Hit Parade
March 22, 2002

City Journal's estimable Heather Mac Donald is rightly troubled by New York's new Bloomberg-appointed welfare commissioner, Verna Eggleston, who talked the language of the anti-poverty (and anti-reform) "advocate" community in a recent New School address. For example, Mac Donald notes:

Eggleston ... repudiated the “cookie-cutter” approach of workfare. Translation: Let’s bring back “education and job training,” those favored dodges from work responsibilities.

But Mac Donald isn't willing to pull the trigger and flatly denounce Eggleston just yet, noting that the new commissioner was "far more supportive of reform" when she testified before the City Council than she was at the New School. ... Mac Donald might not be so charitable after she reads this story. ...P.S.: What's so bad about "cookie cutter" approaches, anyway? Social Security is a cookie-cutter program, and it works fine. You work X years at Y wage, you get a government check for Z dollars. The formula is inflexible and it's the same everywhere in the country. One definition of "cookie cutter approach" is "approach that treats all citizens equally." ... (3/22)

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