Welfare: Remember the Kids
Welfare reform programs that supplement the earnings of single parents as they enter the work force can lead to better outcomes for elementary school children, according to a groundbreaking study released today.
The report, which analyzes welfare-to-work programs based on their impact on children, says aid including cash subsidies and subsidized child care improved the youngsters’ school performance and behavior. Sons and daughters of long-term welfare recipients--children particularly at risk--were among those who made significant advancement as students.
Among the most encouraging findings: For children in families that received the supplemental income, there was an increase from the 25th to the 30th percentile on a standardized test and an 8% reduction in problem behaviors such as hitting and bullying. The children’s age range was roughly 5 to 12.
These findings, by the nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization Manpower Demonstration Research Corp., are based on five large-scale studies of 11 programs that randomly assigned participants either to a traditional welfare group or the new welfare-to-work. Although the efforts occurred before the 1996 federal welfare reform law, they included many of its elements, such as job searches and basic education. The report, a synthesis of these studies, provides reliable information about which program features of welfare reform are likely to promote the well-being of children and should guide the next generation of reform legislation.
The results are particularly significant for California, which is second only to Minnesota in the total of public assistance dollars a recipient is allowed to keep after going to work. In most states, welfare recipients lose a dollar of public assistance for each dollar earned. In California, the first $225 earned each month is disregarded as welfare recipients make the transition from public assistance to work, and half of the remaining earnings are discounted until earnings rise well above the federal poverty threshold. As a result, recipients who go to work are clearly better off than those on welfare, and their preteen children too are likely to do better.
Older children did not fare as well, according to the report, although only two of the 11 programs that were studied included adolescents. In those programs, adolescent children of single mothers who went to work tended to perform slightly worse in school, were more likely to be suspended and were somewhat more likely to drink and smoke. However, the reasons were not clear. Was it because they lacked supervision after school or because they had developed problems long before their mothers went to work?
Welfare reform focuses on parents, and success is generally measured by how many recipients get jobs and how much the government saves. Welfare-to-work programs should also be measured by how children do. The original intent of public assistance was to provide for children who could not depend on their parents, not to teach adults how to get jobs. This purpose must not be ignored.
