The Challenge of Welfare Reform.

Whether you think welfare reform is the most welcome legislative feat of modern times or you share my belief that we have turned our backs on children, the education community soon will feel the ramifications of this new federal legislation.

In a world where thousands of people have used the welfare system as a way of life, the impending changes in work requirements will prove a wrenching experience for recipients and their children. Of course, a huge percentage of those who receive welfare benefits do not make it a way of life but use it as a temporary bridge from one life situation to another.

No matter what the cause, educators had better be ready for some significant, negative spin-off from this historic action. Consider, for instance, those schools where children on welfare hesitate to attend except at the beginning of the month when welfare checks allow families to provide school clothes and supplies for the children. We may well be coming to a time when schools will have to provide even more of the basic needs of children.

The age of welfare reform will be no time for public schools to step back from providing breakfast and lunch programs, health services and counseling, school supplies, and plenty of books, keyboards, and computers for students to take home. At the same time, school leaders should be cautious about increasing student fees.

In a world where we are told some 1,500 people die of hunger each hour, it must be frightening for little children to get the word that the support system they rely on no longer will be there. Of course, most people dying of malnutrition live in foreign countries, but those lands have citizens who are doing quite well, too. What's to prevent children in the United States from believing the same fate could befall them?

As we think about preparing our schools for the eventualities connected to welfare reform, we must recall how social movements in our history often have brought violence to the schoolhouse. Since young people today experience violence with great frequency in their lives and through the mass media, we should not be shocked if anger, fear, and hurt mix in their minds and flow to us in new ways that dismay us and contribute to the unsettled condition in which we live.

Clearly, we must ensure our youngsters see that positive social forces, community organizations, and programs will continue to try to make our nation a decent place. We need to begin that communication task right away.

Even if our federal government intends to be less involved in the lives of its less-fortunate citizens, one would hope that charitable groups and service organizations would be ready to fill the void. Unfortunately, those prospects seem remote. I recently learned that the state with the lowest personal taxes also has the lowest per capita contributions to charity. At a time when so much is needed and the gap is ever widening, membership in some service organizations is on the decline.

This bleak picture is not one we should give to our children. Before the crunch of welfare reform lands on the school grounds, school leaders must step forward through words and actions to demonstrate our goodwill. It is a perfect time for educators to organize food drives for local pantries, to join service clubs, and to volunteer at churches and temples to support programs serving young people in need.

This may well be a time to reach out, for some among us may feel that society is walking away from them.