Critics who advocate encouraging pregnant teenagers to marry are mistaken. Teen marriages are distinctly less stable than marriages that occur after age twenty. Later marriers are less likely to be on welfare and are likely to have more education and fewer children. A hasty marriage makes a bad situation worse. (BJV)

Discusses current welfare reform focus on state-level funding for child care, offering implications for early childhood professionals. Notes that with temporary assistance, low-income mothers must move into the work force, resulting in increased reliance on center-based child care. Urges professionals to work with local and state policymakers to…

The need for good child care in the South will increase dramatically when the 1988 Family Support Act (FSA) takes effect. The FSA requires mothers receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children or welfare payments to enroll in the Jobs Opportunities and Basic Skills program and calls for states to pay for child care for mothers in the program.…

Welfare reform must include reform of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, which is more costly and faster growing than Aid to Families with Dependent Children. SSI allows growing numbers of disabled citizens to depend on the government in spite of new employment opportunities for the disabled and protective legislation. (SLD)

Addresses issues of early intervention with young children with disabilities in the context of poverty as a risk factor for disability and recent welfare-to-work legislation. Concepts developed by Uri Bronfenbrenner and Peter Neville are reviewed to show the need to integrate concepts of risk and ecological support into the contexts of caregiving…

The United States has been through anti-immigration movements every few decades since its founding. A new face of the anti-immigration movement can be seen emerging from current events including: (1) California's Proposition 187, under which illegal immigrants are barred from public education and teachers are required to report illegal immigrants…

The Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) program, a component of the 1988 Family Support Act, emphasizes education and occupational training for welfare recipients, but it has not provided sufficient corrective measures to promote work among recipients of Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). The most serious deficiency of JOBS is…

This congressional hearing contains testimony pertinent to the impact of stress on the American family caused by the workplace. Focus of the hearing is on dual wage-earning parents and the effects on family relationships as well as on non-working recipients of public assistance. The following agencies and organizations were among those represented…

Race is only one of the prisms through which to examine the political and social life of Americans, but it is one in which there has been insufficient determination of contemporary dynamics. For this discussion, the most important issue is the debate within the black community regarding the nature and causes of the crisis facing African Americans…

Argues that the federal government is the only funding source of the magnitude needed to create an adequate early care and education system. Urges the early childhood community to unite behind a long-term strategy for creating and financing an effective national early care/education system. Presents three such proposals that differ in priorities…

This fantasy looks back from 1999 to chronicle the imagined scenario of welfare reform in the presidency of Forrest Gump (and the vice-presidency of William Bennett). The decline in government assistance is matched by an increase in private sources of aid and a heightened sense of personal responsibility among Americans. (SLD)

Books in the Opposing Viewpoints Series present debates about current issues that can be used to teach critical reading and thinking skills. The variety of opinions expressed in this collection of articles and book excerpts explore many aspects of illegal immigration. Contrary depictions of the aspirations and attitudes of illegal immigrants fuel…

The number of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) cases has fallen in the past 4 years, and there is disagreement over the cause. Credit has been given to "waiver" programs that resembled Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and to the growing economy. This sort of confusion over program effects is partly a…

The upcoming reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant is prompting closer scrutiny of how families affected by the law are faring. This research brief examines teen employment in the context of welfare reform, drawing on data from the National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) to describe employment…

Contrasts family and child-care discourse and policies in United States and Denmark, with focus on discourse about the poor, about women and welfare, about single motherhood, and about the role of government in providing for children. Critically analyzes dissolution of U.S. social "safety net" and contrasts it with Danish discourse of…