User:Deeceebake/sandbox

Problems with “Consequences” section


 * 1) The “Criticism” section is pretty heavily lacking in sources backed up by economic statistical research, of which there is a good amount of. Most sources are from a conservative slant.
 * 2) There’s an issue of framing within the Consequences section. By that, I mean that while effects that are positive are simply placed under the Consequences section, negative effects are given a different section called “Criticism”. This lends less validity to the negatives by undermining their status as true consequences. The positive effects are not labelled as “Praise”, they are simply placed under Consequences.

Plan

'Welfare and poverty rates both declined during the late 1990s, leading many commentators to declare that the legislation was a success. An editorial in The New Republic opined, "A broad consensus now holds that welfare reform was certainly not a disaster—and that it may, in fact, have worked much as its designers had hoped."[43]'

- Current opening to Consequences section

Expand the beginning section of “Consequences” that gives one editorial quote saying that the legislation was a success, giving the opinion of a more negative view as well. Perhaps this part should be removed? Either multiple sources from both sides should be utilized, or this section should probably not exist due to its cherry picking nature.

The “criticisms” name should possibly be removed in exchange for sections such as a “Impact on poverty”, “Impact on single mother households” or names along those lines. Aspects of the current “criticisms” section could be moved to different sections where they may be relevant. It may also be helpful to have a section for “criticism” separate from the “Impact” that keeps reactions to the legislation from activists or journalists separate from academic studies on effects.

Potential info to add from additional sources include:

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/08/welfare-reform-clinton-twentieth-anniversary-poverty/


 * This article from two politics professors about the lasting effects of welfare reform

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/26463021.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A4454a4df4d688695ef535c1a020af691

Change "Economic Impact" to "Impact on Caseloads and Employment"

Create this section:

Impact on single mothers

After conducting interviews with single mothers, Jason DeParle of the New York Times, said that they have been left without means to survive, and have turned to desperate and sometimes illegal ways to survive, including shoplifting, selling blood, scavenging trash bins, moving in with friends, and returning to violent partners.[49]

A study from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities stated that cutting access to welfare through the PRWORA was "a major factor in the lack of progress in reducing poverty among people in working single-mother families after 1995". While there was improvement in poverty rates for families not headed by single mothers, poor single mother households overall sunk further into poverty.

* need to add something specific about African American mothers*

Economists focusing on antipoverty policy have identified higher percentages of "disconnected" single mother households following the welfare legislation of the 1990s, households in extreme poverty that do not receive government assistance or wages from employment. A study conducted by economists at Rutgers University found that states with stricter limits on receiving benefits before one is required to find work cause more single mothers to become disconnected.

Vanessa D. Johnson, a professor at Northeastern University, asserts that the implementation of PRWORA cut access for single mothers, namely African American single mothers, to attaining a higher education for themselves. By creating time limits that force them into working without finishing a degree, Johnson says African American single mothers are left unable to better themselves through education. With education having such a strong correlation to higher wages, she considers it crucial that welfare policies allow for mothers to attend college in order to lift themselves out of poverty.