Spivak & Bice Condoning Child Abuse? 

Every now and then I perform the masochistic ritual of reading the Spivak & Bice Weblog. Today I was treated with this gem:

The changes did reduce welfare rolls by putting more single parents in jobs, but the programs came up short in helping the neediest of the needy. It also found that a large number of welfare applicants, particularly in Milwaukee, ended up being investigated for abusing or neglecting their children.

The New York Times reports today:

Experts said they were startled by the high proportion of welfare applicants in Milwaukee who had come to the attention of child welfare officials: in a five-year period, 40 percent of the parents were investigated for the possibility of abuse or neglect, and a child had been removed from the homes of 16 percent.

Maybe it's a good thing for Thompson that he didn't run for governor this time.

The NY Times article in question is here. Of course, had the two of them continued quoting the next paragraph, you'd see this:

Since most of these parents had already been investigated, the study did not indicate that the welfare program itself, with its required work or training efforts, was causing child abuse. But at the least, Dr. Courtney said, the findings show that many parents seeking welfare are having "a profound difficulty balancing the demands of work and parenting."

So if these parents were already being investigated, exactly how is an attack on W-2 justified? In fact, I have to wonder why the two of them seem to think that finding child abusers is a bad thing. Would they rather that child abuse not be investigated at all, and children continue to live in these homes where they are being abused?