Doug Brent citing Jane V. Nelson said: >>And we heard from Graff at the C's about the interesting scheme of requiring >>literacy tests to receive welfare, and I think he said this scheme is being >>proposed in Canada, although I might not be remembering correctly. Here's something of the story, with samples of the rhetoric (!). In Ontario, Mike Harris of the Conservatives said in 1995, "The vast majority [of welfare recipients] ... want to work and want to better their lives. They are good people trapped in a bad system -- I am not prepared to give up on a single one of them." This was on the way to announcing welfare-to-work scheme called Ontario Works, which sought out job placements, etc. The plan also included "mandatory literacy testing and training to help people on welfare who canıt read and write break through the literacy barrier and get ready to work. The Government recognizes that literacy is a basic yet important skill in todayıs marketplace." Side-by-side with literacy testing there was "Mandatory drug [testing and?] treatment to help people overcome an addiction that is a barrier to getting a job." The testing scheme wasn't actually in place until 2001 or 2002, supposedly to be administered to any welfare applicant lacking grade 12. Just from anecdotal knowledge, I suspect that though a few people may have been cut off welfare for refusing the test, in many more cases it was offered to people merely as an option, or social workers (especially in high unemployment areas) simply ignored it. I don't know of any actual studies done on the program. Come to think of it, I also don't know what's come of it with the change to the Liberal government. Richard Dr. Richard Darville School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies Carleton University 1125 Colonel By Dr. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1S 5B6 613-520-2600 ext. 2808; fax 613-520-6641 [log in to unmask] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL command to [log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties, write to Russ Hunt at [log in to unmask] For the list archives and information about the organization, its newsletter, and the annual conference, go to http://www.stu.ca/inkshed/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-