A who’s who of welfare reform heavyweights met at NYU this morning to debate whether the 1996 law is working, 15 years on. Predictably, they couldn’t even agree on what “working” meant:

Wednesday’s panel on the 15th anniversary of welfare reform, held at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service, was certainly full of heavy hitters on the subject of how the 1996 law has affected American society. The lineup:

New York City HRA Commissioner Robert Doar, chief proponent of the city’s “Work First” welfare policies.

CUNY sociology professor and Glenn Beck target Frances Fox Piven, who has written about poverty programs for more than 30 years… [read more]