Showing posts with label Do what works. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Do what works. Show all posts

Monday, April 21, 2014

Asking the questions the poverty industry doesn't

Jason L. Riley writes,
Robert L. Woodson Sr. is a no-nonsense black conservative who heads the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise.
About a year ago Paul Ryan asked Woodson to take him on a listening tour. He took Ryan
on 12 trips—all to high-crime, drug-infested neighborhoods. And he was not just touched but blown away by what he saw."

How does Woodson operate?
"We go around the country like a Geiger counter, looking at high-crime neighborhoods and asking the questions the poverty industry doesn't.

"If we see that 70% of households are raising children out of wedlock, that means 30% are not. We want to know what the 30% are doing right. How are they raising kids who aren't dropping out of school or on drugs or in jail? We seek SEK.AU +0.54% them out—we call them the antibodies of the community—and put a microphone on them, and say, 'tell us how you did this.' "
Read more here.
Thanks to Scott Ott.