Clare Huntington recently responded to Robert Greenstein’s Letter to the Editor addressing Nicholas Kristof’s column about U.S. anti-poverty policy. Huntington conceded that Greenstein is correct that safety-net programs do in fact soften some aspects of poverty. However, Huntington believes efforts to eradicate poverty should focus on working directly with the adults in a child’s life. Unfortunately, says Huntington, doing so would be difficult.

The problem is that investing in programs that help parents is hard to do politically. Conservatives do not want the government telling parents how to raise their children and assume that government programs encourage unhealthy dependency. Liberals worry that emphasizing parenting is just another opportunity to denigrate poor families of color.

Read Greenstein’s Letter to the Editor and Huntington’s response at the New York Times.