Welfare States

THE Kenosha County Job Center, located in the southeast corner of Wisconsin, is the shiny face of state-level welfare reform, and its presence has launched a thousand trips. More than a dozen state delegations, scores of reporting teams from networks and national magazines, and welfare managers from all over have come and marveled at 54,000 square feet of calibrated administration in color-coordinated offices.

Wisconsin’s attempt to provide social services with a human face has something for everyone: Conservatives have been charmed by the 20-hour-per-week work requirement for many AFDC recipients and the two-year time limit on many welfare benefits, and liberals have been mollified by a package of social-worker-intensive programs that will continue to keep the welfare world safe for bureaucracy.

About the Author

Marvin Olasky

Marvin Olasky is co-author with Leah Savas of The Story of Abortion in America (Crossway, 2023).

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THE Kenosha County Job Center, located in the southeast corner of Wisconsin, is the shiny face of state-level welfare reform, and its presence has launched a thousand trips. More than a dozen state delegations, scores of reporting teams from networks and national magazines, and welfare managers from all over have come and marveled at 54,000 square feet of calibrated administration in color-coordinated offices.

Wisconsin’s attempt to provide social services with a human face has something for everyone: Conservatives have been charmed by the 20-hour-per-week work requirement for many AFDC recipients and the two-year time limit on many welfare benefits, and liberals have been mollified by a package of social-worker-intensive programs that will continue to keep the welfare world safe for bureaucracy.