While Congress debates a more than $700 billion economic growth package that is top-heavy with tax breaks for the rich, a real opportunity to invest in America's families is unfortunately being sidelined.
Last week, New Democrat Sen. Evan Bayh introduced the Strengthening Families Act, which would provide new resources to support two critical pillars of post-welfare reform social policy: promoting responsible fatherhood and preventing teen pregnancy. The provisions of this bill were borrowed from the Work and Family Act, which was introduced by a coalition of nine New Democrat senators last year, including Bayh, Sen. Tom Carper and Sen. Hillary Clinton.
Compared to the lavish tax cuts proposed by President Bush for the benefit of citizens who are the least in need of help, the Bayh proposal includes relatively inexpensive initiatives that will, in the long run, have tremendous impact on the long-term strength and well-being of low-income families.
The most significant initiative included in the Strengthening Working Families Act is the $250 million a year it allots for programs to promote "responsible fatherhood," including $200 million annually for the creation of court-supervised employment programs for low-income fathers owing child support.
The overwhelming success of the 1996 welfare reform in helping low-income mothers enter the labor force brought into sharp relief the plight of low-income men who have long been ignored by the country's welfare and workforce development systems. While the labor force participation of low-income women has been steadily increasing over the past decade, the labor force participation of low-income men has, in contrast, been dropping precipitously. Recent analyses by researchers Paul Offner and Harry Holzer have shown declining employment rates among all young, non-college-educated men and African-American men in particular. According to Offner and Holzer, the percentage of young, less-educated African-American men in the work force barely topped 70 percent in 2000 -- a shockingly low figure.
The lack of labor force participation by poor men has dire consequences for their children. Child support can be a critical source of income for poor families; among those who receive payments, child support comprises, on average, more than a quarter of family income. Unfortunately, two out of three families receives no child support, often because the fathers are too poor to pay. According to the Urban Institute, many of these so-called "deadbroke" dads lack significant work experience -- a third have not held a job in the past three years -- and as many as one half have not graduated from high school. A third of these fathers also are or have been incarcerated, which obviously affects their ability to pay child support in the short run as well as damaging their long-term prospects for employment.
The funding provided by the Bayh bill would fund promising programs such as the one run by the Center for Fathers, Families and Workforce Development in Baltimore, which has succeeded in helping poor fathers, including ex-offenders, find good-paying jobs, pay child support and, just as importantly, develop an emotional connection with their children.
Although the $250 million a year provided by the bill is a relatively small investment, it is an important first step in confronting the burgeoning crisis of declining employment rates among low-income men.
The other critical priority addressed by the Strengthening Families Act is teen pregnancy prevention. Groundbreaking research by Belle Sawhill established the now widely accepted link between the growth in child poverty rates and the rate of unwed childbearing over the past several decades. New research by Daniel Lichter and others has proved conclusively that bearing a child out of wedlock, especially as a teenager, is the single most destructive way in which a young woman can sabotage her future economic prospects. According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, fewer than a third of teen moms finish high school and more than three-quarters end up on welfare. Children of teen mothers are also more likely to be abused or neglected or to perform poorly in school. Many eventually become teen mothers themselves. Teen pregnancy prevention, therefore, is the only truly effective way to stop the cycle before it starts.
The total five-year price tag for Sen. Bayh's proposal is less than $2 billion -- a scant fraction of the $726 billion being proposed by the President for tax cuts that are both unnecessary and wasteful. But given the current climate on the Hill, the chance of passage for the Bayh proposal -- or for any new initiatives aimed at preventing poverty -- is unfortunately infinitesimally small. Despite the president's claims of "compassion" and his desire to support the disadvantaged, it is clear where his priorities lie.
