Welfare Warriors 2711 W.
414-342-6662; FAX 414-342-6667; wmvoice@execpc.com
Press Release – For
Immediate Release
March 25, 2004
Marriage Initiative Empowers Professionals, not the Poor
Discussion about the $1.5 billion proposed for
marriage promotion in the TANF bill misses the main points:
1) The $1.5 billion dollars that Bush wants to spend on marriage
training would be taken from the tiny poverty budget (about $16 billion a year)
which must fund all families in poverty across the country. Mothers and
children in poverty need access to cash
and affordable housing, not a contest with professionals for that miniscule pot
of money.
2) Single moms need access to real education--post-secondary education
to support a family. Bush's TANF bill would not allow education essential to
all breadwinners. He would only allow bogus "marriage education" to
empower some more professional parasites. Is parasite too strong a word? How
else can we describe the vast army of professionals now amassing secure incomes
under welfare "reform" which took away cash from the poorest American families and turned it over to
millions of TANF administrators,
non-profits,
jobs programs, therapy scams etc.
3) The Bush mandated marriage classes would
not be classes in relationships at high schools and college levels where they
need to be part of the curriculum. No, they would be part of a mandated
"training" for single moms desperate enough to seek child support
from the TANF program. And mandated education for adults simply does not work.
The forced "students" are far from enthusiastic and the
"teachers" know they need not come up with creative, effective
curriculum since they will never have to "sell" students to attend
their classes. Like those parenting, nurturing, anger management classes forced
on poor single moms by professionals in the Child Welfare system, marriage
classes are simply a way to empower professionals and use them to keep the poor
in line.
4)
Providing yearly marriage training grants to churches, non-profits and
community newspapers (to advertise “marriage”), will guarantee their silence in
the face of injustices in the TANF policies and implementation. In this way
families in poverty will lose any remaining allies in the struggle to stop the
war on the poor.
It
is illogical--and immoral--to fund marriage classes and marriage advertising
from the tiny part of the federal budget allocated to victims of poverty. Even
allies who believe that an anti-poverty plan should include jobs, better wages,
education, health care, affordable child care and housing fail to acknowledge cash, that essential resource ($1.5
billion) which would be funneled to professionals instead of to moms and
children. Most moms who resort to welfare do so to replace the missing parent's
CASH support. Whether employed, at home, or at school, single moms need
additional cash to supplement the
miserly wages we earn, not some mandatory marriage monotony.
-end-
Welfare Warriors have been Fighting for the Lives of Mothers and children since 1986