Welfare Reform

The 1920s in America seemed like an age of endless prosperity and joyful glee. Construction boomed, business flourished, and the stock market soared. It was as though nothing could go wrong. Then on October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed. The crash sent shockwaves throughout the economy. Banks failed. Businesses closed. Millions found themselves out of work. The Great Depression, which would last through the 1930s, had begun. So what did all this mean?

When the Great Depression began, about 18 million elderly, disabled, and single mothers with children already lived at a bare subsistence level in the United States. State and local governments together with private charities helped these people. By 1933, another 13 million Americans had been thrown out of work. Suddenly, state and local governments and charities could no longer provide even minimum assistance for all those in need. Food riots broke out. Desertions by husbands and fathers increased. Homeless families in cities lived in public parks and shanty towns. Desperate times began to put into question the old American notion that if a man worked hard enough, he could always take care of himself and his family.

The effect of the Depression on poor children was particularly severe. Grace Abbott, head of the federal Children's Bureau, reported that in the spring of 1933, 20 percent of the nation's school children showed evidence of poor nutrition, housing, and medical care. School budgets were cut and in some cases schools were shut down for lack of money to pay teachers. An estimated 200,000 boys left home to wander the streets and beg because of the poor economic condition of their families. Now imagine going through all of this as a black person. Everything would seem as it were doubled so to speak just on the basis of skin color.

Although President Franklin D. Roosevelt focused mainly on creating jobs for the masses of unemployed workers, he also backed the idea of federal aid for poor children and other dependent persons. By 1935, a national welfare system had been established for the first time in American history. Was this a good or bad thing?

The main purpose of the welfare system was to assist low income families for temporary relief, until the parent was able to get back on his/her feet. Many times you have parents who abuse the program, and cheat the system out of money. A more common name is "welfare queen". This is typically a woman who has 2 or more children, who is receiving assistance, and misuses the money given to her. She makes sure that her kids have "just enough" and spends most of the money to live a lavish life, free of actual work. Because of massive amounts of welfare abuse the government decided to start a welfare reform program. In the summer of 1996, Congress passed and the President signed the "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996." radically transforming the nation's welfare system.

Almost ten years ago, Congress overhauled much of the nation's welfare system. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 19961 replaced the failed social program called Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). The reform legislation had three primary goals: (1) reduce welfare dependence and increase employment, (2) reduce child poverty which included an extreamly high amount of black children, and (3) reduce illegitimacy and strengthen marriage.

At the time of the law's enactment, many liberal groups made dire predictions about the terrible effect these reforms would have on America's children. In particular, the Children's Defense Fund claimed that welfare reform would cast millions more children into poverty and hunger.These predictions were wrong, and welfare reform in fact produced the opposite results. Many groups, including academic institutions and public policy organizations, have published a wide variety of research showing the reform's undeniable success. The documentation of this success has already begun to play a crucial role in the TANF reauthorization process scheduled in Congress for the coming months. In the almost ten years since the welfare reform law was enacted, economic conditions have improved dramatically for America's poorest families. Welfare rolls have plummeted, employment of single mothers has increased dramatically, and child hunger has declined substantially. Most striking, however, has been the effect of welfare reform on child poverty, particularly among black children.

However, a report recently released by the Children's Defense Fund shows that the number of black children under age 18 living in extreme poverty increased to nearly one million in 2004. Extreme poverty is defined as having an after-tax income of less than half of the federally defined poverty line. For example for a family of three, the poverty line was $14,128 in 2004, which would make the extreme poverty line $7,064 for that year. These findings show an increase of roughly 145,000 black children in the extreme poverty category since the enactment of welfare reform.

Although not incorrect, these findings can mislead readers about the success of welfare reform by focusing on a narrow slice of the entire child poverty population that has otherwise significantly improved under the reformed welfare system. While the number of black children living in extreme poverty is certainly a cause for concern, the overall level of child poverty, particularly among black children, has made tremendous progress:

* For the 25 years prior to welfare reform, the percentage of black children living in poverty remained virtually unchanged.

* Since welfare reform, the poverty rate among black children has dropped by one-fourth, falling from 41.5 percent in 1995 to 30.0 percent in 2001.

* The black child poverty rate is at its lowest point in U.S. history.

* Since welfare reform, over 1.2 million black children have been lifted out of poverty.

* Since welfare reform, six black children have been made better off and lifted out of poverty for every black child whose economic condition has worsened.

I have included a chart to show these results below:

As the data show, the overwhelming majority of black families took advantage of the opportunity presented by welfare reform. However, a small percentage of poor black families with children did not respond positively to welfare reform. In fact some families ended up in even worst situations. This occurred because among this group, relatively few parents in