A happy ending for kids?
Kids across Michigan today are lining up for school buses, breaking open those new packages of Crayolas and settling in for storytime.
The first day of school is thrilling and we want all of our children to partake in the promise and excitement that a new school year brings.
But for children living in poverty there are economic problems that can disrupt that good start to the school year.
Sometimes people tell stories, and sometimes data tells the story. Let’s look at the story that begins this school year. Once upon a time . . .
• The national KIDS COUNT Data Book (pdf), while showing some improvements, ranks Michigan 36th for babies born too small, which elevates their risk of chronic disease, developmental delay and even death. (This could cost us more down the road.)
• More than half of Michigan’s unemployed adults of prime working age (25-54) last year spent a half year or longer looking for jobs (pdf) — the longest on record. Unemployment hovers around 11 percent, much worse in rural and urban areas. (The legislative response was to pass a 48-month, retroactive limit on cash assistance, making Michigan the harshest in the Midwest and to reduce unemployment insurance from 26 weeks to 20 weeks.)
• The 48-month limit is expected to impact more than 11,000 families with nearly 30,000 children. The average age of a child on the Family Independence Program caseload is 7. (At a time when a second-grader should be learning to read, he or she may be forced to move and be uprooted from their school come Oct. 1.)
• Child poverty is up 64 percent in our state (pdf) over the last decade at a time when we want to improve the business climate. (Poor kids usually grow up to be poor adults-not a good training ground for the new economy or something that attracts potential employers to our state.)
When my kids were little, I read to them from a series of books where they could choose their own ending. We can do the same thing now by changing policies that will have a more positive impact today, as well as into the future. My story book would have the following policy changes:
• Restore unemployment benefits to 26 weeks
• Continue and enhance our investment in early childhood programs
• Return the state Earned Income Tax Credit to 20 percent
• Increase investment in adult basic learning skills, community colleges, and higher education
• Improve women’s access to health care
• Enhance maternal and infant health in communities of color, as well as eliminating the disparities in unemployment
• Provide more robust family support services to at-risk families
•Create a workforce development plan that is inclusive of all workers, including low-skill workers
Our policymakers face a great challenge, but I am convinced that they can truly create a happy ending for the kids and their parents in our state by making targeted investments now. Our families need changes that will help them today, rather than waiting for a fairy godmother to show up down the road.
– Gilda Z. Jacobs
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Categories: Blog: Factually Speaking, Events, Health Care, Human Services, Kids Count | Tags: budget, caseload, cash assistance, children, children and families, data, Department of Human Services, Kids Count, poverty, safety net, unemployment, vulnerable families
Busting the Myths on Welfare Recipients
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myth: Welfare recipients are lazy and have a poor work ethic.
According to the Michigan Department of Human Services (2003), a parent who is receiving welfare benefits most likely works a part-time job and earns minimum wage. The family may earn an average of $700 to $800 per month, which places them at 50 percent of the federal poverty income guideline for a family of three.
Poor people do not have a decreased amount of motivation, nor do they have poor work ethics as compared to their wealthier counterparts (ASCD 2008). According to the National Center for Children in Poverty (2004), “…83 percent of children from low-income families have at least one employed parent; close to 60 percent have at least one parent who works at least full-time and year round.” Many poor adults are forced to work two, three, or four jobs due to the decrease of living wage jobs. The Economic Policy Institute (2002) states that, “poor working adults spend more hours working each week than their wealthier counterparts.”
myth: Welfare recipients receive benefits for a long period of time.
Families headed by able-bodied adults can collect TANF benefits for only 60 months –a total of five years – in their lifetimes. Nationwide, only about two percent of TANF families reach that limit and lose their benefits each year. More than 70% of women on welfare stay on the rolls for less than two years. 50% of recipients exit TANF in the first year of welfare, and 75% of recipients exit TANF in the first two years of welfare.
myth: Welfare is full of fraud and no one is doing anything about it.
Welfare is not full of fraud. A large number of welfare recipients are innocent women and children who have fled from abusive living situations. In these particular situations the women and children may be left with little to nothing. Therefore, they would qualify for section 8 housing, food stamps, and welfare money in an attempt to begin a new life. Welfare attempts to present its recipients with new opportunities. Some individuals get “lucky” and do not need the benefits long, while others struggle to get on their feet due to the lack of resources available to them (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003).
myth: Most of the people on welfare are unmarried mothers who have extra children so that they can get more money.
Although one in four children under 18 receives welfare benefits, that does not mean that a few women on welfare have lots of children. “The average monthly number of TANF families was 3,176,000 in fiscal year (FY) 1998. The estimated total number of TANF recipients was 2,631,000 adults and 6,273,000 children. The average number of persons in TANF families was 2.8 persons. The TANF families averaged 2 recipient children, which remained unchanged. Two in five families had only one child. One in 10 families had more than three children.”
myth: People on welfare are there because they are addicted to drugs.
Welfare recipients are no more likely to use drugs than the rest of the population. In 1999, Michigan created a law that required all welfare recipients to undergo mandatory drug testing. Only 10% of recipients tested positive for illicit drugs and only 3% tested positive for hard drugs such as cocaine and amphetamines. These rates are in line with the drug use rates of the general population. The Michigan policy was struck down as unconstitutional in 2003 (ACLU, 2008).