Why Not A Community Service Requirement For The Use Of Welfare Schools?

   Recently, the Michigan Senate passed a bill requiring able-bodied Medicaid recipients to work, be in school or be getting job-training in order to qualify for the welfare. This is the latest in a decades-long effort by Michigan and many other states to discourage reliance on the crutch of public assistance, which becomes practically a lifestyle choice for some when allowed to be too painless an option.

   I have an idea for the good senators (and those of the other states) for an extension of this reasoning into a previously untouched area, and one which I think does more harm to society than any other aspect of the “safety net.” I think beneficiaries of welfare (“public”) schools should be required to “give back” with community service, such as picking up trash on roads within the school district; or perhaps light road-repair labor, or janitorial and gardening work at public facilities.

   I KNOW THIS WILL SEEM TO BE RATHER A ‘MODEST’ PROPOSAL.  But the fact that welfare schooling — publicly-supported provision of a desirable, if not necessary, service like any other safety-net element — has not previously come under this sort of analysis doesn’t mean it shouldn’t. And I think that thoughtful consideration will make clear that welfare schools are a safety-net element that society most seriously wants to discourage.

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