Great Ideas: “No Way to Treat Our Kids.” Is the Foster Care System Fixable?

Our guest today says that American kids who are in danger and in need of foster care are being left in dangerous situations for far too long.  But even more provocatively, she makes the case that children are sometimes being used as pawns as part of a broader social agenda that, however well-intentioned, can be disastrous for kids left in foster care limbo. Naomi Schaefer Riley is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute where she focuses on child welfare and foster care issues.

She has written for the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post and has appeared on NBC, Fox News, and CNBC. Her new book is No Way to Treat a Child: How the Foster Care System, Family Courts and Racial Activists Are Wrecking Young Lives. She explains where the system is coming apart and how better data, more coordination with civic groups, and reconsidered priorities could help stitch it together.