Welfare and Education Policy

Social Welfare Policy

efforrts by the government to help indiduals meet basic human- needs including food, clothing, and shelter

Welfare is mostly partisian, leaning

Democrats

The poverty line was defined as

three times a basic food budget.

the 1/3 poverty line of income

fthird of one’s income was needed, or food, a third for housing, and a third for other expenses

poverty line should be revised upward, however it would be

politically difficult

U.S is better off economically than other nations, however,

income in quality and poverty are problems

Income inequality in the U.S is

greater than that in any other industrialized nations.

___% of Americans lived in poverty in 2023

11

Children are one of the largest groups of poor Americans, about __% live in poverty.

15

U.S child poverty rate is one of the…

highest amoung developed nations

Most poor children live in . . .

female - headed households

Poverty has many causes, such as

• poor due to temporary reasons (job loss, desertion of a family by the breadwinner)

• full-time job does not guarantee that a family will rise about the poverty line

• those who lack the education, skills, and initiate necessary to hold a job and get ahead in life

U.S Approach to Poverty is different than Eurpoean countries’ approach

political culture

• strong belief of individualism or personal responsibility

Individual benefit (or entitlement programs) are those that provide

eligible individuals with cash or other benefits

Two types of entitlement programs

social insurance and public assistance

Social insurance

availabily only to those who have worked and paid special payroll taxes. Such programs are not needs-based. Don’t have to be poor to qualify

Social insurance programs have

strong public support because of work related and contributory features

and most entitlement spending

Social Security programs

• Social Security: provides retirement benefits to those who have worked and paid SOcial Security taxes

• Medicare: it pays for hosptical stays for the elderly. other benefits are available to recipients who pay additional fees.

• Unemployment Insurance: benefits are generally payable for up to 26 weeks to eomployees who have lose their jobs through no fault of their own. Benefits extended in a economic recession

Public Assistance (or welfare) programs

available only to those who are poor. Recipients don’t need to work or paid taxes.

Public assistance programs:

Supplemental Security Income (SSI): This federal

program pays monthly benefits to those who are poor and

elderly, poor and disabled, or poor and blind.

Food stamps: This federal program provides coupons or

debit cards to eligible individuals that can be used only for

the purchase of groceries.

Medicaid: Jointly funded and administered by the federal

government and the states, this program pays for the

medical expenses of the poor.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF):

Created in 1996 by a Republican Congress, it replaced

the former AFDC program. It provides grants to states for

assistance to poor mothers.

Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC): When a low-income

worker files a tax return, and the tax owed is less than the

amount of the credit, the worker receives a check for the

difference. {This is now the largest public assistance program.}

Welfare is less generous in the U.S than elsewhere because…

Americans believe in personal responsibility and do not want to discourage work or foster excessive reliance on the government

U.S spends far more on

social insurance than welfare

U.S spends far more on social insurance than welfare because…

social insurance is work-related and contributory and more consistent with the ideal of individualism

Public education was not…

widely available in the U.S until 19th century

Free public education for all children was a

divisive issue

Why?

Conservatives opposites it because it meant an expansion of government and new taxes.

Wealthy featerd than an educated public would challenge their power

Liberals reformers about Public Education sought for

greater equality of opportunity and said public education would enable ordinary people to get ahead

Public schools were at first limited to elementary schools, but Public high schools were not….

prevalent in the U.S until 20th century

4 goals of Public Education

• to ensure the continuation of democracy

• to assist in the Assimilation of immigrants

• to promote upward mobility

• to provide employers with an educated workforce

Public education is the responsibility…

of the states

State constitutions require…

states to maintain public schools and state laws provide for their financing

State lesilatures and local school boards make decisions…

about curriclumum, teacher salaries, and other issues.

Ferderal government plays a small role, providing

grants to states to help fund public schools

Financing disparities are shown by

per-pupil expenditures varying widely across the states

and great disparity in per-pupul expenditures among school districts within states

Most states in public education rely heavily on

local property taxes to fund public schools

• wealthy districts can raise much more property taxes than poor districts can

Quality of education a child receives depends

significantly on the wealth of the district that the child lives in

California relies less on

property taxes than most states

Wealthy districts spend

3x as much per pupil as do poor districts

Uneven quality of public education may be the reason why…

U.S students rank below those in other advanced democracies and standardized tests in math and science.

Student proficiency is measured every two years by

National Assesmment of Education Progress

• results in 2022, saying U.S did worse than they did in 2019

What might explain the poor ranks in education in U.S?

• one reason, U.S has a relatively high proportion of non-native speaking children who do less well in school than other children

• higher proportion of poor children than do other advanced nations. poor children do less well than other chldren

• rigor of the cirriculum, quality of the teaching, involvement of parents, in their children’s educatio and the motivation of students

liberals says there needs to be

• increase in funding for public education

conservatives says there needs to be…

• market-based reforms like school choice

Congresss has conditional federal funds for…

schools on improvement in student test scores