Sunday, June 04, 2006
Welfare Rights Group Rallies For Access To Higher Education
May 30, 2006
Community leaders and former welfare recipients are calling for increased access to higher education for the city's poor.
A group called the Welfare Rights Initiative, or WRI, says higher education is the key to permanently moving people out of poverty. The group held a rally Tuesdy on the steps of City Hall.
"I greatly support that higher education does work for women just like me that want to go to school,” said one woman who attended the rally. “I'm a taxpayer today, and I am paying back everything that was given to me because I have a degree."
“There's recently been more research that has backed up what we knew 10 years ago; that 90 percent of people who get a college degree move permanently off of welfare,” added WRI founder Melinda Lackey. “It makes great sense to support, to encourage, to promote access to education."
WRI says it helped 169 people graduate from college over the past 10 years. It says during the same period, CUNY lost about 20,000 welfare students because city policies make pursuing a degree too difficult.
Community leaders and former welfare recipients are calling for increased access to higher education for the city's poor.
A group called the Welfare Rights Initiative, or WRI, says higher education is the key to permanently moving people out of poverty. The group held a rally Tuesdy on the steps of City Hall.
"I greatly support that higher education does work for women just like me that want to go to school,” said one woman who attended the rally. “I'm a taxpayer today, and I am paying back everything that was given to me because I have a degree."
“There's recently been more research that has backed up what we knew 10 years ago; that 90 percent of people who get a college degree move permanently off of welfare,” added WRI founder Melinda Lackey. “It makes great sense to support, to encourage, to promote access to education."
WRI says it helped 169 people graduate from college over the past 10 years. It says during the same period, CUNY lost about 20,000 welfare students because city policies make pursuing a degree too difficult.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Educating those in poverty would be true legacy
By Maureen Lane
Mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks big, especially when it comes to constructing things that will last beyond him. Right now he has a singular opportunity to build a different kind of legacy-that of a city committed to providing the poor the education necessary to work their way out of poverty.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks big, especially when it comes to constructing things that will last beyond him. Right now he has a singular opportunity to build a different kind of legacy-that of a city committed to providing the poor the education necessary to work their way out of poverty.
Monday, May 16, 2005
Poor Students, Fast Learners by Anya Kamenetz
Roxy (Roxanna Henry) and Ginger (Mayzabeth Lopez) have more in common than nicknames that make them sound like cast members in Chicago. Both are young women of color in their twenties, with composed demeanors and glasses. Both have been studying at Hunter College. Both are or have been, on welfare. And Both work for the Welfare Rights Initiative, a nearly unique player in the acrimonious debate over welfare reform.