By Steve Bell
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-993776.mp3
KANSAS CITY, KS. – The featured speaker at a series of Kansas SRS forums on ending childhood poverty is Robert Rector of Washington conservative think-tank the Heritage foundation.
Rector told a forum in Kansas City Monday that the best solution is to encourage people to marry, both by teaching about the advantages of marriage and by eliminating welfare rules that discourage marriage.
Rector says about 70 percent of the poor families with children in the state are single parent families and the poverty rate for single parent families is up to seven times higher than among married couples.
Auditors for the Kansas Legislature reported last month that changing welfare eligibility rules would have only a very limited effect on clients' marital decisions.
Conservatives in the Legislature said the audit was subjective and not representative of the real world.