The legislature has gone home. The Challenges for Change bill has been passed, and the final version was signed into law this past week by Governor Douglas.

As mentioned in a recent blog, DCF has a role in six of the specific challenges. These will require substantial focus for us over the next thirteen months.

We have been cautioned that this is only the beginning. In FY’12, the dollar targets will increase substantially for current “challenges” initiatives. In addition, even for FY’11, we are still several million dollars short of the “challenges” overall target. And we are being asked to look for additional opportunities for saving.

We will continue to generate specific ideas for investments and program restructuring that can produce measurable savings. Ideas are welcome. I have heard there is an incentive for individual employees who come forward with great ideas!

At the same time that we work within this framework in small ways, I have been prompted to think seriously about “the big ones”. Consider the following:

• What would happen if we got very serious about education and meaningfully engaged all children in the education process? Currently, there is substantial agreement that between one third and one half of all children are not meaningfully engaged in education. If all children and their families became engaged from an early age, could we experience a dramatic reduction in incarceration rates? See a significant decrease in the Reach UP caseload? Reduce the demand for all kinds of human services?
   
• What would happen if we were able to ensure all children from birth to age six received great care, nurturance, and development from family, as well as from quality early childhood care and education settings? This is the goal of Building Bright Futures. If we get very serious about this issue, could we radically improve outcomes for children? See a reduction in child maltreatment? See a substantial decrease in the need for special education services in later years?
   
• What would happen if we got really serious about addressing poverty with every tool we know how to use? Vermont has done a good job of calling attention to this issue and beginning to address the benefits cliff and other issues. We have made a good start. With increased focus could we change trends around child poverty? Reduce the achievement gap between lower and higher income students? What kinds of savings could that produce over the long run?

I am hopeful that we in Vermont will be willing to take on these larger issues. Only by fundamentally altering the health and well-being of our people will we reduce the overall costs of government over the long run. This is truly a challenge for change.
 

Steve R. Dale, DCF Commissioner