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The BIRCH BARK BBS / 414-242-5070
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America's Future, Inc., Behind The Headlines, May 1996
Change The Orientation Of Welfare
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by F.R. Duplantier
What is the real purpose of welfare? Is it meant to help the
unfortunate get back on their feet, or was it designed from the
beginning to create a permanent underclass?
"The focus of Indiana's welfare policy should be to
help families become self-sufficient," says Andrew Bush
of the Hudson Institute in Indianapolis. "Gov-ernment
can best achieve this goal by recognizing its own
limitations and by drawing on the strengths of
charities, community-based organizations, and other
private service providers." In the April issue of
Alternatives in Philanthropy, published by the Capital
Research Center, Bush reports on the Indiana
Independence Initiative, a graduated work-based plan
that "would dramatically change the orientation of
welfare." This Initiative would help "able-bodied
parents find immediate work," says Bush. It also "would
open public aid to a wide range of non-government
service providers that would help families pursue self-
sufficiency."
In the same issue of Alternatives in Philanthropy,
Michael Hartmann of the Wisconsin Policy Research
Institute in Milwaukee reports that the Badger State
"has imposed stringent work requirements on welfare
recipients and has successfully moved many able-bodied
recipients into productive work." Wisconsin's welfare
caseload fell nearly 25 percent during a period in
which state caseloads across the country "increased by
an average of 35 percent." In 1988, Wisconsin
implemented the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills
program, which, as Hartmann explains, "required
caseworkers to closely monitor and motivate welfare
recipients in their search for employment." In 1993,
the state implemented a program called Work, Not
Welfare, which "limits AFDC payments to two years and
offers major job-training services."
The state legislature recently approved a new program
called Wisconsin Works, which provides "four graduated
work options" for welfare recipients. "Recipients
unable to perform self-sustaining work will engage in
work activities, vocational rehabilitation, and
counseling," says Hartmann of the first, transitional
phase of the program. "Recipients will learn work
habits and job skills necessary for employment in the
private sector" by doing community-service jobs in the
second phase. A period of subsidized employment
follows, after which participants "will be guided to
the best available immediate job in the private
sector."
Also in the April issue of Alternatives in
Philanthropy, Tom Tancredo and Dwight Filley of the
Independence Institute in Golden, Colorado point out
that social pathologies such as juvenile delinquency,
drug abuse, teen pregnancy, and welfare dependency have
all been linked to "the absence of a married father in
the household." Given this documented correlation, they
ask, "why does government policy seem geared toward
driving fathers away?" Despite the "oppressive burden
of federal laws," Colorado still has "considerable
latitude to end the perverse incen-tives that wreck
families and contribute to our social ills," say
Tancredo and Filley. "AFDC, for example, is a matching
fund program. If the Colorado legis-lature refused to
fund its share, AFDC would end in the state."
America's Future, 7800 Bonhomme, St. Louis MO 63105
Phone: 314-725-6003 Fax: 314-721-3373