Recent commentaries in this paper have expressed disagreement at the Department of Human Services’ decision to discontinue the Experience at Sea program, a decision for which I take full responsibility.

We at DHS are disappointed that this course of action is necessary. We recognized that the Experience at Sea program was a valuable one for teenage boys in foster care, and the decision to cut its funding was not made lightly. The program was an innovative alternative to standard group home care. Children in DHS custody who have overcome so many challenges in their lives deserve our best effort in finding new methods of treatment. Lots of hard work, both by Community Health and Counciling Services and by the state, made the program possible.

Unfortunately, our state is currently faced with a difficult fiscal challenge. DHS is struggling to cut its budget without hurting people who need state assistance for their health care, prescription drugs, among other things. If cuts must be made, we ought to first identify expensive programs that serve a small number of people.

In view of this principle, we respectfully disagree with CHCS’s and the Bangor Daily News’ claim that the Experience at Sea program is “the least expensive group home in the state.” The editorials suggested that it would be cheaper to send children out on the schooner than to place them in other group homes. That’s wrong. It costs the state a lot more money to fund this voyage.

The editorials are incorrectly based on the premise that because the nine young men chosen were troubled youth, they were all receiving treatment in expensive group homes. In fact, these young men came from a variety of different living arrangements. Some were in residential treatment centers and group homes that, while expensive, are nowhere near as pricey as the editorials claim. Others were in therapeutic foster care, traditional foster care, living alone or with a parent, which cost much less.

It would have cost the state roughly $197,000 to have these nine young men continue in their former placements rather than enrolling them in Experience at Sea. That number comes from computing the daily rate for each of the nine placements over a 235-day period (the length of the Experience at Sea). The total cost per teenager varies from $52,000 to as little as $1,000.

By its own daily rate, CHCS puts the total cost of the Experience at Sea at more than $60,000 per child. Indeed, it higher even than that because the daily rate cited in the editorials does not take into account significant additional costs. Start up expenses, all paid for by the state, exceeded $50,000. An Outward Bound course for crew members totaled $43,500. The mandatory well-being checks on all nine children cost $1,815, since someone had to fly to Puerto Rico to perform them. Computer training was $1,650; heavy-duty sweatshirts another $400. All funded by the taxpayer.

Sending these nine young men off to sea cost $550,000 more than if they had stayed where they were (without even considering a potential $150,000 education grant for schooling expenses). This was a worthwhile experience for them, but not a cost efficient one for the state.

Moreover, this paper’s claim that CHCS “took a cautious approach” by keeping the number of kids on the boat at nine is belied by the actual facts. CHCS enrolled twelve kids in the Experience at Sea. Only nine finished.

And this attrition costs the state even more money. When a child leaves a traditional group home, usually DHS can place a different child in that home at no additional cost. That cannot be done with the Experience at Sea. As a result, the state had to pay for twelve children because no others could be substituted in the three empty slots.

Given the continuing uncertainty of the state’s anticipated tax revenues in the next biennium, DHS needs to remain as flexible as possible in our ability to make additional cuts if necessary. Our contracts with nearly all other group homes in the state can be amended with reasonable notice and within a reasonable period of time. Once the Experience at Sea has set sail, however, this is no longer an option.

We are hopeful that when the state’s fiscal situation improves, we will once again be able to consider this special experience to children in our custody. Until that time, we cannot justify spending such a large sum of money on such a small group of people. Maine taxpayers are entitled to nothing less.

Kevin W. Concannon is commissioner of the Maine Department of Human Services.