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THE STATE OF AMERICA'S CHILDREN YEARBOOK 1998
reform efforts, has dramatically increased the
number of families combining welfare with work.
In October 1993 a mere 6.9 percent of the
caseload-14,144 families-had earnings; by August
1997 that number jumped to 39,795 families, or
25.4 percent of the caseload. Furthermore, 95 Illinois
counties reported that at least 30 percent of
their TANF families were working in 1997; not a
single county had such a high proportion three
years before. The state's willingness to provide a
wage supplement based on each family's need and
work effort, and not on an arbitrary time limit,
seems to be putting more families on the track to
employment and self-sufficiency.
Moving Forward: A 1998 Agenda
for Action
Anumber of concrete steps can be taken to lift
children out of poverty. Parents need the tools
to get and keep jobs, and families need income
supports when jobs do not pay enough to make
ends meet. Even in a thriving economy, some families
live in areas where work is not available and
jobs must be created. Other parents simply cannot
work, either temporarily or permanently, because
of their disability or their child's. Not every family
has the same needs, of course. Literacy training is
a priority for some; others may need the chance to
fInish college. Many require subsidized child care;
others have to fInd a way to get to work. For some,
cash aid is essential to keep their children from
destitution.
Eliminating child poverty is critical on grounds
of humanity and compassion, but it is imperative,
too, as an investment in our economic future. What
actions can make a real difference in the lives of
children and families?
• Families need access to good jobs and the supports
that make work possible. Federal and
state governments should invest in child care
and transportation so that parents can get to
work and know that their children are safe and
nurtured. Mothers, especially those escaping
from abusive situations, may need counseling,
treatment for depression, or help in recovering
from substance abuse before they can perform
at work.
• Parents need education and training as a
means to compete for jobs with good pay. The
federal government should give states the
flexibility to count training or education as an
allowable work activity, because every year of
education improves the family's chance of rising
out of poverty. Federal financial aid
should expand on the work-study model to
offer stipends to parents trying to upgrade
their employment potential. Businesses
should follow the recommendation of the National
Association of Manufacturers and invest
between 3 and 5 percent of payroll on
employee training.
• Children should be able to count on the support
of both parents. States should eliminate
the disincentives for marriage that linger from
the old welfare system, dropping the rules that
made it harder for two-parent families to qualify
for aid. When parents cannot stay together,
the absent parent should pay child support.
States should act quickly to automate their
child support enforcement systems, to register
newly hired employees, and to use other enforcement
tools to improve on the current dismal
collection record.
• States should pilot child support assurance
programs. Under such programs, the state
makes vigorous efforts to collect support from
the absent parent. If no support payments can
be obtained, however, the state pays a base
amount per child that provides a sure source of
income and, when combined with the custodial
parent's earnings, offers families a far
greater chance to escape from poverty.
• The minimum wage should be raised until a
full-time minimum wage job pays at least
enough to support a family of three above the
poverty line, as it did during most of the 1960s
and 1970s.
• States should enact their own Earned Income
Tax Credits, as nine states already have. Massachusetts,
Minnesota, New York, Vermont, and
14 CHILDREN'S DEFE SE FU D