New Bush administration regulations on welfare negatively impact the very people that Bush has pledged, over and over, to protect: Students, and families.
The new federal standards demand that welfare recipients engage in 20 hours per week of work-related activities, in order to continue receiving benefits. Students on welfare are therefore put at a severe disadvantage because they are forced to choose between the welfare money they need and an education that could someday guarantee them a good job and financial security, ending their need for welfare.
The Bush administration fails to recognize that citizens, especially those living in poverty, will never become self-sufficient if not supported in their educational pursuits. The federal government encourages welfare recipients to attend vocational schools, or work low-paying menial jobs; completely ignoring the logic that a higher education can be the key factor in getting a job, and getting people off of welfare (and reducing welfare cases is an oft stated goal of the administration).
Welfare naysayers, such as a majority of the Republican party, paint a picture of welfare recipients as lazy citizens mooching off taxpayers and the government. What these naysayers fail to recognize is that citizens on welfare tend to be single women with a low level of education who are attempting to raise children. Although welfare policies vary from state to state, most do not provide options for childcare, and do not consider caring for children a substitute for the federal work mandate; therefore, single mothers must toil at low wage jobs, spend most of that money on childcare, and have no left over time to attend school or entertain any realistic hope of a lifestyle change.
When the president pontificates on the importance of family, he is apparently talking about wealthy families only. Poverty stricken single mothers and their children are indeed “left behind” by this most recent Bush welfare policy.
Furthermore, the federal mandate that welfare recipients must be employed does not take into account fluctuations in the job market. Welfare recipients may often be unsuccessful in their attempts to find employment, then risk having benefits cut off because of a force beyond their control. If a job market is in flux, citizens who have completed higher education may be forced to work low wage, menial jobs in order to be eligible for welfare.
Although the federal government has much control over this nation’s welfare policies, states do have some leeway in determining how to run state welfare organizations. In crafting specifications of their individual welfare plans, we urge all the states to be sympathetic to the needs of families and students.