New welfare rules promulgated by the GOP Congress and the Bush administration threaten to further erode the ability of poor people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps by refusing to count activities like getting a college degree or entering drug rehab as valid for continued eligibility for welfare money.
After the welfare reform rules of 1996 were put into effect, states were given limited block grants that in exchange allowed them to design their own flexible rules for disbursement of funds. That allowed states to design programs that encouraged upward mobility for poor people by allowing things like payment for living and childcare costs if a parent decided to go to college full time.
Now, however, the federal government is intervening and imposing far stricter requirements for what complies with the welfare laws’ requirement that recipients work in exchange for money. Under the new definition, states will be micromanaged by the federal government and will be required to give money to residents seeking McDonalds type jobs over those who seek to pull themselves out of poverty by getting an education.
This is wrong. It is entirely appropriate for welfare laws to require recipients to engage in productive work–but the definition of work should be expanded to include full-time education and drug rehabilitiation. The purpose of welfare as enunciated by the Clinton administration was to provide people with the tools they needed to get themselves out of their dire straits and better contribute to their own lives and the lives of the people around them. Pushing people into menial jobs while they remain drug-addicted or uneducated does nothing but perpetuate the cycle of poverty.
We as a society should encourage the education of as many people as possible. Every mind is creative and can positively contribute if given the proper tools and opportunity. People in poverty who are trying their hardest to elevate themselves should be rewarded, not punished.
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