NYC to Pay the Poor for Good Parenting

Mayor Bloomberg is flying in the face of liberals and conservatives alike with a new antipoverty program, and paying some of it out of his own pocket. He’s raised more than $40 million that he plans to give it to poor parents for certain tasks, like going to the dentist or getting a library card. He’s taking his program to troubled East New York, where half the population lives below the poverty line.

Liberals say Bloomberg’s plan is patronizing while conservatives see it as wasteful, Newsweek reports. Yet it's modeled on a Mexican program that has spread its success to more than 20 countries around the world. So far Bloomberg is trying the plan on 5,000 families, half that will receive the money and half that will test it as control group.  (More poverty stories.)