Public or Private Children's Services? Privatization in Retrospect

In this article, I document the changing relations of the public and private child welfare sectors culminating in the 1960s and 1970s, when Social Security Act amendments greatly changed their relationship. Although the financially strapped voluntary service sector was divided ideologically about seeking increased public funding, it quickly accepted new funds once they became available. This inquiry into the history of privatization questions whether the voluntary sector actively pursued changes in federal legislation in the 1950s and 1960s and illuminates the debates likely to arise if the government increases its reliance on religiously affiliated agencies for providing social services.