WILL DONA SHALALA LIVE UP TO HER WORDS?

The words are enough to prompt a double-take: Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, among the most liberal members of the liberal Clinton cabinet, said last week that low-income women should not be allowed to stay at home at taxpayer expense. "I don't think we should subsidize poor mothers to stay out of the work force when working class mothers are going into the work force," said Shalala. This doesn't sound like the company line around the Children's Defense Fund, where Shalala formerly expended her energies, but welfare reform should be a critical concern for the Clinton administration and we hope the HHS secretary is as good as her words.

The federal welfare system, which Shalala oversees as cabinet secretary, serves five million American families. While a considerable drain on the U.S. treasury, the current welfare system too often damages America in a far more significant way ... it removes incentive for poor citizens to find jobs and lift themselves out of their condition. President Clinton wants to provide low-income Americans with suitable education, training and public assistance for two years, and then require them to work.

Consider this: In 1988, as a director for the Children's Defense Fund, Shalala opposed a law requiring states to direct recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children into school or other training. So, is the HHS secretary reborn to the viewpoint of her boss? Well, consider also that earlier this year Shalala asked Congress to delay a work requirement for unemployed parents on welfare.

Because of this, and her hints of commitment to welfare reform, one conservative policy analyst regarded Shalala's words last week as "absolute hypocrisy." Is it naive to hope she has merely seen the light?

Welfare reform is an issue that lends itself to demagoguery. Was it only in January that state Rep. Mary Kasten of Cape Girardeau, whose knowledge of family issues in Missouri is extensive, tried to advance a welfare reform measure in the Missouri General Assembly? Her bill, which promoted personal responsibility among welfare recipients, was labeled as "mean-spirited legislation" by one liberal editorial page. Will Shalala now get such treatment?

Broad welfare reform is needed. We hope Secretary Shalala continues to surprise us.