Texas Comptroller and independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn released information last week found during her investigation into possible Medicaid prescription drug fraud and abuse about the deaths, poisonings, rapes and pregnancies of children in the state’s foster care system.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153In April 2004 I said I would give our forgotten children in foster care something they need – a voice,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Strayhorn said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have been and I will continue to be their voice. This Governor’s Health and Human Services Commission continues to stonewall my investigation and this Governor continues to hide the truth.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nAccording to Strayhorn, she urged Gov. Rick Perry to create a Family and Protective Services Crisis Management Team in October 2004.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Now it is June 2006,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Strayhorn said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Gov. Perry’s failure to act is unconscionable.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nStrayhorn found, from information provided by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, in FY 2003, 30 foster children died in our state’s care; in FY 2004, 38 foster children died; and in FY 2005, 48 foster children died.
\nData shows that while the number of foster children in the state’s care increased 24 percent from 26,133 in FY 2003 to 32,474 in FY 2005, the number of deaths increased 60 percent.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you compare the number of deaths of children in our state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s population to the number of deaths in our state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s foster care system, a child is four times more likely to die in our state’s foster care system,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Strayhorn said.
\nPerry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s campaign said Strayhorn was simply exploiting child tragedies for political gain.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153In 2005 the Texas legislature passed, and Gov. Perry signed, SB 6 which provided comprehensive reform to the Child Protective Services (CPS) agency and addressed the concerns outlined by experts and even Carole Strayhorn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own 2004 report,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Texans for Rick Perry spokesman Robert Black said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153With her support evaporating, her poll numbers dropping and her campaign stagnating, Carole Strayhorn seems desperate to change the subject and is sadly not above exploiting child tragedies to do it. What a despicable thing to do.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Texas Comptroller and independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn released information last week found during her investigation into possible Medicaid prescription drug fraud and abuse about the deaths, poisonings, rapes and pregnancies of children in the state’s foster care system. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In April 2004 I said I would give our forgotten children in foster care something … Continue reading Strayhorn reports on possible Medicaid fraud<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pEnSo-k9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}