This report provides a detailed examination of the various federal programs for children and families and outlines ways in which the United States Congress and Executive Branch could make these programs work better. Intricate and often overlapping goals and actions are typical of the Congressional committees and Executive Branch departments that…

About half of the first part of a 4-part compendium of information about low income assistance programs is presented in this document (the rest of part 1 and the other 3 parts of the compendium are presented in volume 3 of supplement 1 of this series). Part 1 contains detailed information about 59 major federally supported public assistance…

Chapter 1 was the federal government's first large-scale school aid program attempting to break the "cycle of poverty." The program's effectiveness--especially the formula for funding disbursement--is questioned. Congressional hearings in 1987 are expected to examine the program and consider the most effective means to provide poor…

This report, along with its supplemental volumes, assesses the welfare system and its successes and failures, describes the frustrations felt by the poor in the United States, and proposes a basic change in public assistance policy. America's state and federal governments spend more than $150 billion a year on programs to alleviate poverty, yet…

This report provides an overview of the current welfare system. The number and size of federal public assistance programs have increased during the past 25 years, with particular growth in noncash benefit programs, which now constitute about three-quarters of all means-tested assistance. From mid-1983 to mid-1984, more than 52.5 million Americans…

The failure of State governments to use their unique place in the Federal structure for the relief of urban areas is illustrated by the school lunch program in New Jersey. The cities have a higher share of needy students and yet do not receive a greater share of program funds than the suburbs. The lunch gap--i.e., the number of low income students…

This volume contains the second half of part 1 of a 4-part compendium of information about low income assistance programs plus the remaining 3 parts of the compendium. Part 1 contains detailed information about 59 major federally supported public assistance programs, each of which annually spent over $20 million in fiscal year 1985, and applied a…

This book analyzes the responses of five states (Florida, Mississippi, New York, Washington, and Wisconsin) to challenges posed by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 to alter state welfare programs and management systems. Using case studies, the book highlights similarities and differences in the states'…