Our Basic Dream: Keeping Faith with America's Working Families and Their Children

Published by the Foundation for Child Development

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Executive Summary

Our basic dream - the idea that hard work should lead to a better life - reflects a fundamental American value. For centuries, much of our nation's productivity and prosperity has been attributed to the work ethic that springs from the idea. When ordinary people believe that they labor within a fair system that rewards effort, they apply themselves more diligently. But when Americans begin to perceive that the terms of the compact have been broken - that the promise of a decent living and the possibility of social mobility are beyond the grasp even of full-time, year-round workers - the basic dream loses its power to motivate effort.

Breaking the Cycle of Hardship

That is why the existence of the "working poor" - millions of Americans who have difficulty making ends meet despite honest labor - represents a profound insult to our basic dream and threatens the prosperity it has fostered. According to the National Academy of Sciences, some 30 million Americans live in families that face hardship despite employment.

Given our nation's strong economy, the phrase, "working poor," should be a contradiction in terms. And yet, the ranks of the working poor have increased significantly over the last decade, encompassing families of every description. Unless Americans take steps now to counter this trend, it is likely to intensify in coming years.

Employment is vital to family economic security. But jobs do not reduce poverty; good jobs reduce poverty. An expanding economy has produced more jobs, but fewer steady, full-time jobs offering a living wage and full benefits. Inadequate education and training depress the wages of many workers, creating a cycle of hardship. Those workers cannot give their children the basics - including adequate nutrition, housing, health care, or early-learning programs, giving rise to another generation of low-wage, low-productivity workers. This cycle must be broken.

Composing a New Social Compact

Ending welfare as we knew it may be the kind of social crisis that leads to renegotiating a social compact based on childrens' and families' requirements for a decent life. This compact would require of all able adults personal effort, initiative, and responsibility. In return, it would strengthen public responsibility for the well-being of children and their families.

For All Americans - Opportunities to Learn throughout the Life Span, Beginning in the Early Years

Shape welfare and employment policies that strengthen adult learning. Lifelong learning - a key to better worker productivity and compensation - necessitates initiative and conscientious work on the part of individuals. But systematic efforts to ensure a well-educated, well-equipped workforce also require public investment.

Work toward universal access to quality early-learning programs. The United States lags behind other wealthy, industrialized countries in educating young children. Today, policymakers, educators, business leaders, and philanthropists are joining the call for universal, voluntary access to early education programs for three- and four-year-olds. Equity is a major concern. As things stand, low-income families - especially the working poor - have less access to center-based programs than more affluent families. And the early education opportunities open to their young children depend on where they happen to live.

Build in program standards and quality incentives. As consensus builds on the urgency and viability of universal early education and care, numerous policy groups and scholars are putting forward plans. Under most of these proposals, the federal government would give states incentive grants to support good-quality early-learning programs.

Focus on the early education workforce. Improving school readiness for young children will take significant investments in the professional development of current and new early childhood teachers. The National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Early Childhood Pedagogy has recommended that, in early education programs, every group of children should have a teacher with a bachelor's degree in some aspect of child development or special education.

For All Children - Good Nutrition and Health Care

Ensure that all eligible families receive Food Stamps. Today, no child should have to go hungry or suffer the ill effects of malnourishment. Ensuring food security entails two key challenges: making sure that Food Stamp recipients continue to receive benefits for as long as they are eligible, and reaching out to families who qualify for Food Stamps but have never received them.

Offer child feeding programs on a universal basis. A universal approach can lessen stigma, improve utilization rates, and reduce the costs of administering a means-tested program.

Enroll all eligible children in public health insurance programs. Both Medicaid and State Child Health Insurance Programs provide excellent coverage for preventive and primary health care. The challenge is to extend outreach and public education, and to make both plans more accessible and effective. But it is not enough to streamline onerous enrollment forms and procedures. Changing attitudes - and the institutional practices that create them - is just as important.

Insure all chidren and youth. The American Academy of Pediatrics has endorsed universal access to health care for children and youth. Universal coverage that includes preventive care is an ambitious goal, but an affordable one.

Look beyond enrollment. Mere enrollment does not guarantee good health care. Other vital questions need answers: Are participating children receiving appropriate services? What is the quality of the care they receive? What barriers stand in their families' way as they try to make use of their insurance benefits?

For All Parents - The Chance to Provide for, Shelter, Nurture, and Protect Their Children

Base public policies on realistic assessments of what families need - not the outdated federal poverty line. Basic family budgets offer a realistic, commonsense alternative method for gauging what it takes for families to cover their essential needs in a given location, including the costs of health care and early child education programs, and should be used to guide policymaking.

Address the shortage of affordable housing in safe neighborhoods. Efforts to address the shortage should increase access to existing housing, renovate substandard units, create much-needed new housing stock, and address discrimination in housing. In addition, improving outcomes for children requires sustained efforts to strengthen impoverished neighborhoods.

Expand job opportunities for working-poor families by improving transportation. Changes in welfare policies and rules could enable low-wage earners to own vehicles so that they can commute to work, bring children to early education programs and medical appointments, and manage household chores. Improving public transportation can benefit many families.

Expand job benefits for low-wage employees. A shortage of time affects most American families. But compared with other workers, low-wage workers have less access to benefits - including paid family leave, sick days, and time off to tend to family matters. Public- and private-sector employers are beginning to institute more family-supportive policies, but they can do much more.

Move toward paid family leave for all who need it. The Family and Medical Leave Act gives eligible parents 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a newborn or adopted child; tend to a sick parent, child, or spouse; or recover from a serious illness. But many Americans - including most low-wage earners - cannot afford to take unpaid leave. New approaches are needed. Some states have made use of state unemployment insurance or temporarity disability insurance to help family members meet their responsibilities.

Extend public health insurance to parents. Parents' health affects children's well-being throughout childhood and beyond. Low-income adults are even less likely than low-income children to have health insurance. A federal plan is being considered that would allow states to cover parents in the same program as their children (Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program).

For All Workers -Public Policies Aimed at Making Work Pay

Strengthen the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The federal EITC provides tax credits to low-income workers, and is payable to workers even if they owe no federal income taxes. To date, at least ten states have adopted EITCs. An expansion of the EITC, and its extension to additional states, could make a significant difference for low-wage working families and their children. Efforts are also needed to address shortcomings in the design and implementation of the EITC.

Increase pretax wages. The EITC is a popular, helpful mechanism, but it cannot solve the fundamental problem - low pretax wages. Increases in the minimum wage can decrease poverty. For many low-wage earners, unionization can be an effective stragegy for raising compensation, improving working conditions, and creating a career ladder. Living-wage campaigns - efforts to win local living-wage ordinances in cities and countries across the nation - are also important. Finally, closing the gender gap in employment would improve wages significantly. If men and women were paid equally, more than half of officially poor families would rise above the federal poverty line.

For All Communities and States - A Package of Policies and Programs that Support Working Families

Piecemeal strategies cannot sustain our basic dream. What is needed is a coherent plan accompanied by a well-coordinated package of policies aimed at ensuring a decent quality of life for all working familes, while creating a safety net for those who cannot work due to physical or mental disabilities or special circumstances. This multifaceted approach has been adopted by other industrialized countries, with good results. Even those that have experienced similar changes in family structure, including increases in single-parent families, have kept child poverty rates much lower than the United States through family-supportive policies.

For the Nation - A Recommitment to the Traditional American Values of Fairness and Justice

None of these policies or solutions can make a difference for children without the bonds of reciprocity that unite individuals into families, families into communities, and communities into a nation. While devolution has shifted significant responsibility and resources to the states, the federal government must continue to play a key role, ensuring equity across regions and states, so that children's life chances are not constrained by where they happen to live.

The time has come to recommit the nation to fulfilling our basic dream: not only to find someone to watch the children while their parents work, but also to create settings where children can flourish and learn; not only to expand the number of jobs for American workers, but also to create good jobs; not only to encourage or require full-time work, but also to ensure that hard work will enable workers to meet their expenses today and put something by for the future. The time has come to restore belief in the power of individual effort and public responsibility to children and their families. The time has come to let America be America again.

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