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Home » News » Opponents of welfare reform rely on anecdotes, not data
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Opponents of welfare reform rely on anecdotes, not data

Steve RobinsonBy Steve RobinsonMarch 26, 20146 Comments3 Mins Read
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welfareOn Tuesday the usual cast of welfare industry characters came out to attack the bipartisan effort to fix Maine’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash welfare program. Their shrillest complaints centered on the Parents as Scholars (PaS) program, a program Gov. Paul LePage has placed on the chopping block. While liberal Democrats point to PaS as a shining example of social safety net success, all they have as evidence is anecdotes. Compelling anecdotes, yes, but anecdotes nonetheless.

The liberals’ PaS argument highlights an interesting nascent double-standard in the welfare reform debate. When conservatives argue in favor of welfare reform on the basis on anecdotes, liberals scoff. “You can’t possibly expect us to make policy based on what your Uncle Ned saw happen at Shop N’ Save?” And, for what it’s worth, the liberals are right: we should not be making policy on the basis of anecdotes. But ironically, anecdote-driven policy is precisely what today’s progressives are supporting in their defense of the PaS program.

Maine’s newspapers, for their part, are all to happy to elevate these anecdotes. Over at the Bangor Daily News, the headline on a story about the welfare reform public hearings focused sharply on an anecdote: “Maine woman who benefited from Parents as Scholars program argues against LePage’s proposal to eliminate it“. 

Every government policy should be able to find at least one success story. But anecdotal successes are not always reflective of the whole program. Just as not every TANF recipient spends cash welfare on cigarettes or at Disney World, not every PaS participant goes on to become a lawyer.

Gov. LePage is not seeking to eliminate the program because he, as the BDN editorial board has crudely suggested, wants to be cruel. He is seeking to eliminate the program because it is ineffective. An example he gave at a press conference provides a window into his reasoning. On Monday, the governor spoke of a woman in the PaS program who used it to become an Emergency Medical Technician — even though she was told explicitly that all EMT positions in her community were filled. The PaS program allows people to get training in fields where there may be no job demand. That’s a problem, especially if our goal is to bring people from poverty to employment.

Liberal who wish to preserve the PaS program ought to do more than rely on anecdotes. If they can produce data showing that the anecdotal successes they have elevated are typical of the program as a whole, then perhaps LePage is wrong, perhaps the program is worth preserving. But until the have some data to back their policy prescriptions, we should treat their PaS anecdotes like Uncle Ned’s stories.

 

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Steve Robinson
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Steve Robinson is the Editor-in-Chief of The Maine Wire. ‪He can be reached by email at Robinson@TheMaineWire.com.

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6 Comments

  1. Les Gibson on March 27, 2014 5:51 AM

    While I applaud the success of the woman who changed her circumstance via this program, it does not change the fact that the program is ineffective, and at the least should be overhauled. This woman’s success also dispelles the liberal myth that folks are all just victims, never responsible for their circumstance nor can they change their circumstance.
    This is just another shining example of the dishonesty of the left and their media allies like the Pingree Peoples Herald and the Bangor Democrat News.

  2. Tim LeSiege on March 28, 2014 4:21 PM

    Congrats to the one woman who changed her circumstance. Does anyone in their right mind expect all the program failures to come forward and testify?? I can only imagine that DHHS has attendance records of who attended all those courses and could cross reference those records against those folks STILL on the TANF and welfare rolls to get an ACTUAL success ratio. This ratio can create a cost benefit number. I would be really curious to see that number….

  3. Michael Dami on March 28, 2014 6:21 PM

    i know a few people that did the cna program from the state, they graduated but there not working as a cna. dont get it. all that money for nothing

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