Monday, August 07, 2006

Brilliant

Just brilliant.
Having grown up on welfare, Rochelle Riordan had vowed never to ask for a government handout. That was before her hard-drinking husband kicked her and their young daughter out of their house near Lewiston, Maine, leaving her with a $300 bank account, a bad job market and a 15-year-old car held together in spots with duct tape.

Maine's welfare agency, she heard, was offering help for poor parents to go to college full time. With the state paying for day care and $513 a month in living expenses, Riordan, 37, has been on the dean's list every semester at the University of Southern Maine, expecting to graduate and start a social work career next spring. But this summer, her plans -- and Maine's Parents as Scholars program -- suddenly are on shaky ground; under new federal rules, studying for a bachelor's degree no longer counts by itself as an acceptable way for people on welfare to spend their time.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Republicans have been in power in DC for ten years or so, Bush has been president for about five.
Does anyone know when the wonderful part begins? - Just asking.

Reflections said...

Yes it sure doesn't pay to have people get educated and gain valuable job skills and abilities and be able to pay into the system.