MBCH hopes privatization trend continues
By Allen Palmeri
Associate Editor
BRIDGETON—This is an election year, which means that Missouri Baptist Children’s Home President Bob Kenison will be watching the results of the various national and state races closely—for the children.
President George W. Bush’s eight-year administration is coming to an end. Will that mark the end of his faith-based initiative? Kenison will be looking for clues within the candidacies of Democrat Senators Barack Obama (Illinois) and Hillary Clinton (New York), along with Republican Senator John McCain (Arizona). One of them will be president in 2009.
“President Bush has pushed the faith-based initiative, which simply is saying that people of faith should not be cut away from the service that the government provides, because we do it better and we do it cheaper,” Kenison said. “Consequently, he has pushed that side of it and has ordered the departments at work to look favorably upon those of us who are in the private world and to find ways to let the smaller charities participate.”
Kenison explained to board members of the MBCH gathered for their meeting April 22 on the Lowe-Frillman campus in Bridgeton that the faith-based initiative essentially amounts to privatization, with the government trusting citizens hard at work in entities like MBCH to take care of children.
“We’ve gone through several years of privatization, and a lot of what we do today at the Children’s Home is being that private partner with the state that takes care of kids,” he said. Russell Martin, president of MBCH Children and Family Ministries, reported that he is managing 193 cases in the three major population centers of the state (St. Louis, Kansas City and Springfield). MBCH works with Baptists on all levels of government, from the governor’s office on through the State Capitol and into the Department of Social Services, to do what it takes to care for children, Kenison said.
“So many of the social workers that work for the Department of Social (Services) are Baptist,” Kenison said. “Now they can’t go out and say, ‘We’re going to place these kids in Christian homes,’ but they can sign a contract with Missouri Baptist Children’s Home, and the result is they put the kids in one.”
In the Missouri governor’s race, the state attorney general, Democrat Jay Nixon, has already come out against privatization, Kenison said. It is not known where the leading Republican gubernatorial candidates stand on the issue, he said.
“The State of Missouri has never built enough facilities to house the children that need out-of-home care, so they’ve always depended on private charities to do that,” Kenison said. “The private provider can do things that the public provider can never do.
“One of the things is the state provision system is kind of set up with children for a 9-to-5, Monday-through-Friday, kids-don’t-have-problems-(otherwise). Private providers have always had a 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week program. We need to major on the government doing what it does best and the private provider doing what it does best, and they need to have a lot of good conversation.”
The current governor, Matt Blunt, is a Missouri Baptist. He is a Republican who is not running for re-election. Kenison said his policies have done a lot of good in that they have helped create a better environment of caring for the children.
“Blunt recognized that the state had fallen far short of paying its fair share of the cost of taking care of residential kids, and he has had every year a raise in that rate and has kind of moved it back up where it used to be when it was about 50-60 percent,” Kenison said.
In other business, trustees made mention of the June 7 MBCH Strawberry Festival. One of the things to do that day is a 12-team, co-ed volleyball tournament. Call (314) 739-6811 for details.
Derald Harris, MBCH public relations director, is overseeing a makeover of the institution’s website. He gave an overview of his presentation to the board. To the best of his knowledge, the last time this process took place was six or seven years ago.
Board members also approved the 2007 annual audit as presented.
