Suchergebnisse

Refutes current political rhetoric that vilifies relatively effective programs such as the Comprehensive Employment & Training Act (CETA). CETA served millions of Americans from 1974 to 1983 & succeeded in placing women in job environments where real, transferable skills were acquired. Right-wing politicians, while recognizing the program's accomplishments, criticized it for not making greater gains & for serving the more educated segment of the welfare base, with both criticisms part of an effort to defund the Left. Public job training programs, through often innovative programs, should create jobs & provide education & training that respect the individual, offer voluntary participation, & qualify participants for labor market wages (Rose 1995). New reforms, however, supplant such programs with a limited "rapid attachment" design that forces workers into low-end jobs that lack benefits & long-term solutions. L. A. Hoffman

This volume examines the effects of mid 1990s welfare reform in the state of Oregon. The reforms made cash assistance temporary and contingent on recipients' seeking and finding employment. Based on comprehensive research conducted in the late 1990s, researchers interviewed and observed low-income families across the state, as well as welfare workers and administrators. These interviews led to new definitions of the problems facing those who work within the welfare delivery system and the people the system serves. The researchers assessed the strengths and shortcoming of welfare reform, and they suggest policy directions that will promote economic security and family well being. The reasons for the overall failure of welfare reform, the authors concluded, are complex and rooted in a misdiagnosis of the reasons that millions of families are poor and dependence on policy solutions "that intensified economic insecurity and reproduced inequalities more than they fostered poverty reduction or economic opportunity." The authors call for an immediate effort to build a stronger social safety net and to repeal the most onerous provisions of welfare reform. They recommend a host of policies to promote economic security including a focus on developing higher wage jobs, health care reform, and access to high quality and affordable higher education, housing and child care