I offer another solution.

 

Give adults 5 years of support. Provide them what is necessary to live etc, AND give them a sum of money designed to be used for training/retraining/education etc to become self sufficient. Allow the adult to forgo training/education for the first year (to allow them time to develop a plan) if they are enrolled and completed some type of training program by the second year, they will be able to keep the benefits. After 5years of basically state funding education/training, the people are on their own.

 

States would have to work together in order to prevent people from just moving to another state. If the states couldn't come to a consensus, at least these "lifers" would be forced to move on - leaving behind a better citizerny.

Stunning display of empathy on this board.

 

Over 70% of welfare recipients are women and children under the age of 12. Maybe our Army could look like the Iraq insurgents' after that.

 

The drug testing model is another highly judgmental suggestion. The vast majority of Kentucky's welfare rolls are filled with folks below the poverty line and receiving food stamps and WIC because of fathers who have abandoned them and poor education, not because of drugs.

 

Rather than throwing out the baby with the bath water, I suggest we work on poverty by actually improving our public schools and raising up the level of our workforce. Hey, there's a novel concept.

Agree with most of your post and then the public schools comment.

 

There is an old saying, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

 

Public schools, at least most, are fine. But when you have a kid show up and their parents are telling them that I don't know what I am doing, school is dumb and teachers are out to get them and they don't have to listen to us, well, that horse is standing in deep water but not taking a single drink.

 

And those kids end up the next generation on welfare. I teach where I went to school and those that said education was dumb and stupid when I sat in the row across from them and now I have their children spitting out the same drivel.

 

And good chance that their grandkids will be saying the same thing.

 

I counter with say that MALES need to step up and be fathers to those that they bring in this world and not deadbeat dads. And I am not talking about $$$ but spending time with them, mentoring them, raising them.

 

I counter with people QUIT relying on government either in the form of welfare or schools in solving their problems and solve their families problems.

Children are not on welfare the parent is.

No parent should have custody of their child if they can not provide for them without a free handout from uncle sam.

So my sister's children should have been taken from her when her husband decided that his two girlfriends and his drug habit (which included smoking a bunch of marijuana everyday) was more important than being a father to his children and left her with her only income that was below poverty level and left her eligible for welfare?

Children are not on welfare the parent is.

No parent should have custody of their child if they can not provide for them without a free handout from uncle sam.

 

Good Heavens! So who're you going to give them to? The foster parents who care for them get state assistance, too. They actually get more of it.

"Are there no poorhouses? Are there no jails?" - Ebenezer Scrooge

I still say the best thing for these kids would be an orphanage. They'd get better care and schooling then they are now.

I am going to beat a dead horse here, but as this same topic keeps popping up...instead of simply denouncing those people on government aid and taking away their children (for heaven's sake!), perhaps some of you could benefit from understanding poverty. Since, I assume, that most of you have never been in poverty, you can't understand it from the inside out. Let me refer you to the most excellent book that I have ever read on the topic, Understanding Poverty, by Ruby Payne. It was a huge eye opener for me. I will offer to send my copy (free of charge) to anyone that wants to read it and is willing to pass it on to someone else. I honestly think that until we begin to understand poverty that we can't fix it.

I am going to beat a dead horse here, but as this same topic keeps popping up...instead of simply denouncing those people on government aid and taking away their children (for heaven's sake!), perhaps some of you could benefit from understanding poverty. Since, I assume, that most of you have never been in poverty, you can't understand it from the inside out. Let me refer you to the most excellent book that I have ever read on the topic, Understanding Poverty, by Ruby Payne. It was a huge eye opener for me. I will offer to send my copy (free of charge) to anyone that wants to read it and is willing to pass it on to someone else. I honestly think that until we begin to understand poverty that we can't fix it.

 

Prior to my student teaching I attended a 6 hour workshop on this. Absolutely enthralling and eye opening. I concur.

Children should be taken form parents who have no intent of seeing to it they are raised with proper schooling and a descent family environment. I’m not saying all single mother families here, just the ones that could really care less about how they raise their kids and in what atmosphere.

 

How do you define that?

First The second option would be foster care until/if they can be adopted out to a family who works and can provide for them.

 

...because our foster care system is working so well now.

I am going to beat a dead horse here, but as this same topic keeps popping up...instead of simply denouncing those people on government aid and taking away their children (for heaven's sake!), perhaps some of you could benefit from understanding poverty. Since, I assume, that most of you have never been in poverty, you can't understand it from the inside out. Let me refer you to the most excellent book that I have ever read on the topic, Understanding Poverty, by Ruby Payne. It was a huge eye opener for me. I will offer to send my copy (free of charge) to anyone that wants to read it and is willing to pass it on to someone else. I honestly think that until we begin to understand poverty that we can't fix it.

 

I haven't read that book, and maybe I will now, but this is an excellent post.

I still say the best thing for these kids would be an orphanage. They'd get better care and schooling then they are now.

You ever worked in an orphanage? If you had, you might rethink this philosophy. And dumping the kids on foster care is a swell idea too. We can't handle the ones already in the system. How does poverty equate to poor parenting?

You ever worked in an orphanage? If you had, you might rethink this philosophy. And dumping the kids on foster care is a swell idea too. We can't handle the ones already in the system. How does poverty equate to poor parenting?

NO, but my dad and a lot of the kids I grew up with dads were in one, they tell me they were better off.

I never said a thing about fotser care.

Who's talking poverty? Not me, I'm talking about dregs who could care less about their kids, so...

How do you define that?

Not really all that hard.

Having grown up on Welfare (food stamps, other assistance), gives one a very unique perspective on this issue, especially now, 20 years later, I teach many a High School student that has more money in thier bank account than my family of 4 had earned in a year. My parents were just out of High School when I was born, and although a High School Diploma was worth more than it is today, our family still needed assistance. My father worked 2 jobs to pull us to a level of income that was too high to recieve the government assistance, and then my younger sister was born. It became a struggle to make ends meet, and so my father quit one of his jobs, thus dropping our total income level to a point where we could recieve the assistance agian. Our family would work ourselves up again, only to struggle more after reaching a certian income rather than being on Welfare. As someone said earlier, the system does not work, but not everyone on the system is responsible for it not working. Eventually through the grace of God, and a lot of hard work, our family was able to reach a comfortable lower middle class income life. My mother was able to finish college, and in the past 8 years, my father has started and run a sucessful small buisness as a second job. The system worked for us because we made it work for us. Not every family would have the work ethic it takes to truly make it sucessfully off of Welfare. My experience understands why some would choose to cheat the system(think about how many people you know who fudge theier tax returns) but I get angry at those who do, because we did it the right way. Whatever your feelings are on welfare, I would suggest that you really take a deep look into the lives of those who are in need, and volunteer. The best assistance comes not from a government check, but from the time and love of someone who just wants to help.