Welfare symposium draws attention to domestic issues

Though Tufts is often known for its international focus, a group of professors attempted to remind students of the importance of national and domestic issues last week with a symposium on welfare reform. The two day event featured scholars from various institutions across the country and attracted students from an array of majors.

The symposium was a combined effort of the departments of Child Development, Economics, Political Science, and Urban & Environmental Policy and Planning. It offered four events including lectures, discussion periods, and a Thursday panel, on "Welfare Reform: Antecedents and Effects," which was moderated by Professors Yannis Ioannides and Linda Loury.

The goal of the event was to discuss the welfare issue but also to make "students understand that there are compelling domestic issues in which they should take interest," according to Economics Professor Gilbert Metcalf, one of the organizers.

The panel's presenters expounded upon topics ranging from the effects of economic cycles, US public opinion, the history of welfare, and the system's effects on children. The audience of approximately 75 students posed questions on child rearing as a form of work, Clinton's welfare policy, and the problems of gauging public support. Professor Rebecca Blank of the University of Michigan argued at the panel that the success of Clinton's 1996 Welfare Reform Bill was mainly due to the strong economy at the time. Blank, author of It Takes a Nation: A New Agenda for Fighting Poverty, has studied the link between welfare policies and the state of the economy.

Policymakers should focus on keeping unemployment levels low, adding work supports such as child-care, and on the need for retention programs and job search assistance after job loss, Blank said. Given the nature of economic cycles, she said, such issues must be addressed. Blank also advocated an extensive support network for disabled persons, the elderly, and other people who cannot work.

The symposium sought to cover many aspects of the welfare juggernaut, aside from issues of economics. Professor Martin Gilens of UCLA and Princeton, author of Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy, spoke on public opinion on the American welfare system. Gilens attempted to debunk the myth of the middle class' reluctance to support legislation that only benefits the poor.

During economic downturns, the public is more sympathetic to welfare spending, whereas improvements in the economy generally render the public less sensitive to the plight of the poor, Gilens said.

Societal wealth distribution has historically posed challenges to welfare reform, Professor James Jennings said during the panel. Past and current welfare reform has failed to address the problem of persistent poverty, instead mistakenly focusing on dependency, he said. Using economic terminology, Jennings described how welfare reform has tended to treat human capital from the demand side, assuming that jobs are available.

Welfare reform perpetuates racial and ethnic divisions, Jennings said. Employment demand differs on racial lines, and conditions for minorities are often particularly unfavorable, he said.

Jennings' words were overlapped by Gilens' contention that people prefer programs that promote self-sufficiency over those that merely provide monetary assistance. When the public perceives that more African Americans need aid, Jennings said, support for such aid concurrently declines. This phenomenon can be disappointingly self-reinforcing, he said.

African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities are not the only groups who suffer from Welfare policies, New York University Psychology Professor Hirokazu Yoshikawa said. Children and adolescents also suffer, said Yoshikawa, who has studied the effects of antipoverty policy on elementary school children and adolescents.

Elementary school children benefit more from assistance programs without time limits, he found, after analyzing maternal reports, teacher reports, and standardized test scores.

Adolescents do not seem to reap the same benefits of long-term assistance programs, Yoshikawa said. Children aged 12 to 18 years may be forced to assume adult roles when parents get jobs. Added duties such as caring for younger siblings may cause teenagers' schoolwork to suffer, he said. Maternal reports were the only source of information for the study on adolescents, indicating that more research is needed in the area, Yoshikawa said.

The panel discussion was only one element of the symposium, an idea that originated with Professors Metcalf and James Glaser, chairs of the Economics and Political Science departments. After plans to bring Blank to campus over a year ago fell through, Metcalf and Glazer decided to expand the lecture into an interdisciplinary forum.

Students can take advantage of course offerings at Tufts to learn about welfare reform and related issues, Metcalf said. "...The social sciences here at Tufts can teach students much about important domestic policy issues like health care, Social Security, and unemployment," he said.

Metcalf would like to follow this symposium's success with "another compelling policy topic" next year.