Roots of Social Welfare Policy  Early 19 th century attitudes toward social welfare were focused on belt-tightening and charity.  NO governmental intervention  Late 19 th century  Farmers and rural Americans sought help  Failing commodity prices; exploitation of railroads  1890s severe economic depression  Acceptance and expectance of government intervention

Income Security  Great Depression  Social and economic thinking began to change  Idea that government could and should be used as a positive influence in society  FDR elected in 1932  Unemployment extremely high; bad for economy  Created Civil Works Administration by executive order to put people to work  Creation of Social Security  1935 law established old-age insurance (Social Security) and assistance for the needy, children, and others, and unemployment insurance

Social Welfare Policies Today: Income Security Programs  Protect people against loss of income due to retirement, disability, unemployment or deal or absence of family breadwinner  Non-means-based programs  Social insurance  Old age, survivors, and disability insurance  Social Security  Unemployment  Means-tested programs  Social insurance  Supplemental Security Income  TANF  Family and Child Support Act

Welfare Reform of 1996  Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996  Required single mothers with a child over five years of age to work within two years of receiving funds  Included a provision that unmarried mothers under the age of 18 be required to live with an adult and attend school in order to receive welfare benefits  Set a five-year lifetime limit for aid from block grants  Included a requirement that mothers must provide information about a child’s father in order to receive full welfare payments  Cut off food stamps and SSI for legal immigrants  Cut off cash welfare benefits and food stamps for convicted drug felons  Limited food stamps to three months in a three year period for persons 18 to 50 years old who are not raising children and not working

Earned Income Tax Credit Program  Designed to help the working poor  Helps them by subsidizing their wages and provides an incentive for people to go to work  Results in a net cash rebate for many low-income tax payers who pay no federal income tax  Created in 1975 – Senator Russell Long (D-LA)

Income, Poverty, and Public Policy  What Part Does Government Play?  Taxation  Progressive tax: people with higher incomes pay a greater share  Proportional tax: all people pay the same share of their income  Regressive tax: burden falls relatively more heavily on low- income groups—opposite of a progressive tax  Earned Income Tax Credit: “negative income tax” that provided income to very poor people in lieu of charging them income tax

Food Stamp Program  Initial program was an effort to expand the domestic market for farm commodities  Provided the poor with the ability to buy more food, thus increasing demand for American agricultural produce  Made permanent in 1964  Extended nationwide in 1974  Benefits low income families  Combats hunger and reduces malnutrition  Food stamps went to over 25 million beneficiaries in 2005 at cost of $31 billion.  Average participant’s monthly disbursement: $93 in food stamps

The Effectiveness of Income Security Programs  Entitlement programs  Income security programs to which all those meeting eligibility criteria are entitled  Spending for such programs is mandatory  Funds must be provided for them unless laws creating the programs are changed  Difficult to control spending for this reason  Often a matter of considerable debate  Range of such programs are characteristic of all democratic industrial societies

Public Education  Until the 20 th century, public education had been almost the exclusive province of the state and local governments.  Responsibility for public education  Vested in the local community  1944 GI Bill began federal government’s involvement in helping people pay for education beyond high school  Pell Grants  Loan guarantees  $62 billion in student loans in  Reliance on local property taxes to fund schools  Disparities among different districts  Today federal government assumes more responsibility for public education than it has in the past.

Public Education  2003: national, state, and local governments in U.S. collected more than $400 billion to spend on public education (K-12)  48.7% from state governments  42.8% from local governments  8.5% from the national government  Great variation across states in spending per student

Public Education  Federal aid to education  Goals 2000  No Child Left Behind  Inequality in spending among school districts  Voucher plans  Charter schools

Public Education: Voucher Plans and Charter Schools  Charter Schools  Permit some institutions (those with charters) to operate beyond the reach of school boards  Break the monopoly exercised by centralized school boards and allow students as well as parents to exercise choice  Freer to choose what to teach, what to spend money on, and whom to hire  Numbers have increased  Opposition comes from teachers unions; focus on hiring of under- qualified teachers  Numbers of private education companies (for profit) had questionable practices

Other Forms of Social Policy  Immigration  DOMA