Early this year Republican Senator Stacey Campfield filed legislation in Tennessee House and Senate to connect Welfare benefits to children’s test scores.[i] The bill[ii] proposes that applicants for welfare, should they have children, be required to send their children to school, make sure they are immunized, and identify the father if child support is involved, which are already requirements of the Families First welfare in Tennessee.[iii] Additionally, the welfare office and each individual applicants will develop a “personal responsibility plan” where if any of the conditions are not met means a reduction in benefits. One of the conditions that should be included in each plan is that each child attend and “maintain satisfactory academic progress in school”. In order to reach this level, students need to fulfill school attendance requirements and receive a proficient or advanced score the state examinations in Math and English, Language and Arts (ELA) or maintain a grade point average that will allow the student to advance to the next grade. However, these requirements are not held to students who “have Individualized Educational Placements and who are not academically talented or gifted”. A failure of the student’s advancement to the next grade would stipulate a 30 percent reduction in benefits, until grades or scores are brought up.
The majority of the conditions explicit in the legislation require nothing new of individuals seeking benefits; such legislation paints an undeserving and irresponsible picture of recipients. The negative emotions surrounding welfare benefits predate this legislation and on a whole are pervasive in American politics. For example, in European nations poverty is often linked to poor luck, and not lack of responsibility, as seen here, or initiative and hard work as argued by Nussbaum.[iv]
This legislation, although only recommended at the state level, could influence national public policy. As the policy is more ideological than substantive in nature, it could be emulated in states or other nations that have similar ideological lines, particularly in those areas that this would only be an incremental policy innovation, like in Tennessee.[v]
The implications of such a policy could be disastrous, particularly since interpretation of the child’s academic progress is ambiguously defined and determined by bureaucratic officials in the welfare office. Similarly, evidence that test scores can be equated to student progress or achievement is inconclusive.[vi] Lastly, the lowest achieving students are often the ones who are receiving welfare benefits and whether it is the fault of the parent or of failing schools, it does not seem appropriate to reduce the amounts of benefits children receive at home because of their inability to succeed in school. If the goal of the Republican Senator is to increase parent’s accountability in their children’s academic success, there are many public policy alternatives that he could support. For example, incentive based programs that reward academic achievement with after or out of school time programming, day care, or an increase in benefits might be more beneficial than cutting what little resources they are receiving from welfare.
Ultimately in choosing an alternative policy one would need to decide whether a child should be held responsible for the quantity of foods stamps a family receives. Whether their fragile psyche should be held responsible for the quantity of support the state provides to their family, and what kind of stressors that would place on them and their familial relationships. Parent accountability in children’s academic success is important, but this seems like an alternative that is not simply about addressing accountability, but punitive in nature based on outdated ideological elucidations of the cause of poverty.
[i] Healey, C. Tennessee Bill: Welfare Benefits Depends on Child’s School Performance. MSNBC, April 1, 2013. http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/04/01/tennessee-bill-welfare-benefits-depend-on-childs-school-performance/
[ii] Tennessee House Bill 0261: http://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/billinfo/BillSummaryArchive.aspx?BillNumber=HB0261&ga=108
[iii] Application for Welfare benefits- Tennessee residents:
http://www.tn.gov/humanserv/forms/Intake%20application%20and%20Statement%20of%20Understanding_English.pdf
[iv] Nussbaum, M. “Upheavals of Thought”. Cambridge University Press, 2001. p 313
[v] Grossback, L. Ideology and Learning in Policy Diffusion. American Politics Research, Vol. 32, No. 5, September 2004. p522
[vi] “Class Size and Student Achievement: Research Review”. Center for Public Education. ND/np. http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Organizing-a-school/Class-size-and-student-achievement-At-a-glance/Class-size-and-student-achievement-Research-review.html
Kelsey
The majority of the conditions explicit in the legislation require nothing new of individuals seeking benefits; such legislation paints an undeserving and irresponsible picture of recipients. The negative emotions surrounding welfare benefits predate this legislation and on a whole are pervasive in American politics. For example, in European nations poverty is often linked to poor luck, and not lack of responsibility, as seen here, or initiative and hard work as argued by Nussbaum.[iv]
This legislation, although only recommended at the state level, could influence national public policy. As the policy is more ideological than substantive in nature, it could be emulated in states or other nations that have similar ideological lines, particularly in those areas that this would only be an incremental policy innovation, like in Tennessee.[v]
The implications of such a policy could be disastrous, particularly since interpretation of the child’s academic progress is ambiguously defined and determined by bureaucratic officials in the welfare office. Similarly, evidence that test scores can be equated to student progress or achievement is inconclusive.[vi] Lastly, the lowest achieving students are often the ones who are receiving welfare benefits and whether it is the fault of the parent or of failing schools, it does not seem appropriate to reduce the amounts of benefits children receive at home because of their inability to succeed in school. If the goal of the Republican Senator is to increase parent’s accountability in their children’s academic success, there are many public policy alternatives that he could support. For example, incentive based programs that reward academic achievement with after or out of school time programming, day care, or an increase in benefits might be more beneficial than cutting what little resources they are receiving from welfare.
Ultimately in choosing an alternative policy one would need to decide whether a child should be held responsible for the quantity of foods stamps a family receives. Whether their fragile psyche should be held responsible for the quantity of support the state provides to their family, and what kind of stressors that would place on them and their familial relationships. Parent accountability in children’s academic success is important, but this seems like an alternative that is not simply about addressing accountability, but punitive in nature based on outdated ideological elucidations of the cause of poverty.
[i] Healey, C. Tennessee Bill: Welfare Benefits Depends on Child’s School Performance. MSNBC, April 1, 2013. http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/04/01/tennessee-bill-welfare-benefits-depend-on-childs-school-performance/
[ii] Tennessee House Bill 0261: http://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/billinfo/BillSummaryArchive.aspx?BillNumber=HB0261&ga=108
[iii] Application for Welfare benefits- Tennessee residents:
http://www.tn.gov/humanserv/forms/Intake%20application%20and%20Statement%20of%20Understanding_English.pdf
[iv] Nussbaum, M. “Upheavals of Thought”. Cambridge University Press, 2001. p 313
[v] Grossback, L. Ideology and Learning in Policy Diffusion. American Politics Research, Vol. 32, No. 5, September 2004. p522
[vi] “Class Size and Student Achievement: Research Review”. Center for Public Education. ND/np. http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Organizing-a-school/Class-size-and-student-achievement-At-a-glance/Class-size-and-student-achievement-Research-review.html
Kelsey
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