http://blogs.detroitnews.com/politics/2013/10/08/bolger-scuttle-controversial-foster-care-bill/
Oct 8, 2013, 12:52 pm
Bolger should scuttle controversial foster care bill
By Dawud Walid
Michigan Speaker of the House Jase Bolger, R-Marchall, should not allow the controversial foster care place bill to come to a vote.
The bill, if it becomes law, would allow discretion for non-profit placement agencies to deny placing children in suitable foster care homes based on moral subjectivity. Moreover, it would allow broad discretion for organizations receiving state funding to discriminate against placing children with appropriate foster families based upon subjective means.
It would be inappropriate for agencies receiving state funding to discriminate as to how children are placed in foster care homes based upon religious or moral convictions. Michiganians cannot simply trust the goodwill of organizations to place children in suitable homes for the children’s well-being in which those entities could have religious and political biases against certain segments of the population. An agency, for instance, may believe that Islam is not a bona fide religion or is a false religion – therefore it would place Muslim children in foster care homes that conform to an agency’s beliefs.
In recent years, Bolger has not allowed two bills to come up for voting on the floor that were bad for Michigan and for the image of Michigan’s GOP. There wasn’t a vote on a copy-cat Arizona immigration enforcement bill, which would have opened the doors to racial profiling, nor was there a vote on an anti-foreign laws bill, which was a cloaked anti-Islam piece of legislation.
Michigan has more important issues to deal with than socially-divisive legislation, which will lead to litigation if passed. Moreover, state Republicans have done a better job in Michigan than other states in avoiding some of the so-called “moral issue” pieces of legislation. Bolger would be doing Michigan and his party a favor if he simply scuttles this unfortunate bill as has been done with other bills in the past.