It seems that Obama’s stimulus plan isn’t very stimulating when it comes to jobs, 2.055 million lost in his first 100 days and now the states are going to add to that total by laying off workers despite Obama’s attempts to avoid that happening:

Eleven weeks after Congress settled on a stimulus package that provided $135 billion to limit layoffs in state governments, many states are finding that the funds are not enough and are moving to lay off thousands of public employees.
The state of Washington settled on a budget two weeks ago that will mean 1,000 layoffs at public colleges and several times that many in elementary and high schools.
The governor of Massachusetts, who cut 1,000 positions late last year, just announced 250 layoffs, with more likely to come soon.
Arizona has already laid off 800 social service workers this year and is facing the likelihood of deeper cuts over the next two. The state no longer investigates all complaints of child or elder abuse.
[…]
The layoffs are one early indication of how the stimulus funding could be coming up short against the economic downturn. As the stimulus plan was being drawn up, there was agreement among the White House, congressional Democrats and many economists that a key goal was to keep states from making big layoffs at a time when 700,000 Americans were losing their jobs every month.

Well, they failed and the children will suffer. Maybe if they weren’t so busy throwing away money on airports for Congressmen (did you know that Murtha has his own personal airport?) or giving his nephew no bid contracts (remember the outrage over no bid contracts during the Bush era? Where’s the outrage people?), then they might have enough money to help the poor children trapped in the foster care system.
BTW, laying off 800 social workers in a time of a recessions seems rather cruel to me. It’s hard enough for the social workers to keep track of the kids in the system now as it is but it will be even harder when their numbers are decimated. And as families face the stress of job loss and financial hardships, there will be an even greater need for help.