The Promise of Cash Assistance Programs as Platforms for Innovation Lisa Gennetian Improving LowIncome Childrens School Readiness New Perspectives on an Enduring Challenge September 2930 2010 ID: 495243
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Addressing the School Readiness Gap:The Promise of Cash Assistance Programs as Platforms for Innovation?Lisa Gennetian
Improving Low-Income Children’s School Readiness: New Perspectives on an Enduring Challenge
September 29-30, 2010Slide2
The Overall Landscape(2007) No.Recips(000) Expends(mil)
Medicaid 54,900 $328,900
School Food 39,400 10,900
SNAP 25,600 30,400EITC 23,800 48,500WIC 8,000 5,400SSI 7,100 41,200Housing 4,900 39,400TANF 3,800 11,600
Ben-Shalom, Moffitt & Scholz (2010).Slide3
Half of today’s caseloads are child-only cases (12% in 1990 to over 30% in 2000)62% of poor children received TANF in 1994, plummeting to 31% in 2003
Growing % of what would have been TANF cases are disconnected single mothers (not working and not on TANF)
Test of recent recession: What is the future of TANF as safety net? A work support? Emergency support?
Is TANF a Promising Gateway?Slide4
TANF program:IS means-tested, so outreach is only as effective as income eligibilityHAS conditions and penalties: time limits, sanctions
RELIES on performance accountability that does not prioritize children’s developmental outcomes, never mind school readiness, as a performance metric
Other limitations Slide5
Not cash assistance but….Platforms that target economic self-sufficiency of parents (or families) with young children
Why is this a promising approach?
What are the gateways? Who is eligible? Who is served?
What is most amenable to innovation, low cost/high impact?Re-FramingSlide6
Lots of moms (and, dads) work and earnings is a key source of income
In 2008: Young children are particularly likely to live in low-income families--44 percent of children under the age of 6 live in low-income families.
51 percent of low-income children have at least one parent who works full-time, year-round. In 2009, 64.2% mothers with children under 6 years old participated in the labor force. The participation rate of mothers with infants under a year old was 56.6%.
Stylized factsSlide7
The Evidence BaseIncome has a small independent positive effect on child development, & employment has few detrimental effects
Negative Income Tax experiments Income supplements (
Salkind
& Haskins, 1982): increased grades and test scoresEarnings supplements programs vs. mandatory work (Morris, Duncan & Rodrigues, 2010): $1,000 increase 6% SD increase in achievementEIC expansions Dahl & Lochner (2008) : $1,000 increase 6% SD increase combined math & reading test scores
Brooks-Gunn, Han & Waldfogel (2010); Gennetian, Castells, & Morris (2010).
7Slide8
Improve economic self-sufficiency (and improve school achievement by a bit)
Use work-income-security platforms as gateways for outreach, recruitment and intervention (
Ca$hPlus
)(*added bonus: parents, non-gender specific)Slide9
VITA (voluntary income tax assistance) sites: churches, credit unions and sometimes multi-service community organizations
In 2010, VITA sites
s
erved 1.2 million clients and over 400,000 EITC (earned income tax credit) recipients
Promising
Gateways: EIC and Tax SitesSlide10
The 1998 Workforce Investment Act (WIA) created a new, comprehensive workforce investment system. One-Stop service delivery system (job search, individual employment plans, training and linkages with other community services)
$2.9 billion expended 7/08 to 6/09, half for adult activities (vs. youth or dislocated workers)
Some evidence WIA programs increased earnings, (Heinrich, Mueser & Troske, 2008)
Promising Gateways: WIASlide11
Over 1.5 million women served
in WIA programs from 2006 to 2008Slide12
Community Action Programs ($3M families/year. 63% offer training/employment)Seedco
NYC Financial Clinics
Foundation Communities, TX
Promising Gateways: Other examples of one-stop multi-service organizationsSlide13
History of fertile ground for innovation and experimentation (and scale-up):Welfare waiver experimentsEIC expansions
Work Advancement and Support Center Demonstrations (Miller, Tessler & Van
Dok
, 2010)The next “New Hope” model (Bos, Gennetian, Duncan and Hill 2008)
Innovation & Evidence-BuildingSlide14
Miss the growing % of disconnected workers. Between fiscal year 1996 and 2004, the number of single mothers receiving TANF fell by 2 million, yet employment among single mothers rose by only about 1 million. (Parrot and Sherman, 2006)
Take-up and retention
Speed of responsiveness to local economic cycles and labor market
Complicated funding & political silos
Challenges & LimitationsSlide15
Least promising: TANF (low caseloads, most severe cases, questionable public and political appetite) Moderately promising: EIC and tax system—huge initial reach but no structure for ongoing contact. Capitalize on sites with combined multiple services.
Most promising: WIA, one-stops, multi-service year-around (micro and macro) needs-responsive organizations
Rating Promising PlatformsSlide16
Take a step back: Conceptual Framework
Bronfenbrenner’s
MicrosystemSlide17
Section 8 and housing assistance:13% of children in U.S. live in crowded housing.66% of children in low income households (income <200% of poverty level) housing cost exceed 30% of income.
Moving to Opportunity; Jobs Plus
School/neighborhood based initiatives:Promise Neighborhoods (Harlem Children’s Zone) “cradle-to-career” services!Housing & neighborhood initiatives
(the
microsystem as a platform?)Slide18
ReferencesBen-Shalom, Yonatan, Robert Moffitt, and John Karl
Scholz
. 2010. An Assessment of the Effectiveness of Anti-Poverty Programs in the United States. In preparation for the Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Poverty.
Berlin, Gordon. 2010. Rethinking Welfare in the Great Recession: Issues in the Reauthorization of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families . New York: MDRC.Bos, J., G. Duncan, L. Gennetian, and H. Hill (2007). New Hope: Fulfilling America’s Promise to “Make Work Pay” with Johannes Bos, Greg Duncan, and Heather Hill. Hamilton Project Paper. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution. Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Wen-Jui Han and Jane Waldfogel. 2010.
FIRST-YEAR MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT IN THE FIRST 7 YEARS 75(2) Monographs for the Society for Research on Child DevelopmentAnnie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/acrossstates/Rankings.aspx?ind=71
Employment Characteristics of Families, downloaded September 24, 2010. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.nr0.htm
Dahl, G., &
Lochner
, L. (2008).
The impact of family income on child achievement: Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit.
(NBER Working Paper Series: Working Paper No. 14599). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.Slide19
ReferencesGennetian, L. A., N. Castells, and P. Morris ( 2010) Meeting the Basic Needs of Children: Does Income Matter? National Poverty Center Working Paper No. 2009-11. Gennetian, L.A., T. Leventhal and S. Newman (
eds
) special issue of
Children and Youth Services Review 32(9).Heinrich, C.P., P. Mueser, and K. Troske 2008. Workforce Investment Act Nonexperimental Net Impact Evaluation,
Impaq International.http://wdr.doleta.gov/research/FullText_Documents/Workforce%20Investment%20Act%20Non-Experimental%20Net%20Impact%20Evaluation%20-%20Final%20Report.pdf
Miller, Cynthia, Betsy Tessler and Mark Van Dok. 2010. Strategies to Help Low Wage Workers Advance: Implementation and Early Impacts of the Work Advancement and Support Center Demonstration. New York: MDRC.
Parrott, Sharon and Arloc
sherman
. 2006. TANF at 10 Program Results are More Mixed Than Often Understood
Salkind
, N. J., & Haskins, R. (1982). Negative income tax: The impact on children from low-income families.
Journal of Family Issues, 3
(2), 165-180.
Workforce Investment Act: http://www.doleta.gov/budget/docs/06_30_09combspend.pdf