Howard Yin

March 1, 2016
AP GOPO
Pattersons Outlines
Chapter 16 Welfare and Education Policy

Poverty is a large and persistent problem in America, affecting about one in eight
Americans, including many of the countrys most vulnerablechildren, female-

headed families, and minority-group members

Welfare policy has been a partisan issue, with Democrats taking the lead on
government programs to alleviate economic insecurity and Republicans acting to
slow down or restrict

these initiatives
Social welfare programs

are designed to

reward and foster self-reliance or, when this is

not possible, to provide benefits only to those
individuals who are truly

in need
Americans favor social
insurance programs (such as social security) over public

assistance programs (such as food stamps)

A prevailing principle in
the US is equality of opportunity,
which is terms of policy is
most evident in the area of public
education

Poverty in America: The Nature

of the Problem

Social welfare policy

includes any effort by government to improve social
conditions, specifically refers to government programs that help individuals meet

basic needs, ex. food, clothing, and shelter

The Poor: Who and How Many?
a Poverty line: the annual cost of a thrifty food budget for an urban family of
four, multiplied by three to include the cost of housing, clothes, and other
necessities
i In 2010, poverty line set at annual income of $22,000 for family of
four
ii 1/7 Americans, roughly 40 million people, live below poverty line

Children one of largest groups of poor Americans, 1/5 (10 million) live in

poverty
i Most live in single-parent families
The feminization of poverty: Single-parent female-headed families five

d
e

II

times as likely to live in poverty

Minority-group members more likely to be in poverty
i African Americans and Hispanics twice as likely to live in poverty
Geographically concentrated
i More prevalent in rural areas, but also very high in inner-city areas
ii Suburbs save haven from poverty; the other America
iii Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico highest poverty rate; above

18%
iv Utah, New Hampshire lowest poverty rate; 7.6%, 7% respectively
Living in Poverty: By Choice or Chance?
a Most poor Americans in situation because of circumstance rather than
choice; most only poor for a while and for reasons largely beyond
b

individual control rather than because they dont want to work

Still many live in poverty and off social welfare by choice

The Politics and Policies of Social Welfare

Negative government: gov governs best by staying out of peoples lives so that
they can determine their own pursuits and become self-reliant; what gov used to

be like in social welfare policies

Changed by the Great Depression, FDR, the New Deal
Positive government: the idea that government intervention is necessary in order
to enhance personal liberty and security when individuals are buffeted by

III

economic and social forces beyond control

Democrats usually for; Republicans usually against, gradually accepted, but want

small
Transfer payments: government benefits given directly to individual recipients,

such as retirees monthly social security checks

Entitlement programs: any individual who meets the eligibility criteria is entitled to
the benefit; most programs that support individuals are entitlement programs
o Social insurance programs
o Public assistance programs
Social Insurance Programs: broader public support, more heavily funded, provide
benefits to individuals of all income levels; eligibility restricted to individuals who
paid special payroll taxes during their work years
a Social Security
i Main social insurance program; one of few run entirely by fed gov
ii Payroll taxes; monthly checks for retirees average $1,000 a month
iii Established by Social Security Act of 1935
iv Funded through payroll taxes on employee and employers
1 Good: insurance benefit earned through their payroll taxes,
not a handout from government resulted in broad public
support

Bad: money received during retirement funded by payroll

taxes on current workers salaries; sustainability problem
because people live longer now; what happened in 2010

because of recession
v Majority favor current or higher levels of social security benefits for
b

elderly
Unemployment Insurance
i Established by Social Security Act of 1935
ii Unemployment benefits for worker who lose their jobs involuntarily
iii A joint federal-state program
1 Fed collects payroll taxes that fund benefits
2 State decide whether both employees or employers or just
employers pay taxes (most choose latter), tax rate,
conditions of eligibility, benefit level (min set by federal
government, average at about $300 a week)
iv Not
supported
widely;
reflects
assumption
that less of
job or not
finding one
right away is
often
personal
failing;
untrue, most
c

involuntarily
Medicare
i Both Truman

and JFK tried to establish government-paid health care, but

American Medical Association (AMA) blocked it from passing,
called it socialized medicine
ii Under LBJ, established Medicare because lots of Democrats in
Congress
iii Enacted 1965, provides medical assistance to retires and funded
primarily through payroll taxes; doesnt cover all medical bills, but
covers most
iv Based on insurance principle (like social security), so wide public
support

IV

Public Assistance Programs: less public support, receive less funding, restricted
to people of low income; funded through general tax revenues
a Eligibility established by a means test
i Means test: applicants must prove that they are poor enough to
b
c

qualify for benefit

Often referred to as welfare and recipients as welfare cases
Far less supported by Americans; sees them as handouts; gov spending
much more on social security and Medicare than on all public assistance

programs combined
Supplement Security Income (SSI)
i Established under Social Security Act of 1935
ii Originally only for blind and elderly, but now for all disabled
iii Not widely criticized because disabled have physical limitations to
provide for themselves
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
i Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) established in
1930, but abolished later by 1996 Welfare Reform Act because too
many irresponsible Americans living off of it (vicious cycle of
poverty)
ii 1996 Welfare Reform Act replaced AFDC with TANF
iii Goal is to reduce long-term welfare dependency by limiting the
length of time recipients can receive assistance and by giving the
states an incentive to place welfare recipients into jobs; each state
receives annual federal block grant; operates within strict federal
guidelines (grants some exceptions, but are limited)
iv TANF dramatically reduced size of welfare rolls, also helped by
expanding economy in late 1990s, but still declined even as

economy weakened
Head Start
i Part of LBJs Great Society; education programs aimed at helping
poor children at an early age
ii Provides free preschool education to low-income children on order
to help them succeed when they begin kindergarten
iii Funded never been sufficient; also had not met performance goals

expected
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
i Full time job doesnt guarantee that a family will rise above the
poverty line; 10% of working poor dont earn enough
ii Enacted under Gerald Ford in 1975 and expanded during Reagan
and Clinton; support roughly 10 million low-income worker poor
American families; eligibility limited to families that include a wage
earner; payment occurs when wage earner files a personal income
tax return

iii Federal governments largest means-tested cash assistance

program; lifts about 1/3 of low-income Americans above the
poverty line
iv Has more support than most assistance programs because it is
h

tied to employment
In-Kind Benefits: Food Stamps and Housing Vouchers
i In-kind benefit: not cash, but food stamps that can be spent on
only grocery items
1 Food Stamps program formed in 1961, fully funded by
federal government
a Eligibility only to people with low income
b Criticized for being too costly and too many
2

undeserving people receive it

Subsidized housing also eligible for low-income persons;
most of federal spending in this area is on rent vouchers; 5
million households annually
a Criticized for being too costly

Medicaid
i Created in 1965 in Great Society under LBJ, established with
Medicare; provides healthcare for the poor
ii Funded 60% by federal government, 40% by state, more than 30
million Americans
iii Expanding eligibility criteria in 2010, and increasing subsidies in
2014
iv Criticized for absorbing large portion of budget and supposedly

helping too many people who could take care of themselves

Culture and Social Welfare
a Americas individualistic culture results in inefficient and inequitable
b

welfare system
Inefficiency
i US has most inefficient welfare system in the Western world; many
overlapping programs; confusing criteria; no sliding scale
ii Unwritten principle that individual must somehow earn or be in
absolute need of assistance makes the US welfare system heavily
bureaucratic
iii Many programs require eligibility to be checked periodically by a
caseworker, which makes programs doubly expensive
iv Europe is less costly and inefficient because they have one less

layer of government and eligibility is often universal

Inequity
i US spends more on assistance programs for the nonpoor than it
does for the poor

Ex. Medicare and Social Security, help both rich and poor,
cost more than all public assistance programs, which helps

only the needy

Most retirees receive more in social security benefits than
they contributed in payroll taxes while working; excess
payment has been increasing as result of lengthening life
spans, and since most who live long are the wealthy, they
receive the most benefits

Education as Equality of Opportunity

Equality of opportunity: the idea that people should have a reasonable chance to
succeed if they make the effort; a fair chance to get ahead, but is a form of
equality shaped by liberty because the outcome depends on what individuals do
with the opportunity
o An ideal because people dont start life on equal footing
o It is the philosophical basis for a number of government programs; esp.

public education
Until 1960s federal governments role in education was relatively small

1964 Higher Education Act foundation of Pell Grants (federal loans to college
students and federally subsidized college work-study program)
o Federal funding split almost evenly between support for colleges and

VI

support for elementary and secondary schools

Public Education: Leveling Through the Schools
a Equality continues to be guiding principle of public education; curriculum
in US schools is relatively standardized, but never been uniform
b

experience for all American children

Quality of education depends significantly on the wealth of the community
in which a child resides; upheld by SC saying that states are obliged to

give adequate not equal education

US public schools seeks to broadly educate its children, commitment
extends to college; a world leader in terms of the percentage of adults

VII

with a college education

d Educational attainment is related to personal success measure in income
Improving Americas Schools
a Americas students are not high performers; rank below those of western
countries in standardized tests
i US has larger portion of non-native-speaking children and is more
segregated residentially by income
ii Best predictor of a schools overall performance on standardized
b

tests is the wealth of the community I which it is located

School Choice
i Advocates: students should have the option of leaving a poorly
performing school in favor of one that might provide a better
education; students new school should get funding that was
supposed to go to old school policy forces school administrators
and teachers to do a better job
ii Opponents: school choice will only serve to weaken these schools
further; policy benefits middle and upper income students because
parents of poor children dont have resources to transport children
to a better but more distant school
iii School choice has gained momentum in recent years
1 Charter schools: publicly funded but operate by diff
standards
a Promoted mostly by conservatives
b Opposition: drain regular public schools of funding
2

and top students

School vouchers: parents receive voucher from
government that they can give to a private or parochial
school to cover part of the cost of their childs tuition

Proponents: force failing public schools to improve

their instructional programs or face a permanent

loss of revenue
Opponents: vouchers weakens he public schools by
siphoning off revenue and say that vouchers
subsidize many families that would have sent their
children to private or parochial schools anyway; are
of little use to poor families because still have to

c
c

pay part of the cost

Constitutionality upheld by courts; opposed by

majority
Mandatory High-Stakes Testing
i No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) under Bush required national
testing in reading, math and science, and ties federal funding to
the test results; funding based on improvement in score results; no
improvement, less students and funding
1 Opposition: National Education Association (NEA) law
forces teachers to teach to the national tests and thereby
undermines classroom learning; program has failed to
provide struggling schools with enough funds to improve
2

the quality of classroom education

Support: holds teachers and schools accountable for
student performance

The American Way of Promoting the General Welfare

Differences between European and American approaches to welfare stem from

historical and cultural differences
o European Democracy developed in reaction to aristocratic rules and
o

focuses on economic equality; social inequality harder to root out

American Democracy grew out of tradition of limited government that
emphasized personal liberty and self-reliance; prefer market justice over
economic equalityhigh level of income inequality