ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 8, 1996 TAG: 9612100148
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CABELL BRAND
THE WELFARE-reform bill, signed by President Clinton over the objections of many Democrats, will cause enormous suffering and problems for low-income children unless new legislation is enacted, as Clinton promised, to take care of the problems.
The public wanted what it thought was welfare reform. But I don't think the average person realized that two thirds of the people receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children public assistance are children.
We obviously need job-training programs to help adults go to work and be productive. But at the same time, we need safety-net programs for children so they have health care, food, housing and all the things necessary to grow up healthy and to complete at least a high-school education.
Everyone accepts as a governmental responsiblity the provision of 12 years of public schooling for all children in America. This is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for children to be a part of our society, to have a job in the 21st century and a chance to be self-supporting.
The disagreement comes as to what is the government's role in making sure everyone gets a high-school education.
Many low-income children do not have proper nutrition or access to basic health care. Poor health is a major reason why 30 percent of our children are not ready for kindergarten or first grade when they reach the ages of 5 and 6.
There are many other social and economic reasons why children do not finish school. But it is a public responsibility to do everything possible to see that they complete 12 years of free public schooling.
Accordingly, those of us who have been working in this field for over 30 years have developed an 11-point list that we hope the president and the new Congress will enact, primarily for our children but also for jobs and job training for adults:
1. Double the funding of the Community Services Block Grant program, to $1 billion annually.
This is a relatively small amount of federal money that goes primarily to children. It supports all 950 community-action agencies in the country, including Total Action Against Poverty (TAP) here. TAP receives about $600,000 a year from this block grant, yet is able to leverage it into a $10 million budget with 39 programs to help the low-income population, with 80 percent going to education and to children.
This cost-effective federal expenditure builds and increases successful programs. If TAP had double the resources, it would increase programs focused on those children left out of the former welfare safety-net.
2. Make the Comprehensive Health Investment Program (CHIP) a national program for all low-income children 6 and younger.
CHIP was started in Roanoke eight years ago and now is in 10 cities across the state. CHIP was started with foundation grants, all of which have expired. The program's only steady funds are $700,000 in the state budget and local support funds. CHIP has proved cost-effective both in providing needed health care to babies and young children and in helping the mothers and older children. About 15 percent of the mothers of CHIP children, at the time of enrollment, were employed. After just one year, this had risen to 32 percent. Nearly 40 percent of the mothers, at the time of CHIP enrollment, were on AFDC welfare. After one year, this had been reduced to 24 percent. CHIP, started by TAP and supported by community-action agencies across the state, pays and should become a national program.
3. Fully fund Head Start.
TAP had the first Head Start program in Virginia and has had more than 15,000 graduates. Head Start has proved to be cost-effective in preparing 3- and 4-year-olds for public school and as a health-care program coordinated with family support to prepare children for school. It should be fully funded as a day-long program. After 32 years of Head Start's successful operation, still only 30 percent of eligible children are able to take advantage of it because of the shortage of funds.
4 . Extend Medicaid to all children in families with incomes up to 150 percent of the poverty line until high-school graduation.
Inadequate health care should not be a reason that children do not finish school. Medicaid is part of the answer.
5. Extend child care.
Working mothers need child care. Mothers working at or near the minimum wage cannot afford it. Federal, state and local governments should work with community organizations to increase child-care or day-care facilities and access to them. Child care should be tax deductible for families up to a certain income level, or on a graduated basis. New laws and regulations reduce child-care availability rather than increase it.
6. Institute extensive practical job-training.
This includes allocation of additional funds for literacy, coordination of diploma-equivalency programs and on-the-job training in the private sector for those previously on welfare or those with incomes below 150 percent of the poverty line. Subsidize training wages for one to two years, beginning at $3 per hour and decreasing as progress is made.
This is self-explanatory. Low-income people need to be trained to work - first to read and write, then to get a GED, then to get specific training that should be done by businesses for specific jobs.
7. Fund the Small Business Administration to award small loans through banks and community organizations' pools for micro-enterprise loans.
SBA would provide part of the capital for loans and guarantee 80 percent of the rest. In our society, and, indeed, all over the world, people want to be in business for themselves. Small-loan programs for people who want to start small businesses is very cost-effective. It helps people become self-supporting and participate in the free-enterprise system.
This is good business. Unfortunately, the SBA does not have funds to make these loans directly. It should cooperate with community organizations and local banks to develop a massive micro-enterprise lending program.
8. Finance new housing programs for renovation of old properties and increase rent-subsidy initiatives.
Rather than build expensive new public housing, old houses should be renovated to build up neighborhoods. Poor people need a graduated subsidy based on income to help them with housing until they can afford this on their own.
9. Shelter the homeless.
Thirty percent of the residents of TAP's Transitional Living Center are children. It is a disgrace in this country to have homeless people, especially children. The concept of the Transitional Living Center is proven. Families can live for several months as they receive counseling, help and encouragement, first to find a job and then a place to live. It is a transition, like a halfway house, to get people back into society. It is cost-effective. The federal and state governments should contribute more resources to expand this type of facility.
10. Expand teen-outreach programs like the T.O.P. program in Roanoke.
This is an example of an action-oriented teen program to keep children in school while they do community service. This helps teen-agers do valuable local projects and feel good about their role in the community and their own life.
11. Provide food stamps for low-income families and children participating in one of the above programs.
There is no place for hunger for children in this country and for their families who are trying hard to help themselves. Food stamps should continue to be available to mothers, families and children who are involved in one of the self-help programs mentioned above.
This list is not all-encompassing, but it is an important start. If Congress and President Clinton would enact such an 11-point program with local community involvement, we would be setting the stage for strengthening our society as we march into the 21st century. That bridge would be strong enough and long enough for all of us.
Cabell Brand, president of Recovery Systems Inc. in Salem, is the retired chairman of Total Action Against Poverty.
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