What exactly is a proper education to you? You don't need to graduate high school to know how to have safe sex or use that $20 for food instead of drugs.

Are you trying to argue that everyone on welfare has drug addict parents?

I think the system should be there to benefit single parents and that's about it.

I'd say this one-size fits all, college or bust style of education is ****. The current American curriculum seems almost entirely based on getting kids into college (which it still doesn't do well) while ignoring any child who will enter the workforce directly after high school. I know some school systems have programs to help kids get into apprenticeships for trades or whatnot, but invariably I also hear that those programs are underfunded, even though they should get just as much attention as any course meant to prepare students for college.

Seems like qwert and I are on the same page with this.

All you have to do is ask me to back it up with stats and I will go provide the stats for you.

I'm not going to do that extra work ahead of time. Pfft.
http://federalsafetynet.com/welfare-fraud.html
The narrative and based off of people's personal experience. Most people think that everyone is conning and abusing the system but it's just not true. SNAP and Welfare is meant to be a safety net program for when people fall on hard times. When they get fired from their job and unemployment benefits isn't cutting it or whatever other situation that leads to them not being able to survive. I think everyone that can qualify for it should have access to it. It is temporary even though it doesn't seem like it based off how long people have been on it.

Sure. But I still have the ability and freedom to change that whereas those with disabilities and a fixed income do not. Therefore they should be allowed to enjoy food stamps. If I can get out a find a well paying job, I shouldn't feel the need to get help from the government when I don't need it.

Of course. I'm not disagreeing with that at all. But what I'm trying to get across is the fact that if you are on food stamps and make a livable wage, you're abusing the system because you feel "more money is better than less". It's the same if someone with a multi million dollar home receives welfare checks. That's how I see it anyway.

In this day and age, I suppose the only livable wage you could find is going to school and getting a degree. I'm not disputing that it's near impossible to find livable wage jobs. Personally it just doesn't seem like food stamps should be abused the way they are. They're far too accessible for people that don't need them. Same goes for unemployment.

My younger brother and his girlfriend use them and they go to school and work full time jobs. They live in a house together with 2 roommates so any expenses go toward EBT. That to me just doesn't feel right, but again, it's just a personal thing.

Totally, but that's not something I see changing at all. A refocus on working class vocational training is actually something that might be doable as I see it, and especially if targeted at those "bad schools".

Granted, I'm not an expert on education, but vocational training programs in high schools and programs targeted at giving students on a path to such jobs a bridge between high school and the workplace might not only be more workable, but would make more sense regardless of how much money was allocated to what school.

Sorry to say, but teaching calculus to inner city youths with likely no future at Harvard is probably a waste of our money and their time unless they show an ability and affinity for it. Teaching them how to weld is far more likely to benefit them.