Bergeson Cites Welfare Change Challenges

If changes in the welfare system are ever to be made, something much larger--and perhaps even more difficult to reform--must change first, said Marian Bergeson, the state’s education secretary.

“Attitudes,” the former Orange County supervisor said Friday. “How do we change the views of those who look at welfare as a long-term solution? They are the tough ones to reach. And that will be our biggest challenge of all.”

Bergeson was joined at Children’s Hospital of Orange County by more than 100 educators, social workers, business leaders and child-care specialists for a half-day seminar on the effects welfare reform will have on children.

She praised the development of several state-sponsored programs that will guide families on welfare toward self-sufficiency, and identified child care and job training as two of her top priorities in the welfare reform agenda. She also pledged continuing support on the issue from Gov. Pete Wilson. But Bergeson admitted the task of turning welfare into a “transitional crutch” for families in need could potentially hurt the children who are innocently wrapped in the system. Careful attention must be paid to them, she said, in the form of exemplary child care, access to preschool programs and other services.

One new program that Wilson supported in this year’s budget would fund special training, classes and off-campus work experience for welfare recipients attending community colleges, Bergeson said.