Reply #170: It think it is YOU that doesn't get it.

[RaleighNCDUer]

For a great many of these kids, if the state doesn't pay for it, they won't get it.

They are fosters, fer gawds sake. They won't be getting new jackets from Grma & Grpa. The only clothes they get will be those they receive from the state through their foster parents. And while most foster parents may genuinely care, that doesn't mean they have the wherewithal to spend their own money on the kids.

This is a restriction which, for many of them, IS an effectual ban.

And, how does this affect kids who live in the boonies, where the nearest Goodwill is an hour and a half drive, but (the evil empire) WalMart is just down the road?

And, even if there is a thrift in town, imagine the humiliation of a girl, in a one-school town, wearing a dress that a kid recognizes as his big sister's that they took to the thrift a couple months ago. It makes no difference how good the quality might be - it is a cast off, and the person who cast it off may be right around the corner.

Do you really not remember the emotional rollercoaster of being 15?