Blueprint for Poverty Reduction: Legacy for an Inclusive Ontario
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Transcript of Research | Training | Policy | Practice Rapporteur Comments: “The Legacy of the War on Poverty:...
![Page 1: Research | Training | Policy | Practice Rapporteur Comments: “The Legacy of the War on Poverty: Implications for the Future of Anti-Poverty Policies” Robert.](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022062516/56649dd25503460f94ac824d/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Research | Training | Policy | Practice
Rapporteur Comments: “The Legacy of the War on Poverty: Implications
for the Future of Anti-Poverty Policies”
Robert HavemanInstitute for Research on PovertyLa Follette School of Public Affairs
Economics DepartmentUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison
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Celebrating a 50 Year Anniversary
• This conference is the second designed to celebrate 50 years since the start of the War on Poverty.
• The first was held at Hunter College a month or so ago. “Revisting the Great Society” http://roosevelthouse.hunter.cuny.edu/lbjconference2012/
• That conference had more prominent and more interesting participants and lots better stories.– George McGovern --Walter Mondale --Bill Moyers
--Joe Califano– Robert Caro --John Lewis --Lucy Baines Johnson
• It was far less substantive.
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The LBJ-1960s: A Miracle in Policymaking
• Economic Opportunity Act (1964)– Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) --Job Corps– Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) --Upward Bound --Head
Start– Legal Services --Neighborhood Youth Corps --Community
Action Program – EO grants; Work-Study program --Neighborhood Health Centers
– Small Business Loan --Rural, migrant worker, remedial education programs
• Civil Rights Act (1964, 1968) --Food Stamp Act (1964)
• Amendments to Social Security Act (1965)—Medicare, Medicaid
• Elementary /Secondary Education Act (1965)—Title I
• Higher Education Act (1965)• Executive Order 11246 (1965)—prohibiting
employment discrimination
• Older Americans Act (1965)--Child Nutrition Act (1966)
• Federal Fair Housing Act (1968)
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Major Themes of this Conference
• Few true successes (+ net benefits) among WoP programs; those targeted on the elderly are an exception.
• Efforts targeted on most disadvantaged indicate disappointing impacts.
• Crowd out, mismanagement and complexity/opacity have plagued several programs.
• Finding substantial benefits requires studying impacts beyond primary goals (e.g., socio-emotional).
• Complementary program efforts have made policy more pro-poor than without this synergy.
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More Major Themes
• Early assessments of some WoP programs were largely negative, but later (and better) evaluations indicate positive net benefits (Head Start, pre-school child care, health, short-term training).
• Programs need to be focused on specific needs of target groups.
• Aid tied to desired behavior is likely more effective than institutional support (housing, higher education).
• Fade out of early effects not unusual among programs, and the reasons why are puzzling.
• Perceived negative work effects have set stage for later work-oriented policies.
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After All of This, Has Opportunity Become More Equal In America?
• It is one thing to legislate and enforce pro-poor and non-discrimination policies, and the nation has done this.
• However, it is far more difficult task for public efforts to attain more equal opportunities, let alone more equal outcomes.
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Some Indicators of Equal Opportunity
• Labor Market Opportunities—Little sign of opportunity increase– B/W LFP male rates--.94 in 1965; .93 in 2012 – B/W male unemployment rates—2.2 in 1965; 2.1 in 2012
• Racial Earnings Gap--narrowed a bit– 1968—black/white earnings ratio about 70 percent.– 2010—ratio about 78 percent. (Attributed to improvements in overall school quality for blacks, expanded public
sector employment, and equal employment opportunity.)
• Racial Income Gap--actually increased– 1974—median black/white income ratio was 63 percent.– Mid-2000s, ratio fell to about 58 percent. (Decrease in ratio attributed to growth in black mother only families.)
• Ratio of Black/White Poverty Rate--little changed; about 3.5• Income mobility
– One-third of black children from middle-income families grow up to have higher incomes than their parents; two-thirds among whites.
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Some More Indicators of Equal Opportunity
• Test Score Gaps– Significant declines in racial gaps in adolescent test scores in
the 1980s, but little since.
• Race/Income College Attendance/Enrollment Rates– Some narrowing in income/racial gaps until late-1970s, but little
since.
• School Segregation—Progress toward desegregation has been uneven and limited– Blacks experienced little progress in desegregation until federal
legislation/judicial decisions in the 1960s. Large gains, especially in the South.
– Progress continued until late-1980s, when federal court decisions and political developments led to the resegregation of Black students.
– Percentage of black students enrolled in schools with 90-100% nonwhite enrollments
1968--64 percent (about 100 percent in South) 1980s--about 33 percent 1990s--about 37 percent 2000s--More than 40 percent
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Still More Indicators of Equal Opportunity
• Overt discrimination--now relatively rare, and more subtle
• Racially-motivated hate crimes--fallen since statistics kept– 1995—61 percent of hate crimes racially motivated; 2006—52
percent
• Corporate Board memberships– African Americans hold less than 1 percent of the senior-
level corporate positions in America's 1000 largest companies
– 3 percent of board seats of Fortune 1000 companies held by an African American; 2 percent held by Hispanics.
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But, Notable Increase for Minorities in One Area!
• Incarceration– At the time of the Brown decision (1954) there were
100,000 African-Americans in prison; now there are 900,000; a nine-fold increase.
– Today, about 40 percent of young black male high school dropouts are in prison or jail compared to 10 percent of young white male dropouts.
– African Americans comprise just 6 percent of the overall population in Wisconsin, yet they comprise 43 percent of the state’s prison population.
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But, the lack of notable success is not for lack of trying
• Government has surely done its part in attempting to reduce poverty– Enormous growth in Food Stamps--now about 60 million
recipients, up from 30 million in 2007.– Medicaid spending has grown rapidly, in line with
coverage/access.– SSI and EITC have also grown rapidly.– System reduces poverty rate from 29 percent to about
14 percent.
• But Public Efforts have been swimming upstream. – Adverse changes in family structure – Increasingly subtle discrimination in both housing and
the workplace– Persistent lousy learning conditions in inner city schools– A very uncooperative market system that has generated
increased earnings and income inequality, with staggering growth at the very top
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In Sum
• Support of programs providing housing, employment and educational opportunities to low income and minorities has achieved some successes.
• Yet, poverty rates have not fallen markedly, and racial gaps in earnings, incomes, assets, school achievement scores (among others) have shown very small gains, at best.
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Big Clouds on the Horizon• Today, 2/3rds to 3/4ths of those polled oppose
affirmative action in public and private sector hiring, promotion and college entry.
• Employment prospects for disadvantaged have eroded, and little support for targeting increased workforce developments on them.
• More insidious, though largely invisible, is the role of very conservative moneyed interests in supporting efforts to:– reduce public social spending– erode trade union influence– undermine efforts to increase racial diversity—in
schools, housing, and the workplace.
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More Clouds• The structure of the future economy
and social/economic policies are unclear.
• Future policy needs to do more than defend and extend existing public income support policies and pro-poor, equal opportunity efforts.
• The direction of future policy is the million dollar question.
• I’m not optimistic, but then I’m from Wisconsin.