Healthy Culture

-
Picking up from the last post . . . Neither private nor public sector will function well without a healthy culture of responsibility, thoughtfulness, economy, and so on. Obama appointed something like a chief efficiency officer to try to pursue his goal of funding programs that work and slashing those that don't. Two programs that work come to mind and also show that help for the needy doesn't necessarily mean a cash handout.

One has to do with parenting classes. I've often thought that a short course on parental support for students should be required in order to enroll a child in public schools. This is the kind of thing that is likely to draw fire from both liberals and conservatives, as liberals consider it to be paternalistic and conservatives consider it to be an infringement. But Julie was telling me about a study of low-performing kids from low-income families. The study followed a group of kids who had low cortisol levels in the brain at times when, with normal stimulation, the cortisol should be elevated. The researchers divided the kids into two groups, a control group and a group whose parents were given counseling on parenting. By the end of the study, the group whose parents had parenting lessons showed normal cortisol levels; the control study did not change.

Another program was one run by a neighbor of ours who works in a prison. He does drug counseling for inmates---something like three times a week until the inmate is released. But he received a grant to increase counseling to five times a week during jail time, and then several times a week for 6 months following release. The group with extended counseling after release had a much lower recidivism rate than those without.

I think this last study is particularly interesting because it shows how good programs (not all programs, but good ones) are not only charitable but economical. It's surely cheaper to provide 6 months of additional counseling than to have the offenders back in jail for an additional sentence.
-