Tea Party Gov. takes welfare money intended for families - and uses it to fund Christian summer camp
Source: RawStory
BRAD REED
04 JAN 2018 AT 14:05 ET
Paul LePage, the Republican governor of Maine, has sparked a new controversy in his home state by taking welfare money thats supposed to go directly to poor families and diverting it to different programs intended to help at-risk youth, including a Christian summer camp.
The Bangor Daily News reports that LePages administration this year is spending $1.7 million on after-school programs that once would have gone to low-income families with children in the form of cash assistance. This development is particularly troubling, say critics, because its occurring at a time when the percentage of Maine children being born into poverty is on the rise.
After-school programs dont pay the rent, and they dont keep kids in underwear, they dont keep the parents in underwear, Luke Shaefer, an associate professor of social work at the University of Michigan, tells the publication. LePages administration is diverting money given to the state as part of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) grant that it receives from the federal government to offer financial help to poor families.
In lieu of giving money directly to families, LePages administration has funded after-school programs intended to teach kids how to avoid out-of-wedlock pregnancies, as well as an after-school program for local high school students run by Fair Haven Camps, which during the summer serves as a Christian summer camp.
Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2018/01/tea-party-gov-takes-welfare-money-intended-for-families-and-uses-it-to-fund-christian-summer-camps/
Matthew28
(1,798 posts)Freethinker65
(10,016 posts)appalachiablue
(41,131 posts)Matthew28
(1,798 posts)As Turkey...
Forceful Religious bs in your life and destruction of education, science and to hell with the poor.
appalachiablue
(41,131 posts)dhill926
(16,337 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,526 posts)They should organize quickly to move his giant ass out of office
He gives it all to Christian programs? Do they insist upon a loyalty oath before allowing people to use their shabby, paltry facilities?
Who's REALLY getting the taxpayers' money behind the taxpayers' backs?
Nitram
(22,794 posts)Javaman
(62,521 posts)when is this morons term up?