Somewhere in the last half of the interview they discussed a GW Bush era law that was designed to strengthen marriage, I can't recall the title of it. Melissa mentioned that it didn't necessarily lead to more marriages and so funding was eventually ended. But she went on to say that for those who participated, it made a real difference i…
Somewhere in the last half of the interview they discussed a GW Bush era law that was designed to strengthen marriage, I can't recall the title of it. Melissa mentioned that it didn't necessarily lead to more marriages and so funding was eventually ended. But she went on to say that for those who participated, it made a real difference in the preparation for and commitment to married life. This was compared to a whole range of other social programs which don't seem to have data to suggest they achieve their goals, if they have quantifiable goals, (e.g., many education programs) but are regularly renewed. My own side note on that is those programs are often given more funding not defunded, despite lack of evidence for success, as the explanation is always "we didn't try it big enough, i.e., spend enough money. But those are almost always programs that are supporting some progressive or redistributionist agenda, lobbied for hard by unions and other groups. The push to end things like standardized testing for K-12 is really a way to avoid accountability for such failed or mistargeted programs and avoid scrutiny of how funds are being spent.
Somewhere in the last half of the interview they discussed a GW Bush era law that was designed to strengthen marriage, I can't recall the title of it. Melissa mentioned that it didn't necessarily lead to more marriages and so funding was eventually ended. But she went on to say that for those who participated, it made a real difference in the preparation for and commitment to married life. This was compared to a whole range of other social programs which don't seem to have data to suggest they achieve their goals, if they have quantifiable goals, (e.g., many education programs) but are regularly renewed. My own side note on that is those programs are often given more funding not defunded, despite lack of evidence for success, as the explanation is always "we didn't try it big enough, i.e., spend enough money. But those are almost always programs that are supporting some progressive or redistributionist agenda, lobbied for hard by unions and other groups. The push to end things like standardized testing for K-12 is really a way to avoid accountability for such failed or mistargeted programs and avoid scrutiny of how funds are being spent.