According to an article titled “Welfare as
we know it” by Jesse Walker; in 2005 “If you add together the money the
federal government spends on health care, housing, food, and income support for
the poor, the total constitutes more than 16 percent of the budget.”
According to a
report titled “From Poverty to Self-Sufficiency: The Role of
Postsecondary Education in Welfare Reform” by the Center for Women Policy
Studies, “By the 1990’s, AFDC supported 15 percent of all U.S. children. In
most cases, these children lived at home and were cared for by a single parent,
usually the mother, who otherwise did not work.”
According to an
article titled “Welfare reform: how do we measure success?” by Daniel T.
Lichter and Rukamalie Jayakody, “By 1994, more of the nation’s needy families,
elderly, and disabled received federal welfare than ever before. AFDC alone
supported more than 14 million children and their parents.”
“In
August 1996, after 18 months of debate, Congress passed and President Clinton signed
into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. This welfare
reform law ended 61 years of AFDC guaranteed cash assistance to every eligible
poor family with children. The new law turned over to the states the authority
to design their own welfare programs and to move recipients to work.” (Constitutional
Rights Foundation, 1998)
According to the Illinois
General Assembly House Bill 90_HB1460, “305 ILCS 5/12-4.32 new Amends the
Public Aid Code. Requires the Department of Public Aid to implement a family
responsibility program for AFDC recipients to provide education,
employability-skills training, and other services designed to make program
participants self-sufficient.”
Why did I do the Research?
To explore the
influences of publicly facilitated programs on inner-city families. The primary
observation method for this research analysis of the publicly facilitated
program of welfare and other forms of government assistance will be an inner
city public aid office.
What did I find out?
The system of
dependency has not only remained synonymous with the welfare programs around
the country, but unfortunately it’s become a moot issue as a result of its
locality, and that in itself is a dependency problem that is hundreds of years
old.
Variables that
was used
The impact that such
programs have on families from a social, educational, physical, financial and
professional perspective are grave.
The accidental
process will include visit(s) to an inner-city public aid office to examine the
process at its most basic level, and gather data concerning the results, goals,
expectations and ideology from all parties involved in the process.
Summary
Currently the
priorities of the American people are focused in directions other than public
assistance and aid. As a result the culture that exists is allowed to not only
sustain and fester, but also cultivate and expand in ideology. The concepts of
personal responsibility and work opportunity that were the cornerstones of
Clinton’s 1996 legislation are now afterthoughts in the public peripheral, and
because of that the repercussions are destined to be more than detrimental for
society as a whole.
The concept of agency should be the
foundational and fundamental building block of any government or public
facilitated organization, program or assistance. Creating and cultivating a
culture of independence is what the United States of America was established
upon, and in order for that culture to continue, there has to be a commitment
to nurturing, grooming and fostering such an ideology, on a national and mass
scale. The current system of public assistance has long been criticized for not
doing a great job of fostering such a system. This research document showed
issues addressing the legitimacy of such a critique, and provide insight into
how or why it has become categorically known as a failure with respect to
inciting agency within its participatory pool.
The accidental process showed include
visit(s) to an inner-city public aid office to examine the process at its most
basic level, and gather data concerning the results, goals, expectations and
ideology from all parties involved in the process. Other accidental showed
conversations with government officials that are familiar with the process and
a part of the process, families that have been involved with the process in
one-fashion or form, as well as community officials that have witnessed some of
the results of the process firsthand.
Ultimately the
research document produced an intricate and in depth analysis of how the public
assistance and aid process both cultivates and fosters a culture of dependency
or independency.
