?
Probably because many of these legislators are still living in the red scare past. As much as they moan about wanting another Ronald Reagan president, they fail to acknowledge times change and they need to pull their heads from the sand.
The subject of the thread is the “hypocrisy†of Idaho legislators, who we all agree are overwhelmingly Republican. While hypocrisy is certainly not entirely limited to Republicans, I suggest it something more systemic to the GOP conscience (that is, sense of right or wrong) that has been alluded to herein. Control is a MAJOR factor (“do as we THINK you should do, but not as we actâ€) and may not be limited to Idaho (but certainly we could be the ‘poster child’).
A good and recent example is the Gingrich news of yesterday and today following his appearance on James Dobson’s radio show:
“Gingrich acknowledges affair while pursuing Clinton over Lewinskyâ€
“Gingrich also acknowledged cheating on (his wife) while leading the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton for allegations of perjury involving the Paula Jones sexual harassment civil case and the president’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.
The couple “went through a very difficult time,” Gingrich said. “We had a big difference about public life.”
Gingrich argued that the Clinton case was different from his personal transgressions.
“The president of the United States got in trouble for committing a felony in front of a sitting federal judge,” he said, arguing that Clinton had “deliberately committed perjury.” …
And yet while Gingrich was saying this, many Republicans were fostering the pardon of Scooter Libby (who was just convicted of lying to a Grand Jury) because “there really wasn’t a major crime involved.†[the “nobody got hurt†theory].
Maybe I am ranting, but it seems our legislature (Republican controlled) follows lock step in this thinking in most of what it sets out to accomplish, and by doing so, accomplishes really NOTHING.
******although I am happy that in Idaho Falls when I go to my favorite Mexican Restaurant I can now compel them to call the specials “River Sun Specialsâ€
anonymous –
Do you listen to Air America on XM Radio by any chance?
What you just spoke of (the hypocrisy on the Repubs going off on a tangent about the Dem of choice – Clinton – yet brushing their own slights under the carpet) was a hot topic yesterday on the Ed Schultz Show.
Methinks they project too much.
Idaho Falls Republican Russ Mathews was quoted in the PR today, saying “Parents raise kids, it’s not the state’s job.”
Can someone ask Russ if he even read the bill?
I thought the bill created minimum standards at more Idaho daycares. Apparently Russ thought the bill took the responsibility of raising Idaho’s kids!
It must have been a pinko communist plot in our own Idaho statehouse! Good thing our Republican leadership is still living in Red Scare mode from twenty years ago and can spot these things for what they are, not simple legislation to protect Idaho kids.
I laugh when I hear these legislators trying to justify their family values hypocrisy with 19th century ideological philosophy and clever little witticisms that do not even pertain to the situation.
If our legislature fails to protect our children, then we will have to use the initiative process to set them back on course.
Unfortunately, this is the state where the legislature has been known to overturn majority-passed initiatives if the conservative ideologues think they know better than the rest of us.
While I was staying in Utah last week, I read this bit of news in the USA Today state by state section. It mentioned that some legislators had voted against this legislation because they felt that “Mothers should stay home with thier kids.” Fortunately, no one reads the USA Today to hear about the state of our State. Oh wait…
If it was your kid in that daycare and you did not realize it was a bad place, would you still want market forces to regulate their going out of business?
Good point, I will narrow it down.
What if your kid was at a place where nobody knew CPR, and you found out because your kid choked on a cracker? What if your kid got molested by a sex offender, because the state was too cheap to force smaller daycares to check for sex offenders?
Given that most Idaho daycares are under 13 kids, why are we leaving the safety of our kids to chance?
The military trusted me with explosives, multi-million dollar vehicles, and sensitive secrets, but Idaho does not trust me with a firecracker. But again Idaho does trust smaller daycares to work out their own self regulation.
It is all backwards, and I hate to see kids’ lives tossed to luck of the draw. We deserve better than that. Our kids deserve better than that.
People just need to stop using these fly-by-night basement daycares. We have a wonderful day care place off first street, but I can’t remember the name of it. It’s on the west side of Hitt. My wife once worked over by there, and the staff was wonderful, the facilities were clean, etc. Then there’s a place over by my in-laws run by a bunch of no-good, overweight lazy old people who raised the most Hellish little brat I’ve ever seen.
So, you tell me – should the government shut them down or should the consumer simply not give them their business and let them be forced to shut down? I’m with the second one.
But what do we decide is a “bad” place – if the government sets our standards, what should those standards be? I agree that there should be laws against pedophiles working or living in these places – but those laws exist and are ignored on a regular basis! My poor niece was the victim of sexual abuse while at a day care which employed a known sex offender. Where were the government protections there?
My point is that the government is not only ineffective at creating laws that protect our children, but even moreso at enforcing them! If we find out that a child molester is working at a day care, we should put that daycare out of business, no questions asked. But beyond that, are we really willing to give our government the authority to set our child-care standards for us? I personally do not trust our feeble governing body to do an adequate job.
Right – so, perhaps we should define what the regulations should be for day-cares? Perhaps they should be treated like a food-service establishment, since most feed the children, and mandate regular food safety inspections? Perhaps require food handler permits for employees?
I agree with your point about CPR. Perhaps it should be a requirement that all daycares must employ one person on at all times that is certified in CPR?
But I believe this should be done within the community as much as possible – let us, as a people, demand the kind of day care standards that we see necessary – not let some puffy old man in Boise decide for us.
I guess we agree on the principle of protecting children.
Our difference appears to be that you trust local daycare business owners to do the right thing, or local city/county leaders to do the right thing, and I do not trust them.
When it comes to the safety and well-being of our children, I would rather take the tiny imposition of state government. I accept that trade-off.
Wait a minute.
It’s not LAW that people who work in daycare facilities must know CPR? Really?
I am knocking my head against the wall trying to comprehend that one.
And not checking for past child predator behavior? Really? It’s not LAW to check for that either?
Granted – I have no kids so some of this stuff has never come up in my personal life – but I guess I just (naively) assumed that every licensed daycare facility in every state of the US had a certain set of guidelines – and I would think these two extremely obvious things would be part of the guidelines.
Silly me.
I believe it is law that to be a licensed daycare you have to be CPR certified, but anybody can run a daycare out of their house and not have to be licensed.
I believe there is a maximum number of kids you can take and not have to be licensed. Although I don’t remember what that number is.
I would think the parents when checking out the daycares, whether licensed or not would be smart enough to ask if they are CPR certified or not. Or at least I would hope so.
Parent of 2 –
I agree with you. I would be highly suspicious of a daycare that couldn’t provide a recent CPR certificate from the Person In Charge. I’d think “What other ways might they be underqualified to be taking care of a roomful of small kids – who sometimes tend to swallow things they shouldn’t? If my kid starts to choke will they just ignore him / her?”
The same goes with the child predator check. It’s simple enough to do these days on the internet and if my prospective daycare facility couldn’t produce results that showed they were not employing anybody with a record of child sex crimes – I’d turn away from the place.
If they can’t even show they are serious about the “care” part of daycare – then what good are they to my child?
Like I said – let’s enforce the laws we already have before making new ones. Just like this whole immigration thing …
If I had a nickle for every time JeremyPlo was right, I’d be a rich girl.
First & foremost….I would have to agree with Cindy’s comment!
” a nickel for every time Jeremy “thought” he was right”!
As for daycares in Idaho: Idaho is one of the worst states in the country for lax daycare laws. Pretty much ANYBODY can open their own daycare in this state, and no you do not have be have any CPR certification in the state of idaho. My wife just wrote a midterm paper on the problems with daycare facilities in this state. Many of you would be shocked to realize how easy it is to open one up, without any training, any insurance, no background checks or anything! I forget what she told me, but it was something like 100 bucks to get your license to operate, and that’s pretty much all you need!
She also wrote our congressman about this topic, and got back a lame generic letter that pretty much said, thanks for writing, but we’re not going to do anything about it!
I would urge everybody who uses ANY daycare in this state to do a lot of research on your daycares staff and the important stuff like CPR cetification, insurance, etc. I was very shocked after seeing all the information she dug up on this topic. It’s really quite scary!
Snackpack, that is scary. I thought it was law that they have to be CPR certified.
If that is not the case, it definetely should be. I can’t imagine running a daycare and not WANTING to be certified for pediatric CPR. There would be nothing worse than having a child die while in your care, especially if there is a way to prevent it.
As a parent, I would definetely ask if the employees are CPR certified before trusting my kids in their care. I think all employees of a daycare should be certified, not just the owner.
And as far as the background check, I cannot fathom a reason this would not be a requirement to run a daycare.
I’m wondering how many parents have CPR certification?. I’m wondering if there should be a law that before a baby leaves the hospital the parents and anyone who might be baby setting show they are CPR certified.
I wonder if there should be a law before you can bring your child home from the hospital, you must prove any family member, friend, anyone who may be alone with your child has a background check.
If you are a single mother, I wonder if there should be a law if you have a boyfriend, he have a background check too. I wonder if….
It IS scary!! I remember my g/f looking into the same thing! She confirms snacpacs statement, it doesn’t take much to run your own daycare in Idaho. It does seem like CPR should be required, I mean c’mon…that’s just common sense! I was shocked with the background report as well! Although my g/f seems to think there’s a 3 month waiting period or something to that effect. Something to do with the fact that you CAN get your daycare license without background check, but after 3 months, one has to be run. I don’t know I could be wrong…I’ll definately have to look into that. But even if THAT is the case….3 months of some psycho watching my child! I don’t think so!
We’ve got her daughter going to Little Miracles and we both think their great. They’ve got the whold webcam thing going on, and everytime I go in their to pick her up, the employees are real friendly, the kids are having a great time and so on. She just turned three and is already in Pre-school there and doing great. Her teacher says she’s right up there with the 4 & 5 year olds, so we couldn’t be happier with LM.
Well…I think we’re veering off the topic again, so I’ll stop here. I believe theres already a “daycare post” out there. Best of luck to everyone looking for a good daycare/pre-school.
Chris67: yeah, or 3 months of some psycho molesting your kid. I don’t think so, either.
I am not currently certified (cuz that has to renewed annually I think), but I know CPR. My wife has also been certified before, so she knows CPR. I’ll have to ask about our babysitters, but I imagine they might be.
Each of the two times we left the hospital with newborn babies, the hospital made sure we understood infant CPR.
Who doesn’t know CPR in this day and age? They teach it in all high school health classes.
Maybe they should teach it every other year in 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th grade. It only takes a few instructional hours.
Aha! It only takes a few hours! Why does our legislators think this is such a huge burden, especially when children’s lives are at risk?
What’s interesting is that some of these legislators who voted No on this bill have had money donated to them by The Children’s Center.
See this link for some good info: http://mountaingoatreport.typepad.com/the_mountaingoat_report/2007/03/so_last_week_wi.html
That is interesting Jessica. Opposing the increased daycare rules would be the kind of a ridiculously uber-conservative idea that those people would push.
It gets hinted at around the blogosphere that the Children’s Center actually benefits from more emotionally scarred children, but I think that is a little dark.
Interesting story they linked to at the statesman:
“A Canyon County woman who tested positive for methamphetamine use in January is registered with the Idaho Child Care Program as a child-care provider, receiving government money to care for low-income children, a state drug-court official says.
The woman is caring for three children, said Linda Polhemus, coordinator of the Caldwell-based Judicial District 3 drug court, said in a Feb. 23 letter to the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children.
“She has has violated her felony probation rules by traveling . . . without permission of her felony probation officer to marry (an) inmate,” Polhemus wrote.
“Additionally, she has demonstrated and her family has expressed concern regarding her volatile temper and need for anger management.”
This complaint is one of more than 1,000 the association has received since 2003, said Karen Mason, executive director of the nonprofit association.
She said complaints from parole officers, drug courts, sheriff’s offices, parents and others are common, and there is little authorities can do about it under Idaho law.
There is no restriction on people with criminal histories or who test positive for drug tests, Mason said.
“The only requirement for any program that wants to be eligible for parent child-care subsidies is they have to have a health inspection,” Mason said.”
http://www.idahostatesman.com/244/story/74452.html
How would these legislators defend their actions on this legislation when confronted with this report?
Remember Tom Loertsher’s and Janice McGeachin’s emails are listed above. You can contact them with your questions directly via email, and/or email them this article and ask them in the message.
That same page reports:
Rep. Jim Marriott, R-Blackfoot, told of a trip he and his wife made to a Russian orphanage in the early 1990s, where they met with children and gave one a T-shirt. Marriott said he asked where the parents were, and whether they had died, and was told that the children had just been “turned over” to the orphanage.
He said it was dangerous for government to be rearing children, and not a path Idaho should go down.
Are. You. Serious?
Jim Marriott compares an old run down Russian orphanage to a slight increase in Idaho day care safety requirements?
Does this man not have any concept of scale?
Increasing daycare requirements does not equate opening an orphanage and taking in Idaho’s children, Jim Marriott.
To confuse the two is to reveal how weak your actual position is intellectually. Blackfoot residents should be ashamed their representative actually spoke this bizarre justification.
That is a horrifying story, Kortney. I am glad you shared it because it further demonstrates why Idaho needs to change our ways.
I say again that our legislators like Tom Loertscher and Janice McGeachin have revealed their hypocrisy, dumping family values in favor of saving a couple bucks.
Do these legislators have kids? Can they put a price tag on their kids?
Why are they putting a price tag on our kids?
I usually only comment here when someone has questions about the Post Register, but this thread interests me as a parent of a 3-year-old. I’m from Montana, a state that takes daycare licensing very seriously. It has very strict worker/student ratios and enforces them by having regional inspectors whose job isn’t to be “Big Brother” but to make sure you don’t have one person watching 12 toddlers.
Employees and owners must be CPR certified go through training every year no matter if they are at a large center or an in-home daycare. Everyone undergoes background checks.
It doesn’t take much to figure out Idaho has a problem. There have been several instances in Idaho Falls alone of problems at daycares.
I called the police about one in-home place near my house after a preschooler ran out into the street and was almost hit by a car.
This was after several other similar instances. Later a parent with a kid there found out the owner’s husband was a registered sex offender in the state of Washington. He was convicted of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child under the age of 16. The parent made a stink and the place was shut down.
I once asked the owner of my son’s daycare what she thought about licensing and she was for it.
They video taped each room every day just to protect themselves.
Kortny
Thanks Kortny!
It is a very serious issue here and one which I hope is addressed very soon before anything major happens. Unfortunately it takes an accident of some kind before issues like this are taken seriously!
The problem is there have been a lot of cases of problems at daycares in Idaho Falls – kids hurt by staff, etc. – and nothing is ever done about it.
It’s sad and scary because the reality is that for most families, both parents have to work to make it in this day and age.
My hair stylist has to undergo more training than some of these people who open daycares or work in them.
Kortny
Xman wrote -
I’m wondering if there should be a law that before a baby leaves the hospital the parents and anyone who might be baby setting show they are CPR certified.
I write –
If it were my kid I would be CPR certified before I left the hospital, and yes I’d insist on sitters being CPR certified too. They may cost a bit more, but maybe just maybe my kid is worth it.
Xman wrote -
I wonder if there should be a law before you can bring your child home from the hospital, you must prove any family member, friend, anyone who may be alone with your child has a background check.
I write -
Again, if you’re going to have the kid in the midst of people you don’t know very well – why the heck NOT do a background check for predatorial behavior? It’s easy enough to do online.
Xman wrote -
If you are a single mother, I wonder if there should be a law if you have a boyfriend, he have a background check too. I wonder if….
I write -
No kid of mine would be in the midst of my boyfriend without me having reasonable disclosure of his past.
I also say – I don’t think any of this stuff should be LAW so much as it should be common sense – but where it’s not in place the situations warrant avoidance.
I really genuinely cannot fathom a daycare where @ least one full-time staff member is not CPR certified. I cannot comprehend it. I also cannot comprehend that one does not need insurance to open a daycare.
This is whart I think about this topic overall. -
I think all is well, so long as we don’t over-regulate our daycares. Let us instead focus our energy on really pressing issues – like gay marraige. Our interests should be on what adults do in the privacy of their own lives, NOT on what daycares do in the care of children.
(Rolling eyes sarcastically – in case it somehow got lost in translation that this last paragraph is nothing but sheer mind-boggled reaction to the strange standards in our state.)
Gypsy
For the record I loved the logic of Xman’s argument. Seems like it’s a case of how far should this be taken and will it once you get the State involved.
You will love this… I know it’s a bit off subject but interesting when thinking the State is capable of doing anything well. I own a coporation that I pay myself a salary from and am employed by another company. I have been traveling alot and very busy and so my accountant has my 4th quarter filings for the State and Feds done but I have not been in to get the checks to them. For the past month there has been this pin headed loser from the State unemployment office calling and leaving messages about the $40 or so dollars I owe for 4th quarter for my corporations unemployment contribution for me. Long story short i’m in Salt Lake and I get this call from my wife saying some guy was at our door to our home in Shelley saying he was from the State unemployment something or another. I told my wife to put the guy on the phone and sure enough it was the same guy who said he wasn’t ‘dogging’ me but ‘happened’ to be in the area of my home and decided to stop in to talk to me about my 4th quarter filing. I about died, and told the guy to pack sand that surely he has something better to do then to harrass my wife over $40. I saw my accountant on Friday so they could get the filings out in the mail and they about died when I told them of this expierience. Great work from a pasty white scarecrow bureaucrat running around wasting tax payer money and gas for $40…. amazing really amazing. My accountant one of the best most well respected could not believe my story as there are so many bussiness’ out there that are years behind not just a couple of months on very limited income.
Anyway this is what you could expect to see i’m sure if you open the doors to these great State workers to get involved in yet another aspect of our lives, with no assurance kids would be protected or not.
If you want to talk to your district 32 reps, you have the chance on Wednesday April 11th from 7-8:30 in the EITC cafeteria. Come out and talk to those that are to represent you.
vote4change – how about a post about that meeting? Might be more noticeable.
My wife has class on Wednesday nights so I cannot go. I would appreciate a comment or even article written summarizing what happens.
It’d be a hoot if someone asked them to respond to my charges of ‘legislators reveal their hypocrisy in family values’ article.
Joe, you certainly know I would do such a thing. If I can get work off, I’m there.
Well I will be more then happy to add anything I can as well
How long until Idaho has a case like this:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/15/hiding.kids.ap/index.html
Did anyone go to that meeting with some of the local republican legislator’s (mentioned in the comments just above this)?
What did they have to say for themselves?
The PR noted the other day how Idaho Governor Butch Otter killed a “Parents as Teachers” program started recently by Dirk Kempthorne. It was apparently an early childhood education support program.
Otter reportedly cut the money because he said money was tight, despite the $100 million discretionary expense account our legislature gave him this year.
Most other states are strengthening early education, Idaho is weakening them. Recall the article I wrote about Idaho taking steps backwards when the nation is taking steps forward?
I think if money is so tight as to need cutting a cheap early education program, we should also cut the governor’s pay and expenses.
Whatever happened to leading by example?
Not with these hypocrites.
This is an issue that we have to give more scrutiny to. We are constantly and sometimes blindly throwing more money into education without any real benchmarks to note if it was/is needed and is it effective. Education like Defense Spending has become a sacred cow….we continue to spend without oversight or reason.
I don’t claim to know much about the Parents as Teachers program referenced, but I think it is unfair to solely label the cut as big bad ole mean Butch Otter taking money out of the mouth of children. I am not a fan of Otter. I think he is wrong on too many issues, but I also think that we unfairly peg politicians without having all the facts presented to us.
Maybe the program was duplicated elsewhere, or enrollments were not large enough to justify such expenditures. Perhaps the bang for the buck was not adding up….maybe there were other priorities that needed funding. If you have a link to the story it would be good to see if the PR looked at any other reasons why it was cut.
I heard that the total savings from cutting this program would be 1.5 million dollars a year. In a related story, the population of Idaho is approaching 1.5 million. So for one dollar from each resident per year, the program could stay. It’s worth a dollar to me.
Those are good questions, Mike, and I also do not know them.
All I know is Governor Butch Otter only cited cost as the factor to shut it down, not performance metrics or duplicative services.
It’s hard to imagine duplicative early childhood services in a state like Idaho where there are few to none such services.
It’s hard to imagine poor performance is better than no performance.
Until it comes to our hypocrite legislators and governor in Idaho.
Another tragic daycare-related story.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/19/daycare.death.ap/index.html
Note the child-to-caregiver ratio was 8-1.
Tick tock tick tock how long until one of these stories happens in Idaho as a result of our legislator’s failure to care about kids?
I’m starting to wonder if old republican men have some kind of sick fetish regarding beating up little kids who cannot defend themselves?
Tom Loertsher, Butch Otter, they seem to live out sick fantasies when they take away things that protect children.
Do they get off on kids being unprotected as much as possible?
what would happen if lawmakers listened to kids insted of lobyists?
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070625/bravo
Idaho Falls City Council is trying to beef up local Day Care Ordinances. It all seems pretty good except the 35 sq. ft. per child rule. The powers that be need to recognize that this rule will close some slots down for current day cares and cause a lay off of staff….as well as drive up prices for remaining families at these day cares…..(less kids means they pay more for the service).
Council Member Karen Cornwall seems to have her head in the clouds on this one. I have noticed that she doesn’t seem to understand or appreciate the unintended consequences of her actions. It would appear that her understanding of economics is severely limited. I hope someone brings her up to speed……child care, like it or not, is a facet of economic development. The better child care that we have (including availability by source and price) the better it is for the local economy and our kids. I fear that her proposal will sacrifice both of these important goals. She seems to have been co-opted by some liberal organization that likewise has it’s head in the clouds. Interestingly, she noted that 40 other states adopted these regulations….that is an interesting argument to make considering the fact that the last time I checked many people liked to flock to Idaho because we weren’t like some of these other messed up states.
Overall, Cornwall is attempting to regulate an industry that is better controlled by the marketplace….and parents. Most parents will always be a better judge of whether a day care is right for their child over that of some uncaring government bureaucrat or council member like Cornwall. It is high time that she stop the governmental over reach and leave the job of parenting and protection of kids to the experts–mom & dad!
35 square feet per kid sound reasonable to me at first, but how much square footage is that? It is just under 6′ by 6′ of space per kid. That sounds a little generous to me, especially considering that one daycare who would see their allowed slots drop in half from 150 to 75. Taking that business for example, how many would they lose if it was a 30 square foot requirement? How about a 25′ requirement?
If the city institutes a 35′ requirement then yeah we will see the market prices shoot up due to limited spaces, then we will see new daycares opening up to meet market demands. Our current 150 daycares in city limits will expand to probably over 200, 250, which then cascades into increased taxpayer costs since they will be doing inspections now.
I think the happy balance will be found closer to a 25′ or 30′ requirement.
There are several points to consider here:
1) Why are we being led down a path that some arbitrary space requirement is such a good thing?
Who makes up these numbers? HOW does one know that 35 sq. ft. is somehow the golden number?
Parents can determine if the space is too cramped…and if the staff to child ratio is out of whack.
2) New Business creation is not a certainty….especially as the industry becomes more regulated, less people will want to become involved in red tape. There is also the matter of the economy going into recession. Business growth usually suffers during these times as potential creators of business’ are wary to start new businesses.
3) Additionally, the possibility exists that if there is new business created that they could locate in Ammon or in the County Limits to avoid this ordinance. There is also the possibility of more day cares going “under ground” to avoid regulation. This means we might encourage parents to avoid regulated day cares…including the background checks and training for staff that are good regulations most people can support. There are too many day cares run out of peoples homes as it stands now….these are the types of arrangements that cause children to get hurt, i.e. Kimberly Cooper’s day care and the little boy dying from a skull fracture.
If we are trying to make children safer, we shouldn’t be creating incentives for parents to avoid regulated day cares. Space requirements should have no place in the current round of regulations. The background checks and training for staff are good proposals that make kids safe….and protect the business owners. It’s a win-win. What Cornwall wants to add on to this regulation is not going to have support—and if it is passed, it will have the opposite effect of what she intends to do. Cornwall should realize this and drop the space requirement before she does some real damage.
Didn’t Ammon create a similar daycare ordinance last year? Did theirs have a space requirement, and if so what was their magic number?
My understanding was that IF Council members invited Ammon City Council members to come speak on their ordinance. I don’t believe they had space requirements in their bill.
One thing is missing from this dialog. TRAFFIC!
Hey, I personally lived across the street from a fly-by-night day care center. It was totally annoying. I know this house had maybe 900 SF on a good day. The operator would have people driving up at all hours of the day and night stuffing kids and their sleeping bags into this house. And, get this, even when their lease ran out and they had to move, they still continued to keep people moving into this house at night before the new tenant came along. I guess I got a faceful of the Dark Side of Day Care in Idaho Falls. Frankly, I was appalled. The traffic was ridiculous. Sometimes, after the so-called “responsible parents” dropped off their kids, they would burn rubber to get out of the area. That sucked!
Then a lot of the kids were problem kids and all they did was scream their heads off. Hey, that’s real cool! Luckily, the “operator” got them inside the house where they couldn’t be heard.
On the surface, the “parental control” aspect seems to make sense.
But, hey, folks, let’s get real, there are a LOT of so-called parents out there who don’t have a fricking clue what parenting means.
You know it and I know it.
After living across the street from a “day care operator” who catered to the Clueless, I can tell you I WANT some city ordinance to regulate these people.
In case “all a ya’ll” get too caught up in the “states rights” issues and the “parents rights” issues–I want you to think about one thing–
NEIGHBORS RIGHTS!
Yeah, we got rights, too, and some of us have the money and attitude to take people to court. Let’s get real, freedom is a balancing act–it balances my rights with yours. Let’s all try to respect one another and realize that sometimes human greed can get the upper hand and the so-called “day care operators” can run amok trying to make too much money at the expense of their neighbor’s rights.
With that I will close with this thought–knowing what I now know–I wouldn’t hesitate to sue the sh*t of our my neighbor for what she was doing to our neighborhood.
I support responsible neighborhood day care–but YOU be the judge–just WHAT is responsible?
Cheers, Monte.
Perhaps zoning laws would be more appropriate to address concerns of commercial business in residential zones.
Ehhh, bring zoning into the issue and we’ll probably put 2/3 of the in-home daycares out of business, not a good prospect either. It makes sense that neighbors are an important consideration since many of these daycares are in-home.
Does the proposed city ordinance include something about neighbors being able to lodge complaints? I imagine these inspections assign points to problem severity, maybe neighbor complaint letters can be included?
A news report last week struck me as odd, and I’m not sure I understood it correctly.
Apparently Frank Vandersloot flew a bunch of Republican state legislators from Boise to Idaho Falls for a Republican fundraiser, then back again to Boise. I guess Vandersloot’s plane was coming back from Boise anyway with Melaleuca employees, and the legislators needed a ride, so it was a convenience thing to hitch along.
(One question, if it was a convenience thing, “hey we’re all headed the same direction let’s share a cab”, why did the Melaleuca plane make that special trip back to Boise? Seems inconvenient to me.)
Apparently some reporters caught whiff, and confronted the legislators at the airport, and asked if they paid for the plane trip, and if they were going to count it as a political contribution?
This is normal Idaho political shenanigans, sure it’s probably a smidgen dirty, but typical and not a major deal. Idaho Falls’ Russ Matthews stated clearly he would record the plane trip as a campaign contribution, the estimated cost per person about $150. Ok, fine, it’ll blow over.
Lenore Barrett reportedly said she had no idea she had to pay for the trip, and that if she had known she would not have gone.
Now my question is, if this happened, how did Lenore Barrett not expect to pay for it? She knows Frank is a major political contributor, in fact they were ushering through legislation that benefited Frank’s company.
Sooooo, in my mind, either Lenore Barrett is clueless or corrupt. Either she is truly clueless for not considering the implications, or she is truly corrupt for thinking she would get away with this free.
Or is there a third option I haven’t considered? Please help me understand this.
Ummm, Lenore Barrett clueless? Not on your tintype. Disingenuous maybe but never clueless.
This is so political shenanigans 101. Even the most jr legislator should know that it reeks and that it would have been more prudent to avoid the appearance of bias. But in our lockstep, vote (R) no matter what kind of state, probably nothing will happen because people won’t care, as long as it wasn’t a (D) who did it.
Sheesh. Here’s hoping there is a 3rd option, as you asked.
The only thing that comes to mind here is that they DO NOT have to record it as an in-kind campaign contribution if the fundraiser was not their particular fundraiser to obtain monies for their campaign. Perhaps the Idaho Secretary of State’s Website could clarify what items would have to be reported as direct or in-kind contributions.
Vote for corrupt.
Brilliant! Did it take you all morning to come up with that?
More examples of how our legislators demonstrate anti-family values:
http://www.idahostatesman.com/1306/story/335290.html
Idaho will remain the only state in the nation with no system for reviewing child deaths after the [Republican] chairwoman on the Senate Health and Welfare Committee blocked legislation.
It had passed the House 63-5, but Patti Lodge asked it to be sent back to her committee where she could strangle it to death herself. The annual cost would have been $43,000 so Idaho could study patterns of child deaths. She was concerned parents could eventually be charged with child deaths. Similar programs helped reduce child deaths from SIDS, car seat and seat belt misuse, unsafe firearms storage, and canal drownings. Aren’t those good things to reduce?
The only logical conclusion is that Patti Lodge wants more kids to die.
In the same time frame as this $43,000 bill to help save kids’ lives was killed, the legislature approved about a hundred million bucks so Albertson’s corporation can get more tax breaks.
Now you tell me our legislators aren’t revealing their hypocrisy in family values?
BTW, this same Patti Lodge killed another statewide daycare licensing bill in her committee. This Patti Lodge is on a killing spree, first with her bills and next with Idaho’s children as a result of her killing these bills. Someone arrest this crazy woman and charge her with murder!
Joe, I thought the Legislature REMOVED the tax breaks for Albertson’s?
In Bonneville County, local agencies from the Prosecutor’s Office, Health & Welfare, Probation, and Help, Inc. ran a Multi-Discipilnary Team (MDT) to discuss cases involving child abuse. This was a great team concept to use. I agree that the State should do more to study child deaths and ways to prevent future repeats. Seriously, if they can fund $400,000 for a study on the Teton Dam they can fork over some cash to pay for this worthwhile endeavor.
Joe, you should send her an email asking for a more detailed response why she killed the bill and post her response here. I would love to hear her reasoning behind this. I hope she is not really crazy. I hope there is some logic in their somewhere and/or perhaps she is willing to have the bill studied by committee during the interim session to prove that is definitely well worth the money.
As I understand it, they removed some tax breaks intended for Albertson’s which were never used, but the legislature passed the business tax break exempting the first $75,000 of assets at each location. Albertson’s is one example of a company which will reap huge tax savings because of their numerous Idaho locations. Yep, $75k per site.
Let’s keep in mind the Jim Risch tax shift a couple years ago where they increased our sales tax to give rich folks a better property tax break, and how they took a couple years to give us a tiny grocery tax break, which does not equal nearly our increased sales tax.
Why waste my time asking her why she did it? It’s obvious she is as corrupted by business interests and warped about what family values are as the rest of Idaho’s Republican party.
I know folks will say I’m just bagging on the Republican party again, but look at all the examples of how the Idaho Republican party has hung working families out to dry.
I guess citizen journalism isn’t supposed to ask the source? Why not get both sides of the issue? I understand the frustration on this issue but I can’t help but think that there is always a need to understand the other side of the argument–even if we don’t agree with it.
If citizen journalism is to be taken seriously, it would seem that we should all be ojective going into the issue and find out the facts of why someone supports or opposes an item of interest. Perhaps we can then take it a step further and even educate this “crazy lady” about how her ‘concerns’ aren’t real? Or perhaps we might just find out that her concerns really do need to be looked at and WE could learn something? I just don’t see shutting off an opponent gets us (or them) anywhere. The comments about this being another Republican attempt to bash the family might make us feel good but it certainly doesn’t fix the problem(s) of children dying.
Okay, this is one where I totally agree with Mike, and I think Joe is a tad out of line here.
I also agree with the frustration but wouldn’t it be more prudent to find out why she did what she did, instead of just calling her names and assuming she acted with ill intent? Just because she’s a Republican doesn’t mean she’s crazy or anti-family. She IS a politician and they all tend to be less than pure in their motives. And do you really think it would be a waste of your time to ask?
Joe, are you trying to elicit some lively responses, jazz up the site a little with some inflammatory rhetoric?
Because usually you’re a little more level and even-keeled than you have been in the last few weeks.
You know, I always say that when I grow up I’ll move to a state where, if there has to be political gridlock, it won’t be of a Republican variety.
But I’m thinking, politics is politics and I don’t know that any state has a well balanced, well intentioned, and cooperative political leadership. I’m just really amazed that there aren’t any grass roots rebellions going on.
Unless status quo continues because we’re all a bunch of sheep, or a bunch of zombies, out here in regular-citizen-land. “Do your thing, Politician, and I’ll complain, but I won’t do anything about it other than that”.
Maybe citizen journalism will help with this issue?
If you read the article I linked to, Lodge gives her reasons as not wanting to spend money, worried about new rules on parents, and worried about losing freedoms. Huh?
Lodge said Idaho doesn’t need to review child deaths because other states are already doing that.
“We can use the information that they’ve gathered … If they’re already doing it, what could be different in a child death in Utah or Montana that we wouldn’t have here? Why reinvent the wheel all the time?”
“Could this lead to maybe more usurping of freedoms? Could parents be charged?”
So she thinks she alone is smarter than all other lawmakers across our great nation? Rather than allowing a panel of experts analyze data and reach logical conclusions, she thinks she is smarter and can decide ahead of time it’s not worth the effort?
I don’t feel it’s worth the effort to contact her because A) I’m not in her district and B)she’s already killed the bill and the session is almost over, so what is she going to say to me? In Idaho there’s not much point to disagreeing with the majority because when they make a decision the whole process gets steamrolled. Every year I see the same garbage over and over.
Another legislator expressed their frustration that instead of having an honest debate and vote, Lodge abused her power to slip the bill back into her own committee where she could kill it.
But hey okeydokey let me find her contact info and I will ask her about my concerns.
You know, my bad, this is one of those times I read your comment and forgot to go click the link. It does say why she did what she did.
But, I disagree that only the district constituent has the right to ask questions, so even if you’re not in her district, seems you have the right to ask her to explain herself.
You nailed it right on the head with your comment:
“In Idaho there’s not much point to disagreeing with the majority because when they make a decision the whole process gets steamrolled. Every year I see the same garbage over and over.”
That’s exactly why I wanted to escape to another state where the grownups run the asylum. I get tired of this same old story. But the truth is, I haven’t found the better place, yet. (Not that I really like ID, just that it’s the devil I know.)
I submitted my question to her via her official Idaho senate contact page. Her personal website domain expired March 3rd. She represents Huston, I think it’s in Canyon County just west of Nampa.
Who is Patti Lodge anyway? Her Senate bio lists her real job as an educational media consultant / agribusiness owner, two strangely disparate fields I would say.
I found this interesting article alleging Patti and her husband were involved in some inappropriate activities:
http://proliberty.com/observer/20031103.htm
That is an absolutely horrible story. I have no idea, could it possibly be true? Why did no one do anything? These people have that much power?
Where was the investigative arm of the Idaho Statesman?
These kinds of stories make me scratch my head in wonder. But I have to stop, I’m losing my hair to this process the longer I live in Idaho…
So if a person were to open a high quality family home child care with insurance, pediatric first aid and cpr, with a child centered arts, music and reading based program, with no more than 6-8 kids at a time, depending upon their ages, would this be a successful business and what is the going rate for such high quality care?
Is there a greater need for after school, pre-school, toddler, or infant care?
Crystal – #81 – When I called around for a friend who needed daycare anywhere from here to Blackfoot, we were quoted from $14 a day to $23 a day, depending on if it was a toddler (less) or infant (more). Older kids fell in the middle. Also it depended if lunch was served or the kids packed their own. People complain about daycare prices but what a lot of parents don’t realize is childcare prices are a steal in this part of Idaho. Babysitters come cheap too, but I pay more than most to keep a quality one around. As for need, I think all areas are needed but my friends specifically have needs in in the infant/toddler range.
I personally, if I needed it, would pay good prices for care such as you described. It sounds more like preschool?
If you open one like that, I’m sure you’ll fill up immediately. I wish someone here in IF taught Kindermusic programs or something similar for toddlers. Plus mommy and me classes, etc. Maybe we don’t know where to find them if they already exist.
They are spending $400,000.00 on a dam that already failed, but dont want to spend $43,000.00 to identify ways to stop childhood deaths.
They dont give a damn about family values.
Thank you for this excellent information.
It sounds like opening a high quality family child care would be a useful contribution in the area.
My kids are now school aged so I could not realistically do so except as a part day (ie till my kids get out of school in the afternoons) program.
I did find over several years of doing childcare that, at least where infants and toddlers were concerned, it is preferable to care for children whose parents find a way not to have their own kids in child care full time.
That may sound discriminatory, but being with my own children led me to doing child care, and I turned away a fair number of clients whose values encompassed leaving an infant with a stranger (me) for 50-60 hours a week so they could keep up a fancy lifestyle.
I’m still taking in the information being discussed here, I’m frankly appalled at the lack of governmental oversight, YES, GOVERNMENT! Regulating the welfare of children with the full force of the State is at least as important as overseeing traffic laws, and all the other Law Enforcement topics I read on this site.
I’ll give credit to local Republican Russ Matthews, he co-sponsored the bill and said he will introduce it again if re-elected (is he up for election this year already? boy these election cycles are fast…)
http://www.kidk.com/news/local/17126791.html
The reason given why other Republicans opposed the bill was simply because they were cheap. They felt if other states were already studying this then Idaho should not. So, cheap. Our kids are not worth spending a few bucks on to try and prevent deaths.
I am curious. What would Idaho death statistics do that we can’t get from other states? Is it important to have our own set of statistics, because maybe we have different kinds of deaths than other states around us do?
I’d much rather fund a study of this nature than give such a huge tax break to Albertson’s, obviously, which makes me at odds with the Republican leadership, but…
Maybe instead of asking her why she doesn’t want to, maybe ask Russ why he feels compelled to get our own personal set of statistics…
Good question, but along with that we should ask why Idaho is the only state to not compile these statistics? If they are supposedly redundant to compile from state to state, why aren’t other states choosing to not compile and study these death rates?
It makes me very nervous when Idaho is the only state in the union on an issue. It is not often because of our wisdom.
Well, it really could be that many states voted to study because they didn’t want to be seen as not caring about the issue…not necessarily because they thought they would get good data, different data, from the results.
I also see Idaho as the last in the nation in so many areas, we can say it’s because we don’t tend to follow the beaten path but we also shoot ourselves in the foot trying to pretend to be independent of outside pressures. We lose out on important things we could/should be doing. I agree we don’t appear to be very wise in many of the choices we make.
Everything I read about that woman makes me shudder, but maybe she has a point about not trying to get our own data just for the sake of having our own data…if the reason to have the data is to take action, we’d only want separate data if we felt there were valid issues to be discovered, different than other states had found.
Her other reasons sound really lame, but this particular one got me to thinking. So, that’s probably why I’m curious if Russ Mathews felt there was something compelling to be found, and why he wanted this study in the first place.
Upon re-reading my comment, it occurs to me that we’ll never know if we have different issues or strange types of deaths, unless we first bother to do a study. So I think at least one initial study would be warranted. Then, if the findings are consistent with the surrounding states, we might think of that when we look at funding future death statistics studies.