Maureen Lane

Big Apple New Day Check List

Mayor Bloomberg is in a fine position to make and implement good policy over night. He holds the power when it comes to poor people receiving the assistance they desperately need. Tomorrow morning some of New York's poorest families could wake to a day of new promise with a few beginning steps from the mayor.

1) The mayor could put clear reader friendly and language appropriate information about access to education in the hands of every welfare case worker and person receiving public assistance in the city of New York. The mayor can make every hour of education from literacy, to English as a Second Language, high school through to college countable as appropriate work activities for people trying to move out of povery.

2) The mayor and his commissioner can direct their considerable abilities to prevent the dangerous administrative snafus that keep people from receiving their welfare benefits. For example, the mayor can set in place the mechanisms that allow the city to comply with state due process decisions for family welfare cases for families wrongly denied their benefits.

3) The mayor could waive the application fee to CUNY for every person in New York City who wants to apply. He'll need to involve a few stakeholders in this effort, City Council, CUNY Chancellor and others but he wants to show he can bring people together for a good cause. What better cause can there be than to open the doors of higher education to everyone -child, woman and man- in this big apple?

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Posted at 6:50 AM, Nov 11, 2005 in Education | Employment | New York | Progressive Agenda
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