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Tonight I want to focus this State of the State speech on the subject I hold closest to my heart <br />— the needs of our children. <br />Two years ago, I appointed a commission to take a hard look at how we serve our children <br />and their families. Under the leadership of Ron James and my wife Susan, the Action for <br />Children Commission has turned out to be an excellent example of the results that can be <br />accomplished through a partnership among businesses, communities, advocates for children <br />and government. <br />In the course of its work, the commission tried to answer two simple questions: First, how <br />much money are we, as a state, spending each year on children? Second, what kinds of <br />results are we getting? <br />The commission identified at least 250 children’s programs, administered through 33 <br />different state agencies, boards and commissions, costing Minnesota taxpayers $4.5 billion <br />dollars a year. <br />Over the years, with the very best of intentions, we have created a tangled, bureaucmtic web <br />of children’s programs. I would guess that not one of us in this chamber can name all of <br />them. We have created too many individual government specialty shops. And we invite our <br />customers to wait in line to see if they might be able to squeeze into the narrow pnxiuct we <br />are selling. If they cannot, they trudge on to the next shop. <br />Families and children who need help are frustrated by the complexity of the system and often <br />do not get the kind of help they nejd. They end up working with dozens of case workers, <br />counselors and eligibility specialists who are connected back to a confusing maze ot <br />inflexible programs. Our children are being divided into pieces by a system that is largely <br />government centered and difficult to use. <br />Ar.d what are the results? Too many of our children are failing. Maybe they aren’t your <br />children or mine, but in every school there are children who are being left behind. And <br />when these young people act out, they affect the way all our children learn. Eventually, we <br />all pay for failed outcomes.