When Olympia says, “Don’t look here,” it’s time to start looking really, really hard. Minnesota’s deepening Somali daycare fraud scandal naturally is prompting questions about whether the same thing might be happening in Washington state. And one of the most chilling things I’ve seen lately from our increasingly imperious Democratic leaders is their effort to squelch independent investigation by the news media.
They’re saying inquiry is racist. The attorney general is hinting reporters might be prosecuted under hate-crimes statutes. The House speaker had this to say to a reporter for The Center Square who visited a half-dozen home-based daycare facilities and found no signs of childcare activity – no parents dropping off kids, no children playing outside, nothing.
“You may have the right to do that, but it’s not right to do that,” she declared.
What astounds me is that news media outlets across the state haven’t taken this as a challenge. Thirty years ago a high-handed comment like that would have sent an army of reporters into the field. Within days there would have been a knock at the door of every home listed in public records as a Medicaid-supported daycare operation. By now I am sure we would be seeing a spate of stories about lax oversight at the state Department of Children, Youth & Families.
Now, I understand the state’s struggling press has a hard enough time these days playing its traditional watchdog role. Some of the state’s last few editorial writers are calling for accountability from DCYF, skirting the issue of potential fraud but highlighting this agency’s many other management failures. At least that’s a start.
But what a terrible time this is to shut down oversight of this troubled state agency.
Believe it or not, that’s what a pair of bills sponsored by my colleagues would do.
Senate Bill 5926, from Sen. Lisa Wellman, D-Mercer Island, would block the release of address and ownership information for daycares operated out of private homes. This bill was introduced four days before the Minnesota daycare scandal story broke nationwide on Dec. 26, so it is hard to draw a direct connection.
Yet revelations of multi-million-dollar Medicaid fraud schemes operated by Somali immigrants have been unfolding for months in Minnesota. The bill’s intent section claims that childcare providers operating out of their own homes face “harassment, doxxing, and targeted retaliation,” something that didn’t occur in Washington state before Dec. 22 and hasn’t occurred anytime since. These are the charges embattled Democrats are making in Minnesota as they attempt to discourage media investigations. Minnesota is where the whole inquiry-is-racist line got started. It is amazing how quickly Washington electeds picked up on it.
So if this bill has nothing to do with the Land of 10,000 Lakes, it is one of the strangest political coincidences of all time. The bill’s sponsor has announced she is withdrawing it from consideration, and I can’t blame her, given the optics here. But in the Legislature it’s a mistake to presume any proposal is dead until the final gavel falls.
The other bill is just as noxious and it appears to be advancing. Senate Bill 5942, sponsored by Sen. Claire Wilson, D-Federal Way, would change the name of the DCYF Oversight Board to the DCYF Accountability Board. I am a board member and I know this name change has been in the works for months. Another member complained the word “oversight” is racist – I am not making this up. But when the bill was dropped on Dec. 26 it was a shock to see it also eliminates the board’s oversight responsibilities and its ability to request independent investigations of mismanagement and wrongdoing.
This bill’s sponsor happens to chair the oversight board, and she says it merely takes away authority the board isn’t using. I say that’s the problem.
For four years, DCYF has failed to release data for daycare programs, making audits impossible. And the failures at this agency run deeper than potential fraud in this and other Medicaid-funded programs. Last year the state paid a record $500 million to settle lawsuits, most of it due to DCYF negligence to protect children under its care. Child deaths and severe injuries are soaring. Overcrowded juvenile justice facilities managed by DCYF have degenerated into chaos due to a new state policy keeping offenders in the juvenile system until age 25. Strikes me we need more oversight, not less.
If we’re going to ensure Washington turns a blind eye to DCYF mismanagement, I think we should call this board what it would become. I have introduced Senate Bill 6020 to change the name to the “DCYF Social Club.”
I am glad at least some media outlets are resisting pressure and intimidation from my colleagues, and are willing to do the job Olympia won’t.
Sen. Leonard Christian, R-Spokane Valley, is lead Republican on the Senate Human Services Committee.
