It would be nice if life fit as conveniently into boxes as some proposals to alter the Kansas foster care system seem to assume.

Unfortunately, life often is messy and inconvenient and children not prepared to deal with its vagaries may end up paying the price.

On Thursday, state officials announced several major changes to the foster care system that are geared toward making sure Kansas children move quickly through the process — ready or not. A number of changes were made in contractors for the state’s privatized foster care system. Among those changes is to take the contract for family preservation services away from the Lawrence-based DCCCA. That’s bad news for 40 to 50 DCCCA employees who will have to look elsewhere for work.

The really bad news, however, will directly affect the state’s children in foster care.

Too much of the privatized state foster care system seems to be about money. Changes slated to be implemented July 1 are based on providing financial incentives for foster care contractors to move children more quickly through the system. According to the box the state plans to shove children into, the contractor has six months to try to deal with a foster child; after that their payment for that child is reduced to 66 percent. If the child is still in the foster care system in a year, the contractor’s fee will be reduced to 29 percent of the original fee.

This system may work for some children. No one wants children to linger in the foster care system if they can be reunited with their parents or adopted by another family. But many cases just aren’t that simple. Foster care contractors shouldn’t be penalized for keeping a child under their care for a year or even more if that’s what is in the best interests of the child. Trying to force a six-month-and-out formula on every Kansas foster child is inhumane.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ proposed budget also is setting up some foster children for failure. Her budget calls for elimination of services to 634 16- and 17-year-old Kansas youths who were not placed in the system because of abuse or neglect. Services also would be terminated to 125 people over the age of 18 who were in foster care before age 18.

What will happen to these children? An official with the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services said that any plan to terminate these foster care services must include plans for transitional care. A transition to what? If they had enough family support to fulfill their basic needs, they wouldn’t be in foster care. These youngsters haven’t even graduated from high school, some of them have mental illness, but the state is going to cut their foster care lifeline.

What will their future be? An article in Tuesday’s Journal-World told the stories of several local homeless people ranging in age from 20 to 22. At least one of the young people was a former foster child who had left his foster family in Topeka when he was 18. Is that the kind of “transition” the state has in mind? To eliminate foster care services for these teens without a definite plan to connect them with other services that will give them a chance to succeed in life is unconscionable.

What these foster care proposals don’t seem to recognize is that pushing children too quickly through the system or eliminating services to teens who aren’t ready to stand on their own will only increase other problems down the line. The state may save some money now, but it surely will spend much more on social services or prisons to deal with the future problems of the youngsters they shortchange now.