Maureen Lane

If it’s not working, don’t fix it?

As reported widely this past week in the New York Times and Washing ton Post Congressional leadership has learned little from Katrina. They're pushing for wrongheaded cuts and legislative changes that would cripple fundamental programs for low income and poor families.

Congressional leaders are taking advantage of the budget process to change welfare policies and create even more obstacles to access to education for poor people. Policy makers propose adding hours of narrowly defined work activity and insanely limiting education in hours per work and length of timefor participation, down to three months from the twelve months listed now.

We see the same problem here in New York City according to a report released by Community Voices Heard, the city's Employment Services and Placement System (ESP) which was allocated up to $ 130 million over the past three years in city contracts for some of the narrowly defined work activity mentioned in federal law have a poor track record in actually getting people jobs. The research finds that only eight percent of those referred to the ESP System are placed in jobs within six months.

Statistics show the current policy is failing.

So we know what doesn't work. Now here's what does work: Almost ninety percent of the women receiving welfare who attained a bachelors degree moved from welfare and out of poverty within months of graduation.

So what exactly is the rationale behind budget cuts and obstacles to education access?

Maureen Lane: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 2:35 PM, Oct 24, 2005 in Education
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