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 ChallengeSeptember 29-30, 2010

The Overall Landscape(2007) No.Recips(000) Expends(mil)Medicaid 54,900 $328,900School Food 39,400 10,900SNAP 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).

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 2003Growing % 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?

TANF program:IS means-tested, so outreach is only as effective as income eligibilityHAS conditions and penalties: time limits, sanctionsRELIES on performance accountability that does not prioritize children’s developmental outcomes, never mind school readiness, as a performance metric

Other limitations

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-Framing

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 facts

The Evidence Base

Income 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 scores

Earnings supplements programs vs. mandatory work (Morris, Duncan & Rodrigues, 2010): $1,000 increase 6% SD increase in achievement

EIC expansions Dahl & Lochner (2008) : $1,000 increase 6% SD increase combined math & reading test scores

Brooks-Gunn, Han & Waldfogel (2010); Gennetian, Castells, & Morris (2010).

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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)

VITA (voluntary income tax assistance) sites: churches, credit unions and sometimes multi-service community organizations

In 2010, VITA sites served 1.2 million clients and over 400,000 EITC (earned income tax credit) recipients

Promising Gateways: EIC and Tax Sites

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: WIA

Over 1.5 million women served in WIA programs from 2006 to 2008

Community Action Programs ($3M families/year. 63% offer training/employment)SeedcoNYC Financial Clinics•Foundation Communities, TX

Promising Gateways: Other examples of one-stop multi-service organizations

History of fertile ground for innovation and experimentation (and scale-up):•Welfare waiver experiments•EIC 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-Building

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 & Limitations

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 Platforms

Take a step back: Conceptual Framework Bronfenbrenner’s Microsystem

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?)

References

Ben-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 Development

Annie 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.

References

Gennetian, 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