What do you think of some parents giving up legal custody of their kids so they can get college financial aid?
This u201cinvestigative journalismu201d story serves as a great example about why you should very carefully evaluate everything you read. What are the facts? Is the story well written? Are facts presented clearly and in a balanced manner? Or, perhaps, could this story be biased? Is the story u201cnewsu201d, or is it u201copinionu201d HAS ANY PARENT GIVEN UP LEGAL CUSTODY OF A CHILD FOR THE PURPOSE OF FINANCIAL AID FOR COLLEGE? Let's conduct an investigation of this u201cinvestigative journalismu201d story.Lake County Illinois has a population of 703,520 people.u201cDozens of suburban Chicago families, perhaps many more, have been exploiting a legal loophole to win their children need-based college financial aid and scholarships they would not otherwise receiveu2026u201d.There are twenty PUBLIC high schools in Lake County Illinois, with a combined total enrollment of 38,577 students in 9th through 12th grade. For simplicity, lets assume there are an equal number of students in each grade, so 9,644 are senior year students, and with a 95% graduation rate, 9,162 students graduated last year from public high schools in Lake County Illinois.From Wikipedia:$78,948The median income for a household in the county was $78,948 and the median income for a family was $91,693. Males had a median income of $62,042 versus $44,200 for females. The per capita income for the county was $38,120.Wikipedia u203a wiki u203a Lake_County,_I...Lake County, Illinois - WikipediaThe median income for a household in the county was $78,948 and the median income for a family was $91,693. Males had a median income of $62,042 versus $44,200 for females. The per capita income for the county was $38,120. About 4.8% of families and 7.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.6% of those under age 18 and 5.6% of those age 65 or over.u201cWhile ProPublica Illinois uncovered this practice in north suburban Lake County, where almost four dozen such guardianships were filed in the past 18 monthsu201d.Ok, Pro Publica (Who is Pro Publica anyway, I'll get to this later), believes almost 4 dozen (four dozen is 48, so is it 42 or 45 or 36 guardianship cases that were filed? Why can't the give a precise number, especially when they are asserting the number is especially or unusually high?Let's just stick with public high school seniors who attend public high schools in Lake County Illinois. There are 9,644 of them. According to Wikipedia, 9.6% of them live below the poverty line, or 926 of them.Now, during the past 18 months, out of the 9,644 high school seniors attending public high schools in Lake County, Illinois, fewer than 48 of them, somewhat fewer than .49% of them, (around one in two hundred teenager/students), moved out of their parent or parents home and someone else became their legal guardian.I think that's an amazingly SMALL number of teens not living with a parent.In 2024. there were 73,700,000 children in the U.S., and 690,000 of them spent some time in foster care, or about .94%. Almost 1 of 100 children spent time in foster care, living with a non parent legal guardian. One in seven children between the age of 10 and 18 will run away from home at some time. There are between one and three million homeless children living in the U.S.The Truth About Runaway TeensHonestly, there's nothing in this story that seems newsworthy, nor can I agree at all with the allegation made that: u201cDozens of suburban Chicago families, perhaps many more, have been exploiting a legal loophole to win their children need-based college financial aid and scholarships they would not otherwise receiveu2026u201d.Some teenagers are orphans, some have one parent, some have an incarcerated parent, or a parent or parents serving in the military, or a disabled parent.So I've now determined that this headline, and the story itself, are some type of fake news, deliberately designed to influence opinions, through misrepresenting facts, out of context.ProPublica - WikipediaPro Publica is non-profit Corporation. This means they are exempt from paying taxes, and that their activities are shielded from public scrutiny; and this is true of all non-profit Corporations, no matter what their stated purpose is. Only the extremely wealthy benefit from forming non-profit organizations, because their main purpose is ALWAYS to reduce their taxes. ALWAYS.I have taken in homeless and troubled teens, and legally obtained guardianship of one of my son's friends, through a voluntary Court approved guardianship agreement that had no financial incentives or motivation whatsoever.The teenage years are quite difficult, and a large number of parents and teens have severe conflicts during these years, many of which are minimized by a change in residency. If.a reporter called asking detailed questions about Court decisions that, for the minors protection are private proceedings, the appropriate response is to keep this private matter private.I wish I had time to research EVERY STORY that's published as u201cjournalismu201d, but I don't. This story is NOT AN EXAMPLE OF JOURNALISM. It is an example of PERSUASIVE WRITING. There's an underlying theme and motive behind this story, that seems to me to be to encourage and influence people to believe that there is massive abuse and fraud in public educational funding.Why? Why compose and disseminate false and misleading facts? My personal guess is that it's being done to promote the political agenda of smaller government and fewer government programs. And who benefits most from fewer government programs? Certainly not any of the average American citizens, who need these support programs. That leaves the very very wealthy as the primary beneficiaries, because they have the most to gain when government programs are cut and their taxes are reduced even more.HAS ANY PARENT GIVEN UP LEGAL CUSTODY OF A CHILD FOR THE PURPOSE OF FINANCIAL AID FOR COLLEGE?The facts of my investigation of this u201cinvestigative journalismu201d story, financed by a non-profit Corporation, ProPublica clearly show that neither the headline allegation, nor any other part of this story is true. My investigation demonstrates that non-profit Corporations, set up and run by extremely wealthy people, deliberately try to influence people and to mold public opinions into supporting public policies which further benefit their own selfish and greedy self interests.
