Forsyth County Commission, Don’t Take the Grant Money!

A few weeks ago, I read a FCN article entitled, “Commission to Pursue Grant for Mental Health.” When I read that headline, I was a little suspicious.  And now that I have had the chance to look at this program, unfortunately, my suspicions are confirmed.

My antenna raised initially because some of the most destructive policies our state and local governments ever enact are forced upon them, and forced upon the citizens of their governing jurisdictions, because they “took the money,” but didn’t regard the fine print. This grant for mental health appears no exception.  But before I go there, let’s talk about a few other very destructive grant programs of the past.

During the financial crisis that brought America and the world to its economic knees, state governments were strapped for cash.  Tax revenues failed to fund and operate state governments as they had in the past.  One area of deep concern was education.  Enter the US Department of Education with “free money” in the form of statewide education grants.   The grant title was, “Race to the Top,” which at least sounded promising.  The bureaucrats in the Georgia Department of Education excitedly took the money.  But what they failed to fully consider was the fine print in the agreement.  That fine print was a Trojan Horse which turned out to be Common Core, K-12 education designed by corporations, for corporations, and imposed on Georgia’s families.  And almost a decade later, no one seems able to get rid of Common Core, all because they took the money back then, a decision which may have permanently altered education in Georgia, for the worse.

And you might also recall, a couple of years ago when here in Forsyth County, our commissioners seriously considered a HUD grant, which had certain onerous strings attached.  Taking the dollars would have required Forsyth County to adhere to federal “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” (AFFH) regulations, which would have permanently delegated Forsyth County’s ultimate zoning decision-making process from our elected officials to bureaucrats operating in the Georgia Mountain Regional Commission (a United Nations initiative), or the federal government, whose purpose would be to enforce federal fair housing regulations written by the Obama Administration on our county.  Life in Forsyth County would have been permanently altered.  Were it not for resistance by Commissioner Levent, and the efforts of concerned citizens Greg Dolezal, Molly Cooper and others, who did the research and showed up to object to the web of obligations AFFH mandated, odds are very good the commission would have taken the federal dollars, and Forsyth County would never have been the same.

Broward County, Florida took dollars afforded by PROMISE grants which resulted in policies allowing an alleged Parkland shooter to roam freely and enter a school to murder children and teachers, even after law enforcement, both local and FBI, knew he was a danger.

And federal government grants are questionably virtuous in principle. I recall writing FCN in 2011, unsuccessfully urging our county commission, chaired at the time by Brian Tam, to turn down a simple “sidewalk grant,” which would be used to connect two private developments south of Cumming.  In that letter I asked, “Why, with our federal government going broke, do we need the American people to pay for our sidewalks?” But Tam and the other commissioners took the “free money” anyway, an act symbolic of the mindset that has put America $70 trillion in debt, and with no way to pay it.

So now is reported that our county commission has authorized the sheriff’s department to apply for this mental health grant.  I ask the Forsyth County Commission, have you read the grant announcement?  There are serious and costly strings attached to this grant as I suspected, bordering on absurd.  Reading directly from the grant application:

"If your application is funded, you must ensure access to quality health care for all. Quality care means access to services, information, and materials delivered by trained providers in a manner that factor in the language needs, health literacy, culture, and diversity of the populations served. Quality also means that data collection instruments used should adhere to culturally and linguistically appropriate norms [CLAS]." 

Now CLAS, as it turns out, is a federal program, revitalized by the Obama Administration to work hand-in-hand with the Affordable Care Act.  Under CLAS, there are 15 “standards” that grant receivers such as Forsyth County, would be mandated to adhere.  The principle standard is one which would require Forsyth County to:

"Provide effective, equitable, understandable, and respectful quality care and services that are responsive to diverse cultural health beliefs and practices, preferred languages, health literacy, and other communication needs." 

In other words, if Forsyth County takes this grant of a mere $330,000, the federal government would mandate that it provide equitable, quality healthcare services to everyone in the county, along with language interpreters for anyone in our county who does not speak English, so that they might better understand the healthcare services they receive for free, those costs presumably paid by the citizens of Forsyth County.  On its face, the costs of services mandated by taking these grant dollars far exceed the dollars the grant even offers.  Anyone who read the grant announcement and associated materials would know that.

And so my hope is that shedding information on this mental health grant, and federal grants in general, will spur readers to urge their county commissioners to rethink this grant, and others they might consider in the future, and simply turn down the money.