You only hear about bad foster parents just like you only hear about bad daycare centers or bad nursing homes. People who are doing a good job are not newsworthy.
That being said, I’d rather take my chance with a nursing home or a daycare center than foster care. You can choose a daycare or nursing home after visiting many places, getting references, interviewing staff, etc. A kid who ends up in foster care has no say in the situation. The parents have no say, obviously. In a system that is overwhelmed and flawed, it’s too easy for kids to fall through the cracks. I feel like it’s a toss up sometimes: abusive parents, or foster care. The foster care might be better, but it might be worse. :(
I know one family that takes in foster children, and I don’t know them well. Just enough to say hi when I run into them around town. The kids always seem happy and well-cared for. The foster parents are older and seem to be doing a wonderful job. I also used to work with a woman whose best friend was a foster parent. She sometimes had as many as four or five kids to care for, but she did a great job. She eventually adopted a little boy she’d cared for since he was an infant. It’s unlikely he would have been adopted otherwise, because he had a lot of emotional and behavioral challenges from the drugs his mother used while pregnant. So, there are cases out there where foster families are making a big difference for children. I’d like to be a foster parent once my own kids are older.