
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, May 22, 1995                   TAG: 9505230016
SECTION: EDITORIALS                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RECIPIENTS

AS THE Allen administration scrambles to begin implementing Virginia's sweeping new welfare-to-work program by July 1, hope - which does, indeed, spring eternal - runs high that a way will be found to set the able-bodied but dependent on their own feet.

Among those nationwide who are most eager for this to happen, according to a recent Wall Street Journal story, are many welfare recipients. A Journal-NBC News poll shows that among those on welfare as well as among the general public, a large majority think benefits should be tied to work: 84 percent of all those surveyed, and 75 percent of welfare recipients themselves.

In fact, more than half of current and former recipients - 57 percent - think the system does more harm than good by encouraging families to break up and discouraging the work ethic. That leaves little room for doubt that the system must change.

Neither the general public nor those on welfare, however, want to see children in welfare families suffer as a result of reform. And here is where close monitoring and communication will be critical if reform is to mean a hand up to self-sufficiency, instead of the back of the hand from a public comfortably ignorant of any unintended repercussions.

The Journal held a round-table discussion with eight welfare mothers, who talked about the erosion of their self-esteem and the cultivation of dependency that have been the fruits of the system entrapping them. Yet the system has provided food and shelter for them and their children. And the comment of one mother shows how much more help she needs before she can get along without it:

"'Give people more jobs, free education, free day care right away, transportation to and from, help people with training programs, have free classes on how to get a job, how to keep a job and do a good job.'''

Here, despite the broad consensus for reform, is where a yawning chasm of misunderstanding and disagreement is likely to appear. For, as taxpayers well know, nothing is "free." They will pay for any "free" services. Yet, as these mothers well know, welfare recipients cannot work without job skills, a means to get to work, and care for their small children.

Change won't be easy, even if everyone wants it. In the ensuing struggle, it will be imperative to remember that no one wants to hurt the kids.

by CNB