State of welfare isn’t pretty

Re “In California, welfare ain’t broke,” Opinion, April 4

Dennis Boyle is right. I work for Riverside County, and in the last year we have had to spend so much time focusing on “process, rules and narrow definitions of ‘program participation’ rather than on helping parents find jobs.” I used to proudly say I worked as an employment services counselor. Now I feel I no longer work for the clients but for the state, meeting its deadlines, completing its reports and making sure I keep my job.

Boyle is right that we do need to look at the big picture and the outcome of what we are proposing. These kids are our next set of adults in California. With this kind of a start, what kind of adults will they become?

CHRISTI SAMUELSON

Perris, Calif.

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Welfare was created in reaction to the Depression, when many American families lost their savings and their jobs. Intended only to be a temporary safety net, welfare has evolved into a lifestyle to be handed down from generation to generation. Before I buy into Boyle’s condemnation of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cutting of CalWORKs, I need to know if most of these welfare recipients had lost jobs that supported them and their children, or did they first have children and expected welfare to raise them?

SNOWY C. KING

Fullerton