The Roosevelt Institution

1527 New Hampshire Ave, NW

Washington, D.C. 20036

The 25 Ideas Series

Volume 1 • Issue 2 • July 2007
Copyright 2007

Executive Director
Kai Stinchcombe

Chair of the Editorial Board

Caitlin Howarth

Director of Publications
Kyle Atwell

National Editorial Board

Paul Burow
Chandni Challa
Kirti Datla
Eva DuGoff
James Elias
Nicholas Greenfield
Emily Hallet
Robert Nelb
Ernesto Rodriguez

Challege Coordinators
Olivia Katz, Energy Crisis
Suzanne Kahn, Working Families
Zach Marks, Higher Education

Printed by Harris Lithographics, Inc. of Landover, Maryland.

The opinions expressed within the 25 Ideas Series are exclusively those of the indi-
vidual authors and do not represent the views of the editorial board, the Roosevelt
Institution, or any of the organization’s chapters, centers, advisors, or affiliates.
 25 ideas
for

Working Families
in
America

Volume 1 • Issue 2 • July 2007

 Table of Contents

Predatory Payday Lending Reform 12

Alexander Bartik, Lulu Cheng, Brandon Fong, Gregory Geusic, Benjamin Lazarus,
& Jacob Koch; Yale University

Expanding Access to Services to Combat Child Poverty 14

Charlotta Chung, Saint Lawrence University

State Earned Income Tax Credits 16

Alexander Bartik, Brandon Fong, Gregory Geusic, and Eric Kafka, Yale University

Partnerships for Minority Empowerment: 18

Restructuring the Current Population Survey
Helen Cheung, Leo Espino, University of Washington

Indexing the Massachusetts Minimum Wage 20

Jason Poulos, University of Massachusetts

Tax-based Automatic Enrollment in SCHIP 22

Robert Nelb, Yale University

Increasing Healthcare Insurance Enrollment 24

Matthew Parelman, George Washington University

Certificate-of-Need Laws 26
Deep J. Shah, University of Georgia

Single-Payer Healthcare 28
Jake Grumbach, Columbia University

Primary Adult Care 30

Laurel Murphy, John Hopkins University

Expanding the Family Medical Leave Act 32

Kaitlin Canty and Samantha Sherwood, Union College and University of Connecticut

Crafting State Health Policies to Cover the Uninsured 34

Lawrence Fried, Cornell University

Strengthen Paternity Leave 36

Sofia Brill, Yale University
Empowering Families to Choose Quality Childcare 38
Amy Abbandondelo, Carl Nadler, New York University

Community Partnerships to Curb Domestic Violence 40

Morgan Patten, Wright State University

Reduce the Number of Child Support Enforcement Cases 42

Lauren Barnett, Princeton University

Helping Working Families with Children Under Five 44

Hallie Fox, Middlebury College

Inclusionary Zoning for Increased Access to Affordable Housing 46

Kether Hayden, Occidental College

A Home for the Working Poor 48

Kevin Chang, Brian Levy, University of Georgia

Stemming the Tide of the Uninsured 50

Brian Levy, The University of Georgia

Social Capital Block Grants 52

Niko Karvounis, Oxford University

Federal Farm Subsidies Limitations Proposal 54

Sheila Korth, University of Nebraska

National Guard Readiness Certification Requirements 56

Kai Stinchcombe, Stanford University

Improving Accessibility to Art Museums 58

Nancy Thebaut, Agnes Scott College

Welfare Reform: Focus on Community Service 60

Kate Berlent, Hamilton College
 25 ideas
Summer 2007

The 25 Ideas project is a direct extension of the Roosevelt Institution’s mission to

connect students’ policy ideas to policymakers. Each aspect has been designed
with the lawmaker in mind: from the two-page, condensed formatting, to the
inclusion of concise sets of key facts and talking points. Both easy to read and
easy to understand, these ideas have been distilled into small bursts of creativity
and thoughtfulness. Though they have been condensed here for the busy reader’s
convenience, several of these Ideas are also available in extended form through
rooseveltinstitution.org or in our upcoming issue of the Roosevelt Review.

While we hope that you will enjoy reading these Ideas, they are not meant
to stay on your coffee table. Some Ideas have ramifications for those who
work at the federal policy level; others, at the state and municipal levels. Still
others focus primarily on what universities can do. So no matter what level of
government you focus on - or even if you are still a student - there is an Idea in
these pages that you should consider acting on.

• • •

The Roosevelt Institution is a national student think tank with nearly 7,000
members at over 50 college campuses across the United States. Founded in
2004, the Institution strives to connect students to the policymaking process
in a variety of ways through print and online publications, direct student-to-
lawmaker connections, and annual conferences. The Roosevelt Institution has
been featured in such publications as The New York Times, The Chronicle of
Higher Education, and Der Spiegel.

The Institution wishes to give special thanks to its outgoing Executive Director
and co-founder, Kai Stinchcombe. Kai’s enthusiasm for this project and
his indefatigable energy propelled the 25 Ideas from the white board to the
Roosevelt chapters, collecting hundreds of ideas and turning a wish into a
reality. Since 2004, Kai’s vision for the potential of his fellow students has
developed into an organization that is changing the way many students study
and interact with public policy. The Roosevelt Institution is truly fortunate to
have had his entrepreneurial spirit, and he will be sorely missed at our offices
in Washington, D.C.
 Letter from the Editors

The Roosevelt Institution is founded and thrives on the passion and intellectual capital
of undergraduate and graduate students. Along with energy and higher education, the
problems facing working families were selected by our student membership as one
of the major issues facing our country. Students across the country submitted policy
proposals demonstrating their heart and acumen.

Historically, work was the pillar upon which family life rested. However, with more
single parent or two breadwinner households, longer hours, job insecurity, and limited
health and retirement benefits, we believe that work has become an impediment to
family life. This squeeze on the family impacts child care, civic participation, family
stability, and opportunities to get ahead. In these pages, you will find 25 proposals that
demonstrate a commitment to helping society support working families.

This year, Roosevelt Institution chapters across the country organized brainstorming
meetings and student conferences addressing issues facing America’s working families.
Many of these policy proposals are a product of these meetings. Other proposals are
the result of course work and independent research.

Selecting the final 25 ideas from the wide pool of submissions was no easy task. We
sought to provide a balanced publication that addressed a broad range of issues that
affect working families that could be addressed by federal, state and local governments.
We hope that you will find both truly innovative approaches, as well as pragmatic
variations on older themes that span the ideological spectrum. We are honored to
have worked with so many talented students who will be the next generation of policy
leaders.

Finally, this publication would not have been possible without the vision and support
of our editors, Kyle Atwell of University of California Davis and Caitlin Howarth of
the University of Virginia, and the dedication of Suzanne Kahn from Yale University,
the Working Families Challenge Coordinator. Kyle, Caitlin, and Suzanne spent
countless hours helping us on every aspect of this publication.

We hope that you enjoy reading these 25 policy proposals; that you see the energy and
promise of the next generation. More importantly, we hope that you will use these
policy proposals to better the lives of working families in the United States.

Sincerely,

Eva DuGoff and Rob Nelb

Editors, Roosevelt Challenge on Working Families
 Acknowledgments

The Roosevelt Institution recognizes and thanks the following people for their outstanding
dedication to the success of this inaugural publication. Any accolades earned by this
new venture are due to their guidance and aid.

Kyle Atwell
Paul Burow
Chandni Challa
Kirti Datla
Eva DuGoff
James Elias
Nicholas Greenfield
Emily Hallet
William Hollingsworth
Caitlin Howarth
Rea Howarth
Suzanne Kahn
Olivia Katz
Nate Loewentheil
Zach Marks
Robert Nelb
Ernesto Rodriguez
Oliver Schulze
Kai Stinchcombe

To our friends and donors, whose continued generosity

makes the impossible happen every day,
thank you.
25 ideas
 Predatory Payday Lending Reform
Alexander Bartik, Lulu Cheng, Brandon Fong, Gregory Geusic, Benjamin Lazarus,
& Jacob Koch; Yale University

By structuring laws to close readily exploited loopholes, states can effectively

prevent the predatory payday lending practices that exploit the desperation of
America’s workers.
Payday lending undermines the economic security of working individuals and families.
Many low-income workers, lacking the credit history and collateral needed to obtain
a traditional loan but still in need of quick cash, turn to payday lenders who require
only a bank account.
KEY FACTS
The borrower gives a postdated personal • Payday lending has grown into a $28 billion
check to the lender in return for cash. dollar industry, nearly tripling in size over
In most cases, however, borrowers are the past six years.
unable to fully repay their debt, and • The average payday loan rollover has an APR
they consequently incur repeated ranging from 391 to 443 percent.
bounced check fees. The rolled- • The typical borrower pays $793 in fees and
over long-term loans have annual payments in order to fully pay off the loan.
percentage rates (APRs) of interest
ranging from 391 to 443 percent on
average. These exorbitant fees and APRs trap needy consumers in endless cycles of
debt. Because borrowers are unable to pay off an initial loan, 91 percent of all loans
go to borrowers with at least 5 payday loans per year. As a result, the typical borrower
ends up paying a total of $793 in order to fully pay off a loan of $325.

HISTORY
The predatory payday loan industry has undergone a massive expansion over the past
few years. A $10 billion national industry in 2000, payday lending grew to a $28
billion industry by 2006. In 2006, the
TALKING POINTS 109th Congress recognized the serious
• Predatory payday lending exploits needy threat predatory payday lending
consumers and traps them in an endless practices pose to the economic security
cycle of debt. of working Americans, passing the
• Payday lenders readily exploit legal loopholes Talent-Nelson Amendment to cap
to avoid regulation in most states. APR rates on all short-term loans to
• The U.S. Congress prohibited predatory military personnel at 36 percent.
payday loans to military personnel in 2006.
All other citizens remain at risk. Many states have attempted to regulate
lending practices, though to date, only
a handful have managed to close the
loopholes readily exploited by predatory lenders.

ANALYSIS
By comparing the laws of states that have successfully prohibited predatory payday
lending with those that have not, we can understand how to close loopholes and
12
prohibit these exploitative practices across the country. Illinois legislation passed in
2001 and 2005 has overwhelmingly failed to prevent predatory practices because the
laws target specific loan lengths. For example, when lenders were prohibited from
charging high interest rates on loans shorter than 30 days, they immediately began
offering 31-day loans with the same high APRs.

Connecticut, on the other hand, uses a broad usury law, capping all small loan APRs
at a more reasonable rate. This has effectively prevented predatory payday lending
in the state. Around the country, the market for predatory payday loans is driven by
a lack of knowledge about alternatives and consequences, so credit counseling and
education services should accompany any usury regulations.

AUDIENCE
Predatory payday lending regulation can be implemented on the state or national
level. Each state has its own banking and usury laws, and successful regulation
generally expands these laws to better regulate payday lenders. National legislation
would also be effective. Education and credit counseling services can be developed on
any level, though the responsibility for implementation will ultimately rest with local
communities.

NEXT STEPS
States should act to implement legislation preventing predatory payday lending
practices. Laws must be broad, placing APR caps on all small loans, and applying to
all citizens. This way, lenders will be unable to continue modifying loan terms to avoid
regulation. State regulations on short-term loans should include several stipulations. A
“cooling-off period,” when borrowers are limited to one loan at a time and must wait
15 days between paying off one loan and taking out another, along with a cap limiting
loan rollovers to two, will help prevent consumers from getting trapped in an endless
cycle of debt.

Alternatives to payday loans do exist, and borrowers should be informed of these

alternatives. Credit unions, social service programs, charities and faith-based
organizations throughout the country offer assistance to individuals in financial
need, both in the form of loans and free credit counseling. All states also have winter
heating cost assistance programs aimed at eliminating a major cause of payday loan
demand. Public education campaigns should be established to inform individuals that
payday loans are not the only option for fast cash.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

Keith Ernst et al. Quantifying the Economic Costs of Predatory Payday Lending. Durham,
NC: The Center for Responsible Lending, February 24, 2004.
Uriah King et al., Financial Quicksand. Durham, NC: The Center for Responsible
Lending, November 30, 2006.
Talent-Nelson Amendment (SA 4331) to the 2007 Defense Authorization Bill (S2766).
Greed: an in-Depth Study of the Debt Collection Practices, Interest Rates, and Customer Base of a
Major Illinois Payday Lender. Monsignor John Egan Campaign for Payday Loan Reform.
2004. 10 Jan. 2007 www.citizenaction-il.org/issues/payday
13
 Expanding Access to Services to Combat
Child Poverty in New York State
Charlotta Chung, Saint Lawrence University

In order to combat child poverty, changes should be made in how our welfare
system provides services and money, primarily by modifying existing restrictions
and significantly expanding the number of people eligible for access to
government support.

It is necessary to modify our conception of poverty and those in need because our
current standards are hopelessly inadequate in estimating the number of children in
poverty. Current government service eligibility standards disenfranchise many needy
children and families, even though their
incomes are insufficient to meet their KEY FACTS
basic needs. Without a more accurate • Nineteen percent of all children in New
estimation of what constitutes need, far York State in 2000 lived in poverty
too many children will continue to be according to federal standards.
excluded from services, regardless of the • The 2007 federal poverty level for a
insufficiency of their income. By choosing family of four is $20,650.
to move away from a reliance on federal • The self-sufficiency standard for a family
poverty guidelines, New York State will of four ranges from $48,000 in New York
be able to more accurately estimate the City to $34,000 in Albany County.
actual number of children living in
poverty and proactively treat the
problem.

New variable poverty rates that reflect cost of living disparities in different areas and
are based on a self-sufficiency standard should be established and used for determining
eligibility for services. This will increase the number of people eligible for services,
particularly those who were previously excluded because of income higher than
poverty levels, but far below a self-sufficiency standard.

HISTORY
Federal poverty guidelines are outdated, relying on methodology and data based
on a model from 1963 that fails to incorporate the social and economic changes
that have occurred since. They rely solely on food costs as a proportion of income
to determine poverty levels,
TALKING POINTS ignoring disproportionate
• New York State relies on federal poverty guidelines growth in healthcare, childcare
to estimate the number of children in poverty. and transportation costs as a
• This fundamental change would have a major percentage of income, as well as
impact on public services, but would potentially housing costs.
increase the impact of said services by helping
families & individuals achieve meaningful, stable As such, they drastically
self-sufficiency. underestimate the number of
people, including children, who
14
live in poverty. To provide an alternative, the self-sufficiency standard was created by
Dr. Diana Pearce and Wider Opportunities for Women as a way to more accurately
measure the lowest income level needed for adults or families to meet basic need without
subsidy. It takes into account the living costs that the federal poverty guidelines ignore,
and establishes a minimum income needed to meet basic need without government
subsidy. Any family or person falling short of this minimum should be eligible for
government subsidy or services.

ANALYSIS
The costs of implementing this program would vary based on geography and the
number of people these changes would affect, but presumably would be quite high.
However, the costs are justified when realizing the negative outcomes associated
with childhood poverty would be greatly ameliorated, thus reducing costs associated
with them. It is clear that reliance on federal guidelines is insufficient in determining
need.

Eligibility for welfare and food stamps stands at less than a third of the self-sufficiency
standard, and the monetary benefits associated with those programs is nowhere near
the self-sufficiency standard. The full-time minimum wage, which puts a family above
federal poverty lines and thus ineligible for many programs is still less than half the
self-sufficiency standard.

NEXT STEPS
• Begin lobbying state legislators to explore alternative measures of poverty.
• Advocate for changes in eligibility for government services.
• Those most affected by current poverty standards are the most important players
in a push for new legislation and fundamental, systemic change in the current
system. Informing and organizing this community around this issue, so that they
can act as their own advocates for change, will be crucial to the process of raising
these families and their children out of poverty.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

“The Self-Sufficiency Standard.” Six Strategies for Family Economic Self-Sufficiency (http://
www.sixstrategies.org/sixstrategies/selfsufficiencystandard.cfm).
Federal Poverty Guidelines. (http://www.atdn.org/access/poverty.html).
15
 State Earned Income Tax Credits
Alexander Bartik, Brandon Fong, Gregory Geusic, and Eric Kafka, Yale University

By piggybacking off of the enormously successful federal Earned Income Tax

Credit (EITC) program, states can provide much-needed tax relief to low-
income workers with minimal administrative costs.

Nationwide, America’s working

KEY FACTS
families are struggling. The national
• In 2002, the federal EITC lifted 4.9 million
poverty rate for 2003 was 12.5
people, including 2.7 million children, out of
percent and purchasing power parity
poverty in the United States.
continues to decline. The federal
• In 2004, 21.4 million families and individuals
Earned Income Tax Credit already
received the EITC.
serves as a major federal program
• Without the federal EITC, the child poverty
to address these problems. In 2004,
rate would be almost one-fourth higher.
21.4 million taxpayers received the
• In 2003, 22.1 million families and individuals
EITC for a total amount of $39.3
received the EITC.
billion in assistance. Families with
children received, on average, $2,100
from the EITC. State Earned Income Tax Credits, or EITCs, serve as an easy, proven way
to reduce poverty and make work more rewarding for low-income individuals.

HISTORY
TALKING POINTS The federal Earned Income Tax
• The EITC encourages employment, providing Credit was established in 1975
assistance only to those who choose to work. as a way to reduce poverty by
• Recognizing the overwhelming success of the encouraging work. It does this by
federal program, twenty-one states have adopted supplementing the wages of low-
their own programs, most using federal qualifying income workers with a tax credit.
standards to provide additional relief to supplement In principle, the federal EITC
the federal program. seeks to keep all working citizens
• A state EITC would further increase employment. above a poverty threshold, above
These new wages would serve as an economic which the credit is gradually
stimulus since low-wage workers have high marginal phased out. Currently, the EITC
propensities to consume. serves as the largest means-based
federal anti-poverty assistance
program. The success of the
federal EITC has inspired similar supplemental programs in twenty-one states. Generally,
using similar criteria as on the federal level, state programs provide the financial support for
additional income supplements in order to reduce poverty and reward work. Additionally,
several local municipalities, including New York City, San Francisco, CA, and Montgomery
County, MD, have established their own EITCs to refund local taxes.

AUDIENCE
Earned Income Tax Credits are useful and effective anti-poverty programs that can be
implemented at any level of government that imposes an income tax. States can implement
16
these programs with very little administrative work by simply piggybacking off of the
federal eligibility program. This policy has proven effective in twenty-one states to date.

ANALYSIS
The EITC is a refundable credit against federal income taxes for low-wage workers. As a
result, individuals must work to qualify for the credit, and the credit varies depending on
earnings. The EITC is “refundable,” meaning that if the amount of tax credit a worker
qualifies for exceeds the amount of federal income taxes he or she pays, the worker receives
a refund from the federal government. Essentially, the EITC allows claimants to pay less
income tax, no income tax, or receive a tax refund. This refundable nature allows the EITC
to help even those who pay very little federal income tax.

By supplementing wages, the Earned Income Tax Credit serves as a positive incentive for
impoverished Americans to transfer from welfare to the work force. EITCs have been
particularly effective in encouraging single parents, who compose two-thirds of EITC
recipients, to increase work.

NEXT STEPS
On a state level, any state that has an income tax and has not established a refundable
state EITC should do so. This provides a simple way to provide assistance to a state’s
lowest-income individuals, namely by shielding them from state income taxes. Cities and
counties should consider doing the same to refund local income taxes.

Beyond this measure, all levels of government can act to expand the qualification criteria
for EITCs. Currently, the federal EITC only differentiates between zero, one, and two or
more children for family income. As a result, a family with six children receives the same
benefit and must meet the same eligibility threshold as a family with only two children,
even though the federal poverty guidelines adjust for each additional child.

Furthermore, all levels of government can raise the income qualification level for the EITC
in order to provide relief to those families who are slightly above the poverty line but still
struggle to pay expenses. Combined, these efforts will provide much needed relief and help
to build the economic security of America’s working families.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

Ami Nagle and Nicholas Johnson, “A Hand Up: How State Earned Income Tax Credits
Help Working Families Escape Poverty in 2006 Summary.” March 8, 2006.
Bruce D. Meyer and Dan T. Rosenbaum, “Making Single Mothers Work: Recent Tax and
Welfare Policy and its Effects.” New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2001.
Greenstein, Robert, The Earned Income Tax Credit: Boosting Employment, Aiding the
Working Poor. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities: 2005. 21 Jan. 2006 <
http://www.cbpp.org/7-19-05eic.htm>.
National Center for Children in Poverty, United States: Federal Earned Income Tax
Credit. NCCP Policy Profiles. <http://www.nccp.org/profiles/US_profile_27.html>.
The Hatcher Group. “State EITC Online Resource Center.” 30 May 2006
<www.stateeitc.org>.

17
 Partnerships for Minority Empowerment:
Restructuring the Current Population Survey
Helen Cheung, Leo Espino, University of Washington

Government-nonprofit partnerships should combine their trade-specific

strengths to encourage minority and immigrant participation in the Current
Population Survey, with the government providing financial resources and the
local nonprofits supplying their frontline knowledge.

The Census Bureau administers the

KEY FACTS
Current Population Survey (CPS) with
• Many local nonprofit organizations
the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The
often step up to bridge the gap between
less well-known CPS tracks monthly
governments and minorities.
fluctuations in the American population
• As partnerships are secured and the
between each major decennial census
partnership program expanded nationwide,
and provides data about household
the number of minorities reached could
makeup, income, and the labor force.
increase tremendously.
These data help policymakers and
• The costs would decrease proportionally
researchers identify problems and are
from the additional $15.93 per case.
essential for developing corrective
policies and establishing fair funding
apportionment. Currently, the CPS Field Division faces the challenge of encouraging
greater minority participation in Census surveys.

Representative data is needed to ensure the equitable allocation of funds to publicly

funded programs. Because a significant number of minorities are recipients of public
welfare programs, communities with a high concentration of minorities may face an
undersupply of essential public services.

TALKING POINTS However, current survey

• Partnerships with local organizations create an policies do not effectively
opportunity to increase minority response by tapping address the reasons for
into local assets and experience for outreach efforts. minority unresponsiveness,
• Partners will serve as information outlets and which include language
become a regular part of the survey implementation barriers, lack of knowledge
process. As ambassadors, they eliminate language about the Census, mistrust of
and cultural barriers. government, and the feeling
• While the startup cost per case will be high, at $15.93 that they do not “own” the
above current costs, the future expansion, resource- process to a significant extent.
sharing, and division of labor between the Census Local nonprofits can help
Bureau and partners will lower long-run costs. bridge the gap between the
government and minorities.

HISTORY
While the Bureau has achieved some success in nonprofit partnership efforts during
the decennial census, these partnerships are abandoned once the decennial has
18
been completed, consequently mismanaging and damaging these valuable frontline
resources. Innovating and striving to nurture CPS-nonprofit partnerships may help
ameliorate the problem of under-enumeration and benefit unemployed minority and
immigrant households.
ANALYSIS
Partnerships with local governments and organizations would have the greatest
potential of increasing the minority response rates by tapping into those groups’ local
assets and experience for outreach efforts. It is clear that the status quo, though ‘safe,’
lacks the formal ability to get minorities involved. An alternative low-cost, pre-survey
outreach policy through self-administered questionnaires does not guarantee increased
participation. An online survey system is likely to increase participation rates; yet, it is
highly geographically and demographically dependent and involves high risks due to
the increased likelihood of security breaches.

Two counties were examined in this analysis. The estimated annual cost of a
partnership program in King (urban) and Yakima (rural) counties is $86,000. The
initial additional cost per case for both counties above the status quo is $15.93. In
budgetary support for partnerships, as the program geographically expands without
incurring substantial additional property or staffing costs, partners would become
increasingly involved and given a stake in the survey. Partners assist in the outreach
process, potentially lowering the Bureau’s interviewer travel and time costs.

AUDIENCE
The Field Division, as the public face of the Census Bureau, must be able to connect
with underrepresented minorities. The Director of the Field Division sets national
survey policies regarding matters such as the degree of interviewer assertiveness,
development of outreach strategies, and establishment of interagency partnerships.

NEXT STEPS
Begin a roundtable discussion with legislators, the Census Bureau and the Current
Population Survey sponsor to determine program standards and ways to flexibly allocate
a budget to support an ongoing partnership effort. Other interested stakeholders are
recommended for roundtable inclusion once a discourse framework is established.
Comprehensive pilot programs in test areas are recommended before implementation
of a nationwide partnership program.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

LeRoux, Kelly. 2007. Nonprofits as civic intermediaries – The Role of community-based
organizations in promoting political participation. Urban Affairs Review 42, no. 3:
410-423.
Schmitt, John, and Dean Baker. 2006. The Impact of Undercounting in the Current
Population Survey. Center for Economic and Policy Research (August), http://www.
cepr.net/publications/cps_declining_coverage_2006_08.pdf.
United Nations Development Programme. 2002. Civic Engagement. Essentials, no. 8
(October), http://www.undp.org/surf-panama/docs/ EssentialsCivicEngagement.pdf

19
 Indexing the Massachusetts Minimum Wage
Jason Poulos, University of Massachusetts

Massachusetts should increase the state minimum wage and index it to the
Consumer Price Index to restore the purchasing power that the minimum
wage has lost over the past decade and to protect its purchasing power against
future inflation.

Income inequality has grown more in Massachusetts than in forty-seven other states
over the past two decades. Earnings for the highest income families in Massachusetts
have grown almost five times
as fast as those for low-income
KEY FACTS
families. Higher levels of economic
• Earnings for the highest income families in
inequality are associated with
Massachusetts have grown almost five times as
increased levels of crime, poor
fast as those for low-income families.
health, high mortality rates, poor
• The real value of the Massachusetts minimum
schools, and poor housing.
wage has deteriorated by 27 percent since its

inflation-adjusted peak in 1968.
To restore the real purchasing
• Since the legislature’s action to increase the
power that the minimum wage
minimum wage in 2000, the Massachusetts
has lost over the past decades—
poverty rate has fallen from 10.8 percent to 9.5
and to protect that purchasing
percent in 2003.
power against future inflation—
the minimum wage should be
increased and indexed.

Specifically, a nominal increase to $9.65/hr., effective January 1, 2009, is necessary to

ensure that minimum wage workers earn the same in real terms that their counterparts
received in 1968. In addition, beginning January 1, 2009, and annually thereafter,
the minimum wage should be adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index
(CPI-U).

HISTORY
TALKING POINTS In 2002, Oregon voters agreed to raise
• Up to 404,000 Massachusetts workers, or the state minimum wage and mandate
13.8 percent of the total workforce, will automatic annual increases to ensure
benefit when the minimum wage is raised. that the minimum wage keeps pace
• Indexing the minimum wage protects its with inflation. In 2006, Oregon’s
real value and will improve earnings for low- minimum wage was $7.50 an hour.
wage workers, help reduce poverty rates, and In January, it increased to $7.80.
strengthen the state economy. Since 2002, Oregon’s economy has
thrived. Private non-farm payrolls are
up eight percent over the past four
years, which is nearly twice the national increase. In industries employing minimum-
wage workers, such as restaurants and hotels, job growth has been strong.

20
While Oregon’s estimated 5.4 percent unemployment rate for 2006 is higher than the
national average, it is down from 7.6 percent in 2002, when the state was emerging
from a recession. Florida, Vermont, and Washington have similar laws requiring
inflation-adjustments to the state minimum wage.
ANALYSIS
The biggest obstacle in advancing this proposal may be the lack of political will on
Beacon Hill. The Legislature is unlikely to take up the divisive minimum wage issue
again in the current session. Legislators may also become complacent because, at $8
per hour, the state minimum wage will become the highest in the country.

However, a policy that raises the minimum wage and protects its real value will
improve earnings for low-wage workers, help reduce poverty rates, and strengthen the
state economy. The real earnings of low-wage workers have steadily progressed since
1995, when the Commonwealth began raising the minimum wage.

When low-wage workers have more funds for education and job training for higher-
skilled jobs, the state will attract more businesses. More money will circulate in the
state economy, and more tax revenue will be collected, which will help alleviate our
communities’ current fiscal crisis.

NEXT STEPS
Legislators can use Florida, Oregon, Vermont and Washington as case studies that
illustrate the positive impact of an inflation-indexed state minimum wage. The next
step is to pass a law through the Massachusetts legislature. While this proposal is
focused on Massachusetts, all states should seriously consider nominal increases and
indexing their minimum wage laws.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

Berger, Noah. “New directions in closing income gap.” Boston Globe, February 16, 2006.
Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. 2006. “The Growing Gap: Income Inequality in
Massachusetts. Boston, MA: Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. http://www.
massbudget.org/growing_gap.pdf (accessed January 12, 2007).
Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. 2004. “Keeping It Real: The Effects of
Increasing and Indexing the Massachusetts Minimum Wage.”
http://www.massbudget.org/article.php?id=261 (accessed January 12, 2007).
Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. 2006. “Facts and Claims on Raising the
Massachusetts Minimum Wage.”http://www.massbudget.org/Facts_and_Claims_on_
the_Minimum_Wage.pdf.
Soloman, Deborah. “Weighing Minimum Wage Hikes: Oregon’s Boost Didn’t Curb
Growth, But Did Squeeze Some Employers,” Wall Street Journal, November 3, 2006.
Available at: http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116250968954211912-
ulbQAzJn_bfqr5q1NjAS2gGurCU_20071102.html?mod=rss_free.
21
 Tax-based Automatic Enrollment in SCHIP
Robert Nelb, Yale University

States and the Federal government should use tax return information to
streamline income eligibility and automatically enroll children in the State
Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

In 1997, the federal government created SCHIP to ensure healthcare coverage for
America’s children living in poverty. Ten years later, over 34 million children are
enrolled under Medicaid and SCHIP. Yet nine million children still lack health
insurance, three-quarters of whom are eligible for but not enrolled in SCHIP.

Access and awareness are the most

common barriers to SCHIP enrollment KEY FACTS
cited by parents of uninsured children. • Nine million children in the United States
In many states, SCHIP enrollment is a are uninsured.
complicated process which is separate • 74 percent of these children are eligible but
from other social services and which not enrolled in Medicaid/SCHIP.
may require taking time off from work • The majority of Americans (over 90 percent)
for face-to-face interviews. Moreover, believes that providing health insurance to
many parents are not aware that their children is the right thing to do.
children qualify for the program.
Recent state-led outreach efforts have
made some progress in addressing these issues, but more decisive action is needed to
close the gap between eligibility and enrollment.

Automatically enrolling eligible children in SCHIP is the simplest and most practical way
to close this gap. Several studies suggest that switching to an opt-out system instead of an
opt-in one can dramatically improve enrollment. Using tax returns to facilitate automatic
enrollment makes sense because the relevant information for determining eligibility is
already included in the tax return.
A patient’s medical conditions
TALKING POINTS
or medical expenses would not
• This plan will reduce unnecessary bureaucracy be required, and thus HIPAA
and significantly improve access to care for Protected Health Information
millions of children. would not be violated. Tax-based
• The only significant cost of this proposal is paying enrollment would also have the
for the health care coverage that has already been added benefit of encouraging
promised to children and their families. families to file their taxes on time
• Protected health information will not be shared and to take advantage of other tax-
with the IRS and privacy will be maintained. based government programs, such
as Child Care Credits and the
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
This proposal could be piloted at the state or federal level as a supplement to existing
outreach efforts, and it has the potential to be integrated with other plans to reform the
tax code and to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy in our nation’s vital social programs.
22
 HISTORY
In the past ten years, SCHIP has significantly reduced the number of uninsured
children. Enrolling eligible children in the program, however, has always been
difficult. Several states are trying novel means of outreach, such as offering enrollment
at community centers and streamlining eligibility with Food Stamps, WIC, and other
programs. Nevertheless, many of these policies are relatively resource-intensive and
still rely on opt-in strategies rather than more effective opt-out ones.

ANALYSIS
The tax system has already become an important vehicle for ensuring health care
coverage. Tax-exempt Health Savings Accounts and state-based efforts to provide
credits for health care coverage are notable examples. This proposal builds on previous
efforts by not only providing a financial incentive for insurance but by actually
enrolling individuals in programs they qualify for.

This policy would significantly streamline the enrollment and renewal process
for applicants and administrators, and thus it has the potential to save money on
administrative costs in the long run. Also, aligning SCHIP renewal with the tax
calendar should not be a significant change since 44 states have already adopted a 12-
month renewal period for Medicaid/SCHIP.

Some may be concerned that eligible families may not file their taxes, but closer analysis
reveals that this fear is unfounded. Experience with the EITC, for example, has shown
that despite some challenges in receiving filings from households without children,
over 90 percent of eligible households with one or two children take advantage of
the credit. To be truly effective, however, additional efforts will be needed to inform
families about changes, and traditional forms of enrollment should not be cut before
reform is fully implemented.

NEXT STEPS
Because SCHIP is funded by states and the federal government, reform can happen at
either level. Current proposals for SCHIP reauthorization and tax simplification offer
opportunities to include this policy in federal reform efforts, but history suggests that
a state-based approach may be more feasible.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

Burban, Leonard and Deborah Kobes. “Analysis of GAO Study of EITC Eligibility
and Participation.” Urban Institute. 1 Jan 2002. Available at <www.urban.org/
publications/410435.html>.
Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. “Enrolling Uninsured Low-
Income Children in Medicaid and SCHIP.” Kaiser Family Foundation. January 2007.
Available at < http://www.kff.org/medicaid/upload/2177-05.pdf>.

*A full list of sources is available upon request.

23
 Increasing Healthcare Insurance Enrollment
In the District of Columbia
Matthew Parelman, George Washington University

To reduce the number of uninsured residents, the District of Columbia should

pass a law mandating that all applicants for city low-income services be
screened and, if appropriate, enrolled in a public healthcare program.

The District of Columbia (D.C.) already has the necessary programs in place
to provide healthcare
insurance to many of the KEY FACTS
50,000 residents who are • D.C. has one of the nation’s highest rates of uninsured
uninsured. However, residents. In 1994-95, the proportion of people without
D.C.’s health insurance health insurance in the D.C. was 18.7 percent, compared
programs are underutilized to 15.5 percent nationwide. That is approximately
because many of the 50,000 uninsured people at any one time and 75,000 at
District’s residents do not some time during the year.
know these programs exist • African Americans, who account for 58 percent of
or how to enroll. Congress District residents, are 2.5 times more likely to be
and the D.C. City Council uninsured than whites; Latinos, who account for nine
should pass a law requiring percent of the population, are eight times more likely to
that all applicants for low- be uninsured.
income services, such as • In 2000, 6.7 million uninsured children across the
food stamps or welfare, be United States were uninsured. Of those children without
screened and, if eligible, health insurance, 60 percent were eligible for Medicaid
enrolled in the appropriate and 24 percent were eligible for SCHIP.
government-provided
insurance program.

TALKING POINTS
• This proposal addresses the primary reason
D.C. residents are uninsured: a lack of
awareness about how to enroll in government
health insurance programs.
• By coupling an insurance requirement with
services such as welfare and food stamps,
the D.C. government can catch many of
the adults and children who qualify for
government health insurance programs, but
who would not otherwise enroll.
• In the long run, increasing access to
healthcare through government programs
will lower healthcare costs for the state.
HISTORY
This idea has not been tried in any
state or city. Healthcare insurance
requirements exist for university
students, but such requirements
do not exist for low-income social
programs. Many universities,
including George Washington
University, require their students to
have health insurance or to enroll
in the university’s health insurance
program. Such requirements for
government-provided insurance
simply do not exist for social
programs.

24
 ANALYSIS
Of persons lacking insurance in the District of Columbia between the ages of 18
and 64, 15 percent stated that they have no regular source for healthcare. Twenty-
one percent of this age group stated hospital emergency rooms were their regular
source for healthcare. Forty-five percent of uninsured persons stated that they
have not had a medical visit in the past 12 months, and 76 percent stated that
they see no particular doctor when sick. This is compared with seven percent of
those covered by Medicaid, who have not had a medical appointment in the past
12 months.

AUDIENCE
This policy benefits the taxpayer as well as the uninsured. The uninsured become
healthier and can have regular medical visits to stay healthy, thereby shifting the
force of medicine to preventative care rather than emergency care, and reducing
healthcare costs overall. The taxpayers end up paying less due to fewer persons
relying on emergency room care, which tends to cost significantly more than
preventative medicine provided by regular visits to a primary health physician.
A healthier population with healthcare insurance reduces healthcare costs for the
entire population despite the costs of insurance. This type of policy should not
be restricted to the District of Columbia alone, either. Any city, state, or national
government can adopt such a policy to increase enrollment in government-
provided health insurance.

NEXT STEPS
A more thorough investigation into such a policy’s effects and methods of
implementation is needed. The District will need to identify which programs
health insurance can be coupled with in order to maximize the efficacy of the
program, reducing the number of uninsured persons as much as possible. It
might also be worthwhile to explore the impact of preventative medicine policies
in Great Britain and other countries through a comparative study that could show
how the U.S. should design its system for optimum efficiency and cost-savings
over a transition period of 5+ years.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

Bovbjerg, Randall R. 2006. The Urban Institute. The Uninsured in the District of
Columbia.
Lillie-Blanton, Marsha. 2003. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). D.C.
Health Care Access Survey.
Walker, Bailus. Health Care Coverage Advisory Panel to the D.C. Department of
Health. Report on Improving Health Insurance Coverage in the District of
Columbia.
25
 Certificate-of-Need Laws:
Barriers to Lower Costs and Higher Quality
Deep J. Shah, University of Georgia

Certificate-of-Need (CON) laws restrict competition among healthcare

providers and lead to higher healthcare costs. Removing CON laws in every
state will reduce federal healthcare spending and improve healthcare quality
for every American.

Certificate-of-Need (CON) laws require providers to  receive state approval before
offering a number of healthcare services. The laws reflect a belief that limiting the
number of providers reduces healthcare
spending.  This basic premise runs counter KEY FACTS
to the simplest principle of economic • CON laws have been manipulated into
theory, which states that costs diminish anti-competitive measures against new,
when supply increases.  CON laws, which entrepreneurial providers.
limit the supply of providers, have actually • Approximately 65 percent of Americans
raised costs nationwide and lowered live in states with CON laws.
healthcare quality in many states. • Studies indicate that CON laws raise
costs by as much as 20 percent in certain
states.

The federal government should provide

incentive for states to repeal CON laws and restrict federal funding for states that keep
them in place.  To succeed in the new competitive climate, providers will be compelled
to offer higher quality services at lower prices and operate more efficiently.  As the
government will then pay lower
fees for many health services, it
TALKING POINTS will incur savings that it can apply
• CON laws are anachronistic regulations from the toward expanding the scope and
era of cost-based services. availability of government health
• With managed care dominating health care insurance programs.
today, these measure fail to serve their purpose of
lowering health care costs. To ensure that all Americans
• CON laws have actually raised costs and loweredreceive the benefit of this repeal,
quality in a number of states. state governments should levy
taxes on all new facilities that
offer hospital-type services. State
governments should require these providers to contribute a percentage of their
revenue to community reinvestment and redistribution programs.  In this way, the
government will raise new funds from corporations—rather than patients—to ensure
improved coverage and quality.  Community health boards should use this money to
build facilities in areas of need. Moreover, all providers should be required to accept a
pre-determined percentage of government-supported and uninsured patients.

26
 HISTORY
Policymakers designed CON laws for states to implement during the 1970s in an
attempt to lower surging healthcare costs nationwide. However, the federal mandate
was repealed within a few years because the measures failed to reduce aggregate
spending. Since then, some state legislatures have completely lifted the laws, while
others have selectively applied them in certain service areas.

ANALYSIS
The government has inadvertently provided existing hospitals with a monopoly over
healthcare services through Certificate of Need laws. Hospitals and other providers
can thus charge the government unnecessarily high fees for patient care.  Certificate-of-
Need laws also restrict innovation and disincentivize entrepreneurial efforts to improve
health care quality and efficiency. Repealing CON laws will allow new facilities, like
ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), and save government funds through competition. 
If ASCs, which often charge lower rates for surgical procedures than hospitals, had
been widely available and used in 2001, Medicare could have saved $1 billion dollars
in one year alone. Numerous studies point to the CON laws’ failure to constrain costs
in other health service sectors.

AUDIENCE
Existing healthcare providers may fear loss of revenue and eventual department or
facility closure. However, the increased government subsidies they will receive should
ease this concern. Additionally, more providers will enter the market to share the
responsibility of pro bono care. Healthcare entrepreneurs, be they businesses or
physician groups, can reasonably support this measure.

NEXT STEPS
As a separate measure to support struggling hospitals, the government should provide
significant subsidies to both old and new providers that serve low-income populations,
similar to existing disproportionate share policies.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

“State and County Quickfacts,” United States Census Bureau, Washington, D.C., 2005,
<www.quickfacts.census.gov> (5 February 2007).
Lanning, Joyce A., Michael E. Morrisey, Robert L. Ohsfeldt, “Endogenous Hospital
Regulation and Its Effects on Hospital and Non-Hospital Expenditures,”
Journal of Regulatory Economics 3 (1991)::137-54.
Federal Trade Commission & Department of Justice, “Improving Health Care: A Dose
of Competition,” Washington, DC: Federal Trade Commission & Department of
Justice, 2004.
Medical Association of Georgia, “Certificate of Need,” News from Medical Association of
Georgia, Novemnber 2006.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, “Payment
for Procedures in Outpatient Departments and Ambulatory Surgery Centers,”
Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Jan. 2003).
27
 Single-Payer Healthcare
Jake Grumbach, Columbia University

By implementing a Medicare-style health insurance plan for all Americans,

paid for through income and estate taxes, we can provide more adequate care
for everyone and help the 18,000 people who die each year due to a lack of
health insurance.

Single payer health insurance is a system like Medicare, in which people pay for their
coverage through taxes to the federal government, which then distributes it to hospitals
and clinics based upon their particular needs. Not only is a single payer system much
more efficient, but it will also reduce the unfair burden on the working class to pay
for a corporate health care plan.
Patient care will remain the same or KEY FACTS
improve, doctors and hospitals will • Forty-five million Americans are uninsured.
remain private, and every American • Eighteen thousand people die each year due
will be able choose his or her own to a lack of health insurance, according to the
doctor—the government has no say Institute of Medicine.
in their policies or decisions. The • $286 billion can be saved with single-payer
only thing that will change is the health care, according to Harvard researchers.
efficiency of the way we pay for and
deal with insurance.

Currently, over one-fourth of medical expenses are spent on administrative costs.

According to a Harvard Medical School study, a national health insurance system
such as the one proposed would save Americans over $286 billion, because it would
eliminate most administrative waste. These savings are more than enough to cover
every uninsured person, provide prescription drugs for seniors, and drastically improve
the quality of care all Americans receive in the United States.

Working families in particular will benefit. In 2005, each worker with employer-
based insurance paid an average of 18
TALKING POINTS percent ($564 per year) of his or her
• The United States is the only health insurance costs out of pocket, which
industrialized country without a means working Americans must spend a
national health care program that disproportionate part of their income on
covers all citizens. this basic necessity. By financing the single
• Single payer health care is the most payer insurance through a two percent
efficient way to provide health care for income tax and a two percent estate tax, we
every American—those who cannot can stop the regressive taxation system that
pay and those who can. puts an unfair burden on working families.

Universal health care has been on the tip

of the progressive tongue for years, but this is not the time for an employer mandate.
It is time to bring the single payer health care plan to the legislative spotlight, and
wholeheartedly pursuing the best solution for those who have the fewest resources.
28
The words of Franklin Roosevelt ring true: “The test of our progress is not whether we
add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough
for those who have too little.”

HISTORY
The United States is the only industrialized country without a national health care
program. Moreover, we pay much more for health care than any other country in the
world, yet 11.2 percent of children under 18 are not even insured. Even our public
expenditure on healthcare alone ($2,468 per year) is well above the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average, yet our inefficient
system of employer-based insurance wastes so much money that we receive inadequate
coverage and care. Combining American ingenuity with a more efficient funding
method will allow us to finally give our citizens the best care in the world.

ANALYSIS
The two alternative methods to achieve universal health care are an employer-mandate
and an individual-mandate, but neither are as effective as single-payer. American
employees with insurance through their jobs paid an average of 18 percent of their
health insurance costs from their own pockets. Thus, an employer-mandate, requiring
all employers to cover their full-time workers, would not end this economic strain on
working families. Similarly, Massachusetts has implemented an individual-mandate
plan that legally requires each adult to have insurance. Although this is a step in the
right direction, the policy will force working families to purchase cheap insurance
plans, which, in terms of benefits, are barely any better than not having any health
insurance. A family would be hit with large co-pays if someone has a serious illness,
while the insurance companies make billions more by selling little coverage.

NEXT STEPS
To avoid an economic jolt and a rapid downfall of health insurance companies, the
plan will be phased-in annually through Medicare. Each year, Medicare will cover
Americans ten years younger. In other words, if the single-payer plan is adopted in
2009, then Americans above 55 will be covered by Medicare, followed by 45, then 35,
and so on. The process will stop at 18, the year after it hits 25.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

“Desperate Measures.” The Economist. January 26, 2006.

Insuring America’s Health: Principles and Recommendations. Institute of Medicine of
the National Academies.
“National Compensation Survey: Employee Benefits in Private Industry in the United
States.” Eds. U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2005.
Priorities, Center on Budget and Policy. “The Number of Uninsured Americans Is at an
All-Time High”. Washington, DC, 2006. <http://www.cbpp.org/8-29-06health.htm>.
Ruth, Erin. Health Care Financing and Reimbursement: College of Human Medicine of
Michigan State University 2005.
Woolhandler, Dr., and Dr. Himmelstein. “Study Shows National Health Insurance Could
Save $286 Bullion on Health Care Paperwork”. 2004. Public Citizen. <http://www.
citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1623>.
29
 Primary Adult Care: Pulling Maryland
Citizens out of the Uninsured Trap
Laurel Murphy, John Hopkins University

Maryland should amend the Code of Maryland Regulations to eliminate the

asset requirements for the Primary Adult Care (PAC) program. Eligibility
requirements should be based solely on age, residence, and income to better
serve individuals with low incomes.

Primary health care, though often disregarded, provides essential screening and
management for many
of the chronic and costly KEY FACTS
ailments that affect more and • In order to qualify for the PAC program, an individual
more Americans, including must have $4000 or less in his or her bank accounts,
diabetes and cancer. Access IRA, stocks and bonds, and other assets, not including
to inexpensive primary care his or her first house or car.
could substantially decrease • Primary care detects potentially serious health problems
federal and state health before they reach unmanageable proportions, thus
care spending, as well as providing a cost-effective approach to healthcare.
save individuals money and • In Maryland, nearly 700,000 people are uninsured.
improve overall quality of
life.

The Maryland Primary Adult Care (PAC) program provides free access to a family
physician, free out-patient mental health services, and low-priced or free prescription
drugs to adults over the
TALKING POINTS age of 19. PAC provides
• Over time, the program can help diminish the $1.47 access to primary care for
billion spent providing health care for the uninsured in those who neither receive
Maryland. health insurance benefits
• Adults with health insurance will no longer be forced to from their employers nor
seek Emergency Room care for needs that could have through private groups.
been eliminated by access to primary care.
We propose that Maryland
• Assigning income as the main determinant of eligibility
move to income-only
will allow more Marylanders to have access to the program
and may diminish administrative costs. eligibility requirements
for PAC in order to extend
• Since PAC only covers primary care, recipients may need
PAC’s services to all who
any and all assets to cover specialty health care, should
the need arise. need them. Penalizing
hard-working people for
having modest savings—
more than $4,000 for an individual—is counterproductive, especially if the individual
needs those assets for later health care costs not covered by PAC.

30
 HISTORY
The idea of income-only based eligibility requirements for primary health care programs
serving financially disadvantaged populations is not new. For example, the Shepherd’s
Clinic of Baltimore, which provides primary care, uses income as its primary eligibility
requirement. This exemplary clinic provides primary care during over 4,000 patient
visits per year, in addition to specialty care and referrals to the many services of nearby
Union Memorial Hospital.

ANALYSIS
While costs of coverage will increase with the enrollment of more individuals in the
program, other states that have liberalized their asset requirements found that the
decreased administrative costs made the move economically feasible. In addition, by
covering more individuals for primary care, the plan should prevent the need for
expensive, drastic emergency care. It is estimated that $2,371 per year is spent on the
health care of each uninsured citizen of Maryland. In the United States as a whole,
80 percent of uninsured individuals come from working families, so it makes sense to
analyze income to determine eligibility for government-assisted services.

AUDIENCE
The state of Maryland, specifically the Maryland Department of Health and Mental
Hygiene, sponsors PAC, along with a host of other medical programs. Ultimately,
this program aims to help the nearly 700,000 Maryland residents who lack health
insurance. Primary Adult Care will ideally help to “stop little problems before they
become big health problems.”

NEXT STEPS
The next step is to pass a law to change the Code of Maryland Regulations for Maryland
Primary Adult Care to eliminate the ‘assets’ portion of the eligibility process. The
Maryland Department of Health and Human Services will need to review previously
denied applications in order to locate those who qualify under the new regulations.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. The Uninsured: A Primer. Kaiser
Family Foundation. http://www.kff.org/uninsured/7451.cfm
Our Services. Shepherd’s Clinic. http://www.shepherdsclinic.org/services.php
Primary Adult Care (PAC) Program. Maryland Department of Heath and Mental
Hygiene. http://www.dhmh.state.md.us/mma/pac/index.htm
State Medicaid Fact Sheets. Kaiser Family Foundation. h ttp://www.kff.org/mfs/medicaid.
jsp?r1=MD&r2=US
Tiedemann, Amy M. Kimberly Fox. An Initiative to Improve Enrollment in Medicare
Savings Programs. State Solutions. http://www.statesolutions.rutgers.edu/Reports/
Promising_Strategies_Brief_2005
Waters, Hugh, MS, PhD. Steinhardt, L. Oliver, T. Burton, A. Miller, S. 2007. The Costs
of Non-Insurance in Maryland. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved
18: 147.
31
 Expanding the Family Medical Leave Act
Kaitlin Canty and Samantha Sherwood, Union College and University of Connecticut

By reducing the employer eligibility threshold, extending unpaid leave, and

adding partial paid leave, we can strengthen the Family Medical Leave Act
(FMLA) to better address the needs of working families.

With most parents today working outside the home and the imminent retirement of
the baby boomer generation, care giving will impact more working families than ever
before. The FMLA must be amended to address the concerns of working parents.
Any adequate proposal will require time and effort, but the economic and social value
of a family-friendly workplace demands it.

We propose three policy
initiatives: KEY FACTS
• Since the passing of the FMLA in 1993, more than
1. Reduce the eligibility
80 million covered and eligible employees have
threshold for employers used it to care for themselves or a loved one.
from 50 employees to 20. By • However, the current policy only applies to 60
doing so, the percentage of percent of the working Americans and only six
working Americans eligible percent of corporations employing Americans.
to take leave would increase • Because the FMLA does not currently offer any
to roughly 82 percent. wage replacement, affordability was cited as the
2. Extend the length of leave primary reason why two-thirds of the people
to 16 weeks, or 18 weeks eligible for leave chose not to take it.
if a male takes at least two
weeks. This will allow
stronger bonds to develop between parents and children, and encourage more
men to take leave—promoting greater equality between men and women
regarding family care.
3. Provide up to eight weeks of paid leave for each employee funded via a new
federal Caregivers Trust Fund. The average American worker will pay an
additional $50 a year into the new account, while minimum wage workers
will pay an annual amount of about $12. Workers who take leave will earn 50
percent of their weekly wage, up to $800 per week.

TALKING POINTS HISTORY

• Development experts agree that 12 months is
insufficient time for parents to bond with new
children.
• The increase to costs for American workers
will be comparatively less than the high cost of
institutional child care or nursing homes.
• In this plan, employers bear no direct cost burden.
Over 125 countries provide
some form of paid, job-
protected childbirth leave. The
United States does not offer any
paid federal leave. Individual
states, notably California, have
taken the lead in extending the
FMLA. In July 2004, California

32
instituted up to six weeks of paid partial leave funded entirely by employees. In the
first year, 150,000 parents applied for leave for a newborn while 20,000 cared for a
sick relative. Seventeen percent of the applicants were fathers. Close to $300 million
was paid out to workers during this time, which was less than projected.

IMPACT FOR BUSINESS

This proposal will cost employers nothing in direct costs since employees fund it
through a federal trust fund. Businesses are currently suffering from the existing leave
policy. Employees who come to work sick or otherwise distracted cost businesses an
estimated $180 billion annually in lost productivity. Enhancing leave policies will
decrease turnover and increase morale.

IMPACT FOR FAMILIES

All employees will be affected by an amendment to the current FMLA. The FMLA
is not only for new parents, but also for those with ill family members and those who
become sick themselves. While the average cost per American is estimated to be $50
a year (depending on the worker’s salary), the increase to the American worker will
be small in comparison to the benefits. Childcare costs parents over $3,000 per year. 
Likewise, a nursing home for an elderly parent may cost over $70,000 per year in
Medicaid benefits. By promoting home care for the elderly and children, the federal
government can support families and save money that would otherwise be needed for
the rising costs of institutional care.

NEXT STEPS
This policy needs to be introduced in Congress. The Department of Labor recently
issued a public comment period that closed on February 16, 2007, so this is an issue
that appears to be on the minds of those in office. Our plan is a solution that can be
immediately implemented to address a growing need for working families across the
country.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

At One-Year Mark, California’s Paid Family Leave Law Benefits Thousands of New Parents
and Caregivers. The Labor Project for Working Families, 2005. <http://www.
paidfamilyleave.org/updates/1year_english.pdf> (accessed March 2007).
The Case for Family Leave Insurance. Economic Opportunity Institute, 2004. <http://
www.eoionline.org/FamilyLeave/FLI-CaseforFLIBlueprint.pdf> (accessed March
2007).
Frug, Mary et al. Women and the Law. New York: Foundation Press, 2004.
California Paid Family Leave. Labor Project for Working Families, 2007.
<http://www.paidfamilyleave.org/law.html> (accessed January 2007).
Matthews, R. Child care assistance helps families work: A review of the effects
of subsidy receipt on employment. Center for Law and Social Policy, 2006.
<http://www.clasp.org/publications/ccassistance_employment.pdf> (accessed
January 2007).
The Provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act. National Organization for
Women, 2007. <http://www.now.org/issues/family/fmla.html> (accessed
March 2007).
Wisensale, S.K. Family leave policy. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2001.
33
 Crafting State Health Policies to Cover the
Uninsured
Lawrence Fried, Cornell University

By creating high-risk insurance pools and tax incentives, individual states can
reduce the number of individuals without health insurance coverage.

With nearly 47 million Americans aged 18 to 64 lacking health insurance coverage,

providing access to healthcare
services is the focus of many KEY FACTS
political debates. This is a • In 2005, nearly 47 million Americans did not have
crisis that affects all Americans, health insurance.
including those who are • Cuts in federal funding to Medicaid are set to reach
insured, because the cost of $45 billion by 2015.
their healthcare is inflated to • Since 1999, the proportion of health insurance coverage
pay for the necessary healthcare provided by employers has declined steadily.
services provided to the • In 2005, more than 80 percent of the uninsured were
uninsured. The current system from working families.
of employer-provided health • Nearly 1/3 of minorities were uninsured in 2005.
insurance is unsustainable, as • In 2005, more than 80 percent of the uninsured were
demonstrated by both the U.S. citizens.
rising cost of healthcare • The United States spends almost $100 billion to provide
services, and the declining healthcare services to people who are uninsured.
percentage of the population
covered in this manner.

Compounding this, the federal government has implemented a budget that calls
for a cut of $45 billion to Medicaid programs by 2015. Therefore, individual states
have begun to address the issue by implementing several types of policies. The most
effective state policies have been those that involve a combination of tax incentives
and high-risk insurance pools. These policies would enable states to provide access
to healthcare services to those individuals who are caught in a “gap” because they do
not have insurance coverage through their employers, and they do not qualify for
Medicaid.

TALKING POINTS
• The federal government has sharply reduced
funding available to provide healthcare coverage
to the uninsured.
• Fewer employers are offering healthcare benefits
to their employees.
• State health policies are an affordable means
of offering healthcare coverage to those who
are uninsured.
34
HISTORY
Several states have different types of
policies, including tax incentives,
high-risk pools, and state coverage
programs. Other states have
enacted various combinations of
these policies. Although state
coverage programs have been
attempted, they’ve been costly. And
although approximately 50 percent
of healthcare coverage is provided
through employers, this system is unsustainable due to spiraling costs. Therefore, it is
time for states to take up the issue.

Massachusetts is at the forefront of this movement, recently establishing a tax-

incentive program aimed at providing universal healthcare coverage. It involves both
an individual mandate to have health insurance coverage, and an employer mandate
to offer health insurance. Massachusetts’s program also requires that employers who
do not offer healthcare coverage pay into a pool that the state uses to subsidize the cost
of premiums for low-income individuals. If successful, Massachusetts will be the only
state in the United States to have universal healthcare coverage.

ANALYSIS
From 1999-2005, there was a significant decline in the share of the population that
was covered through employer healthcare coverage; at the same time, the percentage
of the population that was uninsured increased. A combination of tax incentives
and high-risk pools funded with public monies would be most effective at reversing
this trend. High-risk pools would be an effective component of this combination of
policies because they would allow people with pre-existing conditions to participate
in a coverage program.

AUDIENCE
Following this course of action would provide healthcare insurance to those individuals
aged 18 to 64 who do not receive coverage through their employers and Medicaid. It
would reduce the cost of providing healthcare services to those who are uninsured; this
cost is currently borne by those who have coverage. In the long run, state governments
would have higher budgetary expenses; however, in considering these expenses, the
cost that is borne by the general population will decrease. Additionally, emergency
room services would be utilized less frequently by the uninsured.

NEXT STEPS
State legislators and concerned individuals should give serious consideration to
adopting state policies involving a combination of state high-risk pools and tax
incentives. Massachusetts is the first state to strive for a goal of universal health
coverage, the subject of much debate in the United States. Massachusetts’s progress
should be closely monitored, so that others who choose to do so can follow in its
footsteps.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

*A full list of sources is available upon request.

35
 Strengthen Paternity Leave by Encouraging
Voluntary Standards for Businesses
Sofia Brill, Yale University

In order to bolster women’s equality in the workplace, the U.S. Department of

Labor should promote a non-binding set of standards to strengthen paternity leave.

Much ink has been spilled over gender disparities in the workforce. Despite decades
of increased educational opportunity for women and strict anti-discrimination
legislation, the landscape of today’s workplace leaves much to be desired. Yet there
are tangible and realistic steps that the Department of Labor can take to help women
in the workplace. One crucial step
involves helping men. KEY FACTS
• Women only earn about 75 cents for every
Maternity leave is often seen as a dollar that goes to men.
progressive institution that allows • Men continue to outnumber women as
women to take time off from their CEOs, finance executives, and law partners.
jobs to give birth and care for new • Goldman Sachs gives women 80 days of
children. But corporate culture and paid maternity leave, while giving men only
policy strongly differentiate between ten.
new mothers and new fathers, and
paternity leave has only recently
entered the debate. As one Wall Street Journal editorialist puts it, “While maternity
leave is now a (mostly) established part of the culture of work, we dads have it tougher
if we want an extended period of paid time-off.” Goldman Sachs, for example, gives
women 80 days of paid maternity leave, while giving men only 10.

Many women’s groups have

TALKING POINTS
• Paternity leave helps working mothers have an
easier time transitioning back to work, and it
helps emphasize that having a family is a shared
responsibility.
• The Department of Labor currently does not have
a set of paternity leave standards.
• Transparent and voluntary standards would put
pressure on high-profile companies to change
their policies.
requirement that companies disclose their policies.
already acknowleged that
paternity leave helps working
mothers. Short of requiring paid
leave by law (which we do not
yet do for mothers), a transparent
and voluntary set of standards
would put pressure on high-
profile corporations to modernize
their policies. Countless advocacy
groups rank companies on their
work-life policies, but there is no
single measuring stick, and no

A voluntary standard of several weeks paid paternity and maternity leave would signal
that raising a child is a two-parent job best accomplished through shared obligations. If
fathers take time to care for children, then women can have an easier time transitioning
back to work. By co-opting men in the work-life balance scheme, working women can
36
free themselves from the idea that having a family is some sort of handicap uniquely
imposed upon them.

ANALYSIS
Facts about gender disparities in the workplace usually prompt a debate that puts
people into one of two camps. One side might argue that the workplace remains
discriminatory or even hostile to women in ways more subtle and insidious than we
had to confront in the 1960s and 70s. On this model, government should play an
active role, perhaps through required quotas, mandated benefits for women, or a
similarly proactive scheme. On the other side, some have argued that the persistent
gaps in the workforce confirm what traditionalists have often tried to claim: that
women might actually want to stay home and raise children, and are choosing to
opt out of 80-hour work weeks and cut-throat competition. If this is true, than any
further efforts by government to promote gender parity in the workforce would be
expensive errors in social experimentation.

These two sides certainly agree that, for women in those top jobs, finding a “work-life
balance” can be difficult if not downright impossible. The phrase itself is neutral, and
in theory covers everything from incorporating an exercise routine into a busy work
schedule, to tending to a sick parent. Yet it is most often associated with women and
their roles as wives and mothers. The current Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to new parents within a year (provided the
employer has at least 50 employees). In contrast, 163 other countries offer paid leave
to women in connection with childbirth; as for early childcare, the U.S. is tied at 39th
place in the world, along with Ecuador and Suriname.

At first it might seem counter-intuitive to argue that better paternity leave benefits
might actually help women most. Large corporations might make a great show of
talking to women about “work-life balance” and all of their flexible policies, “off-
ramps and on-ramps” into careers, and so forth. But it misses the point that this work
should be more equally shared. Women can make super-human attempts to “balance”
80 or 100-hour work weeks with raising children, but, all else being equal, they will
always fall short of male peers who don’t have to make the trade-off.

NEXT STEPS
In consultation with community groups, the U.S. Department of Labor should
develop and promote a non-binding set of standards to strengthen paternity leave.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

“Scant Progress On Closing Gap In Women’s Pay.” New York Times, 24 Dec 2006.
Ron Lieber, “Paternity Leave: The Next Frontier.” Wall Street Journal, 13 Jul 2006.
Catherine McKinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State; Susan Moller Okin, Justice,
Gender and the Family.
“Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Motherhood.” New York Times, 20
Sep 2005.
Jody Heymann, et al., “The Work, Family, and Equity Index: Where Does the United
States Stand Globally?” The Project on Global Working Families, 23, 28.
37
 Empowering Families to Choose
Quality Childcare in New York City
Amy Abbandondelo, Carl Nadler, New York University

Current New York City childcare subsidies should be restructured so that they
are provided directly to consumers and are aligned with the quality of the care
provided. Quality would be evaluated by preexisting nonprofit accreditation
services, whose work would also be subsidized.

Past economic analysis has identified an information asymmetry in the childcare

market. Therefore one likely explanation for parents’ difficulties in finding quality care is
general confusion over how to best
determine quality. Information KEY FACTS
regarding adult-child ratios and • New York City currently subsidizes childcare
facilities’ physical properties is for roughly 32,000 children from low-income
available, but remains only a families. However, 46,000 children are waitlisted
superficial indicator of program and do not receive the quality care their parents
quality, and these signs may demand.
sometimes be misleading. Since • Quality beyond health and safety are not
high-quality programs enhance considered in the current subsidy scheme.
child development, there should • Of the more than 1,800 childcare facilities in
be a better system for parents to New York City, only 130 are accredited by the
find quality programs, and these National Association for the Education of Young
programs need to be affordable for Children.
low-income families.

HISTORY
High quality care is defined by development psychologists as care that stimulates
children’s imaginations, challenges them academically, and encourages socialization.
Numerous national
TALKING POINTS accreditation agencies and
• The highest quality childcare has significant, positive rating systems currently work to
effects on improving children’s cognitive and social improve the quality of daycare
development, increasing the likelihood of obtaining a programs. Accreditation
college education, and reducing criminal behavior. agencies encourage daycare
• Families, especially low-income ones, do not have programs to undergo an
the tools needed to determine the quality of their extensive self-study, and
children’s care. the agencies utilize rating
• The requirements for high quality care exceed the systems to guide program
minimum health and safety standards established by changes and assess an agency’s
the NYC Bureau of Day Care. quality enhancing progress.
Unfortunately, improving
quality is limited to daycare
centers that volunteer to do so,
and wide-scale daycare program improvement has not occurred.

38
 ANALYSIS
In addition to fully subsidizing 344 childcare providers, NYC provides vouchers to
low-income families for purchasing childcare, without any restriction on the quality of
the childcare received. Unfortunately, an information asymmetry exists in the market,
making it difficult for parents to determine quality on their own. Moreover, parents,
especially low-income ones, may not consider all the benefits of a childcare program,
and therefore may not demand higher quality care even when it is available to them.
This situation creates a positive externality that could be corrected by aligning subsidy
size with quality.

Current funding used to subsidize childcare providers can be redistributed to tackle
these problems. By taking steps to educate families on the benefits of quality care
and how to determine it, aligning the size of subsidies with quality, and reducing
the costs to providers for accreditation, the overall quality supplied in the market
will increase. Early implementation of these policies can target specific boroughs or
districts, especially low-income ones, as these families and their children are currently
believed to face the most difficulty accessing quality care.

NEXT STEPS
Through coordination with current accreditation services, such as the National
Association for the Education of Young Children and the Council on Accreditation,
four quality ratings should be created aligned with the size of family’s subsidies.
Childcare centers and homes should have two years to be evaluated before childcare
subsidies are restructured, giving them enough time to become accredited if they have
not done so already. Rankings should be available for interested consumers online and
in paper form at every public elementary school, library, and childcare referral agency.
Finally, an easy-to-read guide on childcare and child development should be written
for parents; it should describe the benefits of quality care and methods that parents
can use to identify it, as suggested by recent child psychology literature. Copies of
this guide should be made available online, at every public elementary school, local
library, and referral agency, and it should be given to all new parents in the New York
City area.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

Blau, David M. The Child Care Problem. New York: The Russel Sage Foundation, 2001.
Clarke-Stewart, Alison and Virginia D. Allhusen. What We Know About Childcare.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005.
Cryer, Debby, and Margaret Burchinal. “Parents as Child Care Consumers.” Cost,
Quality, and Child Outcomes in Child Care Center: Technical Report, ed. Suzanne W.
Helburn. Denver: Center for Research in Economic and Social Policy, University of
Colorado, 1995.
Garces, Eliana, et al. “Longer-Term Effects of Head Start.” The American Economic
Review. 92 (2002): 999-1012.
NYC Office of Policy Management. Slots for Tots: New York City’s Failure to Manage
Childcare Enrollment, New York: Office of the Comptroller, 2003.
“Results for a State, Find an NAEYC-Accredited Program.” National Association for the
Education of Young Children.<http://www.naeyc.org/academy/web_ready/search/
state.asp?state=NY> (11 Apr. 2007).
39
 Community Partnerships to Curb Domestic
Violence against Immigrant Women
Morgan Patten, Wright State University

The Office of Violence against Women (OVW) should partner with

community organizations to develop more cultural- and gender-sensitive
guidelines and programs that address the problem of domestic violence in
immigrant communities.

Due to language barriers, inexperience with U.S. law, and fear of deportation, immigrant
women are underserved by the U.S. government, underrepresented in policy making,
and vulnerable to basic human rights
violations, especially domestic violence. KEY FACTS
While studies on the general population • 22.1 percent of U.S. women experience
indicate that 22.1 percent of U.S. domestic violence.
women experience domestic violence, • As many as 62 percent of immigrant
surveys of immigrant women find that women experience physical or
between 30 and 50 percent experience psychological abuse.
physical domestic violence and as many • There are an estimated 16.7 million
as 62 percent experience physical or immigrant women in the United States.
psychological abuse.

To improve the judicial system’s response to domestic violence in immigrant

communities, the OVW should partner with non-governmental organizations, such
as the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the National Network
to End Violence against Immigrant Women, and local community groups, to develop
a comprehensive set of guidelines addressing the circumstances immigrant women
face.

These guidelines must include mandated

TALKING POINTS
training for all court officials to ensure
• Cultural norms and language barriers
they understand the linguistic, cultural,
make preventing domestic violence in
and legal issues unique to immigrant
immigrants particularly challenging.
women. Moreover, these guidelines should
• Several community organizations have a
include measures to promote accurate,
unique understanding of the challenges
timely, and gender-sensitive interpretation
that immigrants face.
services. This includes recruiting female
• Creating a clear set of guidelines for
interpreters and utilizing information
domestic violence against immigrant
and communication technologies to
women is important for progress.
allow long-distance interpretation from
a single center, as practiced by New York
City’s Language Line Program. The guidelines must include the development of a
hotline available in all common languages for reporting misconduct by officials.
Implementation will be difficult given the current politics surrounding immigrant
issues. Nevertheless, the well-being of millions of women in our country is worth
fighting for.
40
 HISTORY
There have been some local attempts to provide services to immigrant women, such
as the Family Justice Centers in New York City. Nonetheless, the judicial system
consistently fails to adequately address their needs. Judges remain undereducated
about the application of laws such as the Violence Against Women Act to immigrant
women victims of domestic violence. Interpreters are often unavailable, unqualified,
or accusatory. Interpreters frequently criticize victims of domestic violence or tell
the victim to return to her abusive partner without censure by the court. With an
estimated 16.7 million documented and undocumented immigrant women in the
United States from various countries and cultures, the judiciary must develop a more
nuanced, cultural- and gender-sensitive approach to domestic violence.

ANALYSIS
Several implementation challenges exist. Due to traditional cultural norms, a lack of
community support, and a lack of proficiency in English, immigrant women may
be less likely to seek help from the legal system. Furthermore, eliminating domestic
violence, the cost of which exceeds $5.8 billion each year, is not a federal funding
priority, as evidenced by the Bush administration’s request for a $20 million reduction
from 2006 to 2007. Finally, as evidenced by the recent accusations of government
misconduct and a general attitude of suspicion, support for immigrants is minimal.

NEXT STEPS
This policy could be established through state and local courts in coordination with
NGOs, who would direct the reports to the appropriate organization such as the
state Commission on Judicial Conduct or the court’s interpreter licensing body. After
developing these guidelines, the OVW should work with the Department of Justice
and the private sector to fund pilot programs in select communities. The OVW must
conduct an assessment of the guidelines as well as their implementation with the final
aim of instituting these measures nationwide.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

Department of Health and Human Services. Costs of Intimate Partner Violence against
Women in the United States. March 2003. http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/
ipv_cost/IPVBook-Final-Feb18.pdf.
Nass, Giselle A., Nawal Ammar, and Leslye Orloff. “Battered Immigrants and US Citizen
Spouses.” April 24, 2006. http://legalmomentum.org/legalmomentum/files/dvusc.pdf.
Menjívar, Cecilia & Olivia Salcido. “Immigrant Women and Domestic Violence:
Common Experiences in Different Countries.” Gender & Society Vol. 16, No. 6: 898-
920. December 2002.
Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights. “The Government Response to Domestic
Violence Against Refugee and Immigrant Women in the Minneapolis/St. Paul
Metropolitan Area: A Human Rights Report.” December 10, 2004. http://www.
mnadvocates.org/sites/608a3887-dd53-4796-8904-997a0131ca54/uploads/FINAL_
REPORT_Dec_10_2004_2.pdf.

41
 Support Effective Programs to Reduce the
Number of Child Support Enforcement Cases
Lauren Barnett, Princeton University

The Office of Child Support Enforcement should fund child support and
parenting education programs. These programs can reduce the number of
child support enforcement cases by (1) training more informed and responsible
fathers who are more likely to pay child support without OCSE intervention
and (2) reducing the number of out-of-wedlock pregnancies.

Teenagers who are not parents are not typically included in the outreach efforts of the Office
of Child Support Enforcement. But this group is at risk of becoming young parents, and
evidence suggests that these students
have little knowledge of the child KEY FACTS
support enforcement system or the • While teen pregnancy rates in the United States
means of establishing paternity. By have been slowly declining, they are still the
not addressing this demographic, highest among western industrialized countries.
OCSE is missing a chance for • Teen pregnancy costs the United States at least
information outreach and education. nine billion dollars each year.
Without such knowledge, these • Early evidence indicates that students who
students are more likely to become complete parenting education programs are more
parents and less likely to know about likely to be responsible parents and less likely
the responsibilities of parenting. to have children before they are financially and
emotionally prepared.
Teaching school students about the
child support enforcement system
appears to be targeting the best age and best location, creating the most effective means
available for filling this knowledge gap.
TALKING POINTS Evidence suggests that students are likely
• By supporting education and outreach efforts, to absorb the information and retain it
the Office of Child Support Enforcement can for a number of years. Furthermore, a
take a more proactive stance to reduce the wealth of economic and policy studies
number of child enforcement cases. indicate that teaching men about child
• Effective models do exist, but financial support is support enforcement is correlated with
needed to sustain and expand these programs. a decrease in the out-of-wedlock birth
rate. If boys learn early on about child
support and paternity, they will also be
more likely to become compliant and responsible parents in the event that they become
fathers. Both of these outcomes would lead to a reduction in cases for OCSE, so that it might
better direct its scarce resources and improve program performance.

Effective models for school-based paternity training do exist, but more funding is needed
to expand and support these programs. The Office of Child Support Enforcement cannot
specifically influence state policy or mandate the creation of such programs. But providing
states with financial and moral support for these programs would be a critical step in the
right direction.
42
 ANALYSIS
Current sex education programs in schools are usually female-focused and rarely include
any information about child support or paternity establishment. Studies indicate that
such information is an influential fact on a young man’s sexual choices.  As a result, a
handful of programs are attempting to fill the knowledge gap by teaching teenagers
about child support, paternity, and the importance of fathers. Dads Make a Difference
(DMAD) in Minnesota and Parenting and Paternity Awareness (PAPA) in Texas are two
examples of programs that have proven effective at improving knowledge and behaviors
among young men. Tangible tactics and specifics about child support have been cited as
key reasons for the success
of these programs. But
such programs are often
severely financially
constrained and have
been discontinued in
many areas due to a lack
of funding.

NEXT STEPS
Financial support to
programs like DMAD
and PAPA could be
accomplished through
a variety of means,
including demonstration
grants for the creation
of these programs, special improvement grants for evaluation of these programs, and
bonuses to encourage states to reduce child support caseloads as an incentive to create
such programs. To increase the level of funding for these important programs, OCSE
should support the reintroduction of Section 102 of the Bayh-Obama Responsible
Fatherhood Bill, and OCSE should partner with TANF in its efforts to reduce the out-
of-wedlock birth rate.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

Garfinkel, I., Huang, C-C, McLanahan, S. L., & Gaylin, D. S. (2003). “Will Child
Support Enforcement Reduce Nonmarital Childbearing?” Journal of Population
Economics, 16, 55-70.
 Huang, C.-C. & Han, W.-J. (2004). “Perceptions of Child Support and Sexual Activity of
Adolescent Males.” Journal of Adolescence 27, 731-748. Retrieved October 13, 2006.
 Plotnick, R., Garfinkel, I., McLanahan, S. L., & Ku, I. (2004). Better Child Support
Enforcement: Can It Reduce Teenage Premarital Childbearing? Journal of Family
Issues, 25 (5), 634-657. Retrieved October 13, 2006.
 Sonenstein, F. L., Stewart, K., Lindberg, L. D., Pernas, M., & Williams, S. (1997).
Involving Males in Preventing Teen Pregnancy: A Guide for Program Planners. The
California Wellness Foundation and the Urban Institute.
43
 Helping Working Families with Children Under Five
Hallie Fox, Middlebury College

States should provide graded tax credit for working families with children
under five, to be used for quality childcare and to encourage better education
& licensing of childcare providers.

With the growing number

of women in the workforce KEY FACTS
and two-career households, • Thirty-eight percent of families below the poverty line
American families have an pay for childcare.
ever-pressing need for quality, • In the spring of 2000, care for a four year old exceeded
affordable childcare. Over one $3000 and was over $5000 per child in 20 states (with
third of families with children 11 states over $6000).
under six have two parents • In 2002, a Nation Institute of Child Health and Human
working full-time, and Development study of “non-regulated” providers found
almost two thirds of divorced that 81 percent of the 54 non-regulated providers in the
mothers with children study were illegally non-regulated; only nine percent of
under six work full-time. those homes had good quality care, and 35 percent had
We propose state funded tax inadequate care.
credits for working families • Only one in eight employees benefit from employer-
with preschool-aged children sponsored childcare.
of up to $100 to $1,000
annually, per child, to spend
on childcare. This would be a
graded scale, giving those with the most need the most credit. Families would have
to meet minimum working hours requirements to get credit, and all parents in the
household must work. The program would also encourage local schools and universities
to offer childcare providers licensing and education classes on high quality care.

HISTORY
TALKING POINTS The effects of quality childcare
• Due to changing demographics, more women are entering are numerous, including
the workforce, both out of necessity and choice, leaving improved cognitive and
many families with a need for extra childcare. social development, higher
• The middle class and families just above the poverty line performance in school, and
often face a large burden in that they do not qualify for better health. But the costs
welfare or programs like Head Start, but still must find of childcare force many
affordable, quality care. parents to place children in
• When married, working couples weigh the costs and poor quality, unregulated
benefits of two working parents and childcare versus centers. Although programs
one parent staying at home to take care of young like Head Start and Child
children; many women find themselves at home caring Care and Development
for children, which greatly hinders their later career Block Grants help some
advancement and increases the gender-wage gap. families find affordable care,
too many families are left

44
out (Head Start can only accommodate 45 percent of qualifying families). Although
businesses can earn tax credit and subsidies for providing onsite childcare, only one
in eight employees benefit from employer-sponsored childcare. This program would
ease the burden on businesses and help working families pay for the rising costs of
childcare.

ANALYSIS
The childcare industry also contributes to state economies. It not only supports
childcare jobs and the jobs of the parents who rely on childcare, but also jobs supported
by the goods and services that childcare providers procure. In Vermont, there are at
least 7,231 jobs in the childcare job sector. For every one million dollars spent on
childcare, 35 jobs are created and an estimated 37,489 working parents who rely
on childcare services are employed by over 11,000 Vermont businesses. Savings to
the public are about seven dollars for every dollar invested in high-quality childcare
per child. Childcare also enables people to work. In 1998, 80.1 percent of Vermont
women with children under six were in the workforce.

AUDIENCE
Tax credits for families with children under five can be provided on both state and
national levels. Due to the privatization of childcare and the nature of our education
system, it is probably best to start at the state level, although education programs for
childcare providers can be developed on local, state, and national levels.

NEXT STEPS
States can evaluate the cost of childcare within local communities and find appropriate
levels for tax credits. A trial state like Vermont could implement a pilot program for
a few years. Education of childcare providers is conceptually simple: encourage local
community colleges or universities with teacher education programs to volunteer their
time.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children

and Families. Head Start Impact Study First Year Findings. Executive Summary,
June 2005.
US House and Representatives, Ways and Means Committee. “Section 9: Child
Care” in 2004 Green Book: Background Material and Data on Programs within
the Jurisdiction of the Committee on Ways and Means.
Windhan Childcahre Association and Peace and Justice Center. The Economic
Impact of Vermont’s Child Care Industry. June 2002.

45
 Inclusionary Zoning for Increased Access to
Affordable Housing in Los Angeles
Kether Hayden, Occidental College

By implementing Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) in Los Angeles, the city can

increase working peoples’ access to affordable housing with minimal budgetary
expenditure.

The extensive unmet housing need in Los Angeles necessitates movement toward
affordable housing. Los Angeles has made monetary commitments to affordable
housing with the Los Angeles Housing Trust Fund and with Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa’s commitment last year of over $51 million for new affordable housing
projects. Nonetheless, further
steps must be taken to KEY FACTS
ameliorate the housing crisis. • Los Angeles has a large housing shortage and is a
An Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) majority rental market, with 52 percent of households
ordinance should be renting in 2000.
implemented in Los Angeles • Housing is considered “affordable” when a household
as the next step to alleviating spends 30 percent of their monthly income on
the affordable housing housing—something impossible for many Los
shortage. Inclusionary Zoning Angeles renters.
is a building ordinance that • In 2006, a two-bedroom rental at the Fair Market
requires new real estate Rent was unaffordable for 67 percent of Los Angeles
developments to allocate a metropolitan area renters.
certain percentage of total
units built for affordable
units. This ordinance would ensure creation of more affordable units in the private
sector.

HISTORY
TALKING POINTS An IZ code to mitigate the
• Many cities have implemented Inclusionary affordable housing shortage is
Zoning codes and seen benefits. highly attainable and causes
• Inclusionary Zoning is a way for the public and minimal monetary hardships for
the private sectors to share the responsibility for the real estate community and for
providing affordable housing to all income levels. the city, as demonstrated by past
• Making a commitment to mixed-income housing IZ implementation. Inclusionary
can allow for social integration and reduce the Zoning codes have provided
phenomenon of “ghettoization” that earlier thousands of new affordable
income-segregated housing projects created. sale and rental homes in other
jurisdictions across the nation.
Successful IZ ordinances have been
introduced in cities neighboring
Los Angeles such as Pasadena, Long Beach and Santa Monica. Inclusionary Zoning
ordinances vary widely in the details of their implementation; Los Angeles will need
to decide what is best for the city.
46
 ANALYSIS
The housing need of city residents is illustrated by excessive waiting lists for public
assistance. Inclusionary Zoning in Los Angeles can increase access to affordable housing
with minimal budgetary expenditure in comparison to publicly funded housing
projects and assistance. It would only require the oversight of the City of Los Angeles
Department of Building and Safety, already in charge of zoning and building code
enforcement. The ordinance would apply to all new real estate developments over a
certain number of units and would require them to designate ten to fifteen percent of
units as affordable. In exchange for building these affordable units, developers would
be granted flexibility on other zoning restrictions such as density and parking.

AUDIENCE
All community members should support Inclusionary Zoning ordinances because
residents at many income levels will be able to qualify for, and benefit from, the
affordable units built.

NEXT STEPS
City constituents and neighborhood councils must learn that this is an initiative to
both protect their housing rights and provide people of all income levels with accessible
housing. An information campaign is needed to educate constituents of the benefits of
Inclusionary Zoning. If city council members can see their constituents behind it, most
of the battle is won. After an IZ ordinance is passed, implementation would require
compliance from developers and the oversight of the planning commission—creating
no more work for the city than any other change in planning or zoning codes.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

Brown, Karen Destorel. “Expanding Affordable Housing Through Inclusionary

Zoning: Lessons from the Washington Metropolitan Area.” The Brookings Institution
Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, October 2001.
Calavita, Nico, Kenneth Grimes, Alan Mallach. “Inclusionary Housing in California and
New Jersey: A Comparative Analysis.” Housing Policy Debate 8, no.1 (1997).
Cleeland, Nancy. “Little gain seen in affordable housing; loss of rent controlled units
in LA almost equals the buildingof new ones, study says,” Los Angeles Times, 7
September 2006, sec. B. http://www.proquest.com.
Helfand, Duke. “Mayor Pledges $51 million to Build Affordable Housing.” Los Angeles
Times, 15 March 2006, sec B. http://www.proquest.com.
Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty. “Housing and Poverty in Los
Angeles.” Just the Facts, July 2001. http://www.weingart.org.
National Low Income Housing Coalition, “Out of Reach 2006, California.” Out of
Reach. http://www.nlihc.org/oor/oor2006/data.cfm?getstate=on&getmsa=on&msa=
301&state=CA.
47
 A Home for the Working Poor
Kevin Chang, Brian Levy, University of Georgia

Cities implementing a Definition of Family zoning ordinance can improve

home ownership for the working poor by modifying the ordinance’s restrictions
in order to target its intended populations.

Athens-Clarke County (ACC), Georgia, boasts historical architecture, vibrant

nightlife, and the state’s flagship educational institution, the University of Georgia.
However, ACC is also home to extreme poverty. Twenty-eight percent of Athenians
live in poverty, the 5th highest rate in the nation for metropolitan counties. The large,
wealthy student body (34,000+) compounds this problem by competing with city
residents for rental property and home ownership.

To combat neighborhood takeover

by “disorderly” students, a Definition KEY FACTS
of Family (DoF) ordinance was • Fifty percent of resident in Athens-Clarke
implemented that prohibits more County, Georgia, live in relative poverty.
than two unrelated people from living • 17,000 households cannot afford a home in
together in homes zoned in residential Athens-Clarke County.
areas. This ordinance, however, has • Twenty-eight percent of people in Athens
unintended consequences for the live below the federal poverty line.
working poor. It prevents two families
from pooling their resources and buying a home. In places like Athens, where over
17,000 households cannot afford a home, the effects of such an ordinance are highly
significant.

Rather than abandoning the ordinance, ACC should modify its restrictions. Almost
all students rent, as opposed to purchasing a home. To counteract this discrepancy,
the ordinance should be amended to only pertain to residential rental property. This
compromise allows for unrelated individuals in working families to legally purchase a
home while maintaining the safety measure against the student market.

TALKING POINTS Typically, a home is a family’s

• Modifying the Definition of Family zoning largest asset. Without it, they
ordinance provides affordable housing by are unable to build credit, have
allowing families to pool resources and purchase collateral, or anchor their savings
together. in long-term property. An
• It also builds equity and collateral for Athens’ amended ordinance fosters a fairer
working poor. housing market and relieves some
• Fair housing encourages home ownership and of the housing stress in ACC.
fosters a sense of community.
HISTORY
The DoF ordinance is found
in many cities across America, and it has been met with resistance because of its
discrimination against illegal immigrants, same-sex partners, and non-traditional
48
families. Athens implemented its DoF ordinance during the 1970s, and it has
been overhauled many times. As noted by Matthew Murphy, Affordable Housing
Administrator for the Athens Human & Economic Development Department, in
college towns like Athens, students are the measure’s target group.

ANALYSIS
In ACC, 58 percent of occupied housing units are renter-occupied. With the exception
of one Georgia county, ACC maintains the lowest percentage of owner-occupied units
in the state. A compromise of the Definition of Family ordinance is necessary to
encourage home ownership. Empirically, the current ordinance fails to keep students
from living together. Instead, it excludes low-income families from the homes. The
proposed policy, if enforced, would raise home ownership and help to control the
burgeoning student leasing population, at a negligible cost.

AUDIENCE
This proposal represents a unique compromise, and thus, it offers a valuable option to
all university towns. These cities, even those without DoF ordinances, should consider
the impact of their student populations on the housing market for city residents. In
many cases, universities need to make an effort to keep students on campus, offering
more on-campus housing options for upperclassmen. Students and permanent
residents of Athens-Clarke County are the primary audience for this proposal, but any
college or university experiencing similar tension over the issue of off-campus student
housing should consider this as a part of an alternative housing policy.

NEXT STEPS
Amending DoF ordinances is simply one step in an effective housing program
for the working poor. Policies that encourage multi-family home ownership and
anchoring savings in housing equity would also be worthwhile. To this end, city
governments could offer subsidized home loan accounts or other savings measures to
ease the substantial cost of buying a home. Exploring rent-to-ownership programs
that have been tested by some non-profit affordable housing providers, or combining
this proposal with other savings and loan programs that promote long-term financial
planning, could complement this proposal and create a multi-pronged approach for
creating sustainable mixed-income neighborhoods.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

“Poverty Data” Partners for a Prosperous Athens. 2006. http://www.prosperousathens.org
Athens-Clarke County Government. Code of Ordinances. Sec. 9-15-18.
Elliott v City of Athens, Georgia, 960 F 2nd 975, 11th Cir 1992.
Murphy, Matthew. Telephone interview by author. 8 March 2007.
Athens Housing Authority. “Housing Markets in Athens: Unlocking the Door to
Affordable Housing.” 26 June 2006. w ww.prosperousathens.org/committees/ht/
images/housing_markets_in_athens.pdf.

49
 Stemming the Tide of the Uninsured
Brian Levy, The University of Georgia

The federal government should provide incentives encouraging all 50 states

to require that insurance companies offer flood insurance to all Americans;
market competition through multiple providers will improve service and lower
consumer costs.

State Farm recently stopped offering insurance coverage for the entire state of
Mississippi, and Allstate has significantly cut its policies. This represents a growing
problem for flood-prone areas in our increasingly disaster-conscious world. Flood
insurance is imperative for many Americans, especially those living along the Gulf
Coast and other geographically vulnerable regions. Without coverage, the value of
their homes plummets and their insecurity rises. Low and middle class Americans are
especially susceptible to these changes because their homes tend to be their most
significant investment.
KEY FACTS
Some call for the government • The proposed policy will save taxpayers more than
to provide the insurance, $1.3 billion per year by eliminating the National
but this is not a natural Flood Insurance Program.
federal function. Its coverage • The federal government borrowed $30 billion to
tends to be inefficient cover Katrina costs.
and ineffective. Not only
does the National Flood
Insurance Board continually face deficits, but in the years to come its payouts will be
substantially delayed. By incentivizing states to mandate private insurance through
federally withholding highway funds, policymakers can maximize the utility of both
insurance companies and the national government. Insurance companies are the cost-
efficient, highest-quality insurer, best able to manage policies at the local level. The
federal government, on the other hand, is more successful at managing large-scale
disasters as opposed to micromanaging day-to-day insurance transactions. Finally,
a national risk pool and market competition could maintain or even lower costs for
most homeowners.

TALKING POINTS HISTORY

• Just as a private monopoly is ineffective, government- America’s current flood
run insurance is inefficient. Private flood insurance insurance system represents
increases efficiency through market competition. an inefficient patchwork
• By exiting the insurance industry, the federal of coverage. The federal
government frees up additional funds for investment government, under the
in disaster preparedness. management of the Federal
• Private insurance simplifies the complex bureaucratic Emergency Management
process and offers insurance at a fair market rate to Agency (FEMA), offers
all Americans. insurance through the
National Flood Insurance
Program (NFIP). Individuals
50
whose communities participate in a flood prevention program can purchase policies
at rates set by FEMA. Not only does this leave out citizens whose communities
do not participate, but FEMA can not effectively set rates at the local level. State-
mandated private insurance represents a new, simple solution to this problem. It
takes flood insurance out of the public realm and places it under private control,
like all other forms of homeowners insurance.

ANALYSIS
By providing flood insurance to all individuals within participating communities,
the federal government inadvertently subsidizes construction in some of the
most unsafe floodplains. This policy will encourage development in safer areas,
promoting sound city planning and putting a stop to current development models
that relegate the poor to hazardous, flood-prone locations.

Private insurers can more effectively regulate policies and more efficiently manage
the insurance market, likely at little to no loss to the company. This plan saves
the federal government, on average, at least $1.3 billion per year by eliminating
current collection shortfall. However, this number excludes the catastrophic
scenario of another Katrina, which would cost approximately $40 billion in
insured losses alone. On the conservative estimate of $1.3 billion in savings per
year, the government could completely pay for private losses from a Hurricane
Andrew-level disaster every sixteen years.

NEXT STEPS
With the government no longer offering inefficient insurance, it can divert the
resources and infrastructure to alternative programs. The logical venue for these
supplies is the mega-disaster response and underwriting program of the NFIP.
Re-investment will offer greater support for this division, which is already in need
of significant overhaul. Not only is this cost-effective, but it also simplifies the
difficult, circuitous process of navigating the flood insurance system.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

Black, Christy G. 2005. “Subsidizing Disaster.” National Center for Policy Analysis http://
www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba525/
Hartwig, Robert P. 2005. “The Future of the National Flood Insurance Program.”
Testimony delivered to the United States Senate, Committee on Banking, Housing,
and Urban Affairs.” http://banking.senate.gov/_files/hartwig.pdf
Marron, Donald B. 2006. “Letter to the Congressional Budget Office.” http://www.cbo.
gov/ftpdocs/72xx/doc7233/05-31-NFIPLetterGregg.pdf

51
 Social Capital Block Grants
Niko Karvounis, Oxford University

Social capital is essential to promoting community development. To ensure

that local community foundations develop, social capital block grants should
be incorporated into existing community block grant programs.

Social capital is the networking of individuals within and across communities along
the grounds of trust, connectedness, and reciprocity. Incorporating social capital block
grants (SCBG) into existing
community block grant KEY FACTS
programs will establish and • Participation in clubs and civic organizations is down
strengthen the vital by more than 50 percent over the last 25 years, and
community foundations involvement in community life is down by 35 percent
needed to support working over the same period.
families at no additional • Joining a group cuts odds of death within the next year
cost. by 50 percent.
• From 1985-2004, the percentage of Americans lacking
HISTORY anyone to discuss important matters with has nearly tripled.
Current federal funding for • Together with income inequality, low levels of social
Community Development capital account for a startling 60 percent of the variation
Block Grants (economic in mortality rates across U.S. states.
development and
revitalization) is $4.2
billion; funding for Social Services Block Grants (public health and child welfare) is
$2 billion; for Community Services Block Grants designed to fight causes of poverty,
funding is $637 million.
TALKING POINTS
• Social capital is the glue that holds communities For any of these programs to
together, allowing them to identify and mobilize be successful, they require a
around the needs and interests of working families. strong foundation of social
• Community development schemes often focus on capital—yet none address the
projects imposed from above, on the part of activists role of social connectedness in
or administrators. But a healthy community is a self- creating a sustainable effort.
sufficient community. Thus 25 percent of each grant
• Working families can only get ahead in the long-run (a total of $1.8 billion) should
if they have the social support to get by in the day-to- be dedicated to projects that
day experience that constitutes community life. build social capital.

Examples of possible projects include:

1. A community daycare, babysitting, or tutoring cooperative

2. Formation of neighborhood residential associations
3. A ‘community ambassador’ program integrating citizen-advocates into other programs
4. Community services programs (landscaping, snow removal, moving services, etc)
52
 linked to community organizations
5. Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Sites

ANALYSIS
SCBG funds should be dedicated to supplementing CDBG, CSBG, and SSBG projects
by providing exceptional potential for strengthening social bonds by addressing
practical, everyday social experiences that define life in a community.

Ideal SCBG projects would:

• Have goals that lend themselves to direct involvement by residents and minimal
management or imposition from third party administrators
• Be dedicated to ‘daily life’ objectives relevant to working families (e.g. filing taxes,
child care, recreation, etc.) rather than public interest or political concerns
• Maximize the diversity of community coalitions involved, particularly in terms of
income level and ethnicity

These sorts of projects provide learning experiences that help communities come
together and interact as supportive partners, building an organic momentum for other
community projects and fostering self-sufficiency. Communities with more social
capital stimulate greater discussion of local issues and greater commitment to planning
for and generating larger numbers of project proposals. The simple dynamic of relying
on your neighbors proves to be a robust predictor of low crime rates. Networked
communities diffuse important information—such as health issues—more efficiently:
for example, researchers have strongly correlated low levels of social capital with
higher levels of sexually transmitted diseases. For increasingly diverse communities,
opportunities to interact in beneficial face-to-face contexts can help to bridge divisions;
approximately 40 percent of the variation in levels of social capital across communities
can be attributed to factious ethnic heterogeneity. Working families need to be ‘plugged
in’ to their communities in order for collective action to develop.

NEXT STEPS
• Consult closely with research institutions, university centers, and non-profit
organizations mobilizing around social capital.
• Form a private-public sector coalition to develop programs and identify
communities in need; consider the role for social capital in other government
programs.
• Begin community surveys to construct a ‘Top 10’ of everyday working family
needs that SCBG could incorporate into its project criteria.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

David R. Holtgrave and Richard A. Crosby, “Social Capital, Poverty, and Income
Inequality as Predictors of Gonorrhea, Syphilis, Chlamydia, and AIDS Case Rates in
the United States,” Sexually Transmitted Infections 79 (2003): 62-64.
* A full list of sources is available upon request.

53
 Federal Farm Subsidies Limitations Proposal
Sheila Korth, University of Nebraska

This proposal would eliminate loopholes in the farm subsidy payment system
and would redistribute subsidies from large corporations and farmers to small
and medium-sized farmers, while benefiting rural communities.

The 2002 Farm Bill’s commodity title did not distribute agriculture subsidy payments
equitably, thus hurting small family farmers. Between 2003 and 2005, the majority
of the $50 billion in federal
subsidies was  distributed KEY FACTS
to only a few farming • The proposed changes will alter Farm Bill legislation
operations. During the same and how counties document farms for federal subsidy
time period, the top ten payments.
percent of subsidy recipients • This proposal will actually save an estimated three to five
averaged $68,030 in yearly billion dollars each year in subsidy payments to large
payments and collected and corporate producers that can be redistributed to
an unfair 65 percent of other Farm Bill programs like energy, conservation, rural
all payments; the bottom development, and nutrition.
80 percent averaged only • Implementation could help revive struggling rural
$2,312 annually. Future communities while only reducing subsidy payments to
farm bills need to reallocate the top two to three percent of farm producers.
money currently paid to
large producers and direct
it toward small and young farmers, organic producers, conservationists, researchers,
rural development initiatives, and producers growing crops for renewable energy. By
changing the commodity title to a revenue-based program instead of one based solely
on prices or loan deficiencies, farmers will have a better safety net in times of low
prices or low yields and not just one of the two. By instituting stronger payment limits,
young farmers will be able to afford more equipment and land; this is important since
the average age of a farmer in 2002 was 55 years old. This farm bill will set the stage
for modern agriculture and determine whether the U.S. government will continue to
subsidize mega farms.
TALKING POINTS HISTORY
• This proposal would make the Farm Bill subsidy payments The basis for this proposal
more equitable and would help make it compliant with comes from several
World Trade Organization regulations. Congressional field
• The proposed changes would not increase Farm Bill costs, hearings, conversations with
but would help broader interests of both rural and urban farmers in Nebraska, the
Americans, small community members, conservation Secretary of Agriculture’s
and renewable energy proponents, and consumers of 2007 Farm Bill proposal,
organic or fresh produce. and professional
• Additional rural development funding could also be agriculture organizations.
used to expand broadband Internet service and distance No agriculture payment
education. reform like this has been
54
implemented in the past, but several groups like the Center for Rural Affairs have
supported it for several years.

Agriculture payment limits were instituted in the 1970 Farm Bill, but initiatives like
program loopholes, marketing loan gains, and the three-entity rule which allows
producers to obtain three times the amount of farm subsidies that they could obtain
under individual limitations lessen the effects of subsidy limitations. Tighter individual
payment limitations have been proposed by Senators Grassley (R-IA) and Dorgan
(D-ND) during the 2002 Farm Bill debate, but this amendment lost by a vote of 46-
53 and others like it have been lost in conference committee debates.

ANALYSIS
By creating and enforcing an individual total subsidy payment limit (not including
disaster payments) of $75,000 per year, a one-entity rule, and by closing loopholes
by proving that the farm operator actually works on a farm, billions of dollars can
be reallocated for beginning farmer programs, renewable energy or specialty crop
production, or disaster assistance. Crop differences between different U.S. regions
could be considered for variable payment limitations. If the total subsidy limitation
had been enforced at $75,000 per operator in 2005, the United States would have
spent $16 billion instead of $21 billion. The top 12 percent of producers would be
affected with slightly lower payments.

AUDIENCE
Midwestern producers are mostly in favor of stricter payment limits while Southern
producers are against them because of higher input costs, but these differences could be
worked out in variable limits for different crops. This proposal would be implemented
on a national government level.

NEXT STEPS
To implement this proposal, farmers must get their voices and opinions out about
future farm policy. Groups and local farm organizations should hold field hearings with
members of Congress or their staff to relate new ideas about policies, implementation,
and regulation of the next farm bill provisions. Local farmers can also directly contact
the offices of their congressmen in Washington, D.C.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

* A full list of sources is available upon request.

55
 National Guard Readiness
Certification Requirements
Kai Stinchcombe, Stanford University

States should pass laws requiring that, when the state’s National Guard troops
are serving overseas, the governor has to report every 30 days on:

(1) Whether the troops are properly and safely equipped,

(2) Whether the overseas deployments are adversely straining the soldiers
families, and
(3) Whether the state can adequately respond to disasters it is likely to face.

National Guard troops who expected to serve for months are now finding their overseas
deployments and extended
tours lasting for years. Some KEY FACTS
signed up in response to ads • 450,000 National Guard troops and reservists have
promising, “One weekend a served in Iraq, many more than in any previous conflict.
month, two weeks a year. • National Guard troops are serving over five times as
Earn money for college and many days of active duty as they did in 2001.
protect your local • The Pentagon found that up to 80 percent of Marines
community.” After they who died in Iraq from upper body wounds could have
signed up, they saw their been saved by proper body armor. Many families sent
maximum active duty limit soldiers body armor because they were not provided
per five years enlisted with modern equipment.
increase from twelve months • Divorce rates among army officers are up 78 percent
to eighteen to twenty-four— from 2003 and over 250 percent since 2000.
before the limit was scrapped
altogether.

The president is entitled to take command of National Guard troops maintained by

the states, and a governor cannot withhold consent for foreign active duty service
because of the location, purpose, type, or duration of the duty. However, the states
that our National Guard
TALKING POINTS troops serve can still do
• If we send United States troops abroad, we must support more to ensure their well
them by doing everything we can to protect them and being.
bring them home safe.
• Repeated and extended deployments are reducing our
nation’s ability to cope with other threats. By creating an independent
• The families of National Guard troops are particularly reporting requirement,
hard-hit. State governments owe it to their troops to try this proposal would
to ensure their safety. encourage governors to
• When a young man or woman decides to sign up with the make sure our country is
armed forces, they are trusting our civilian leadership to adequately supporting our
respect their commitment. We are letting them down. troops, and to find ways
to better support them.
56
 HISTORY
A governor’s say in how National Guard troops are used by the federal government
was essentially eliminated in 1987. Until recently, however, National Guard troops
expected and were promised a much lighter load of service.

Periodic reporting requirements are nothing new, especially in wartime where one
part of the government is commanding and the other is responsible for financing the
troops and maintaining readiness. In this case, it is asking governors rather than the
president to report on the effects of overseas service because National Guard troops
are maintained by the states, and because the federal government has often limited
information suggesting that it could be doing more to equip, prepare, or support the
troops.

ANALYSIS
National guard units play a key role in disaster readiness; for example, Guard units
delivered food during the 2007 blizzard and played a role in rescuing victims of
Hurricane Katrina.
The readiness problems are not just related to their ability to serve their own community.
According to Lt. Gen. Clyde A. Vaughn, head of the 346,000-strong Army National
Guard, “What we’re working out of right now is a situation where we have absolutely
piecemealed our force to death. If we continue to piecemeal these things like Swiss
cheese, we will not find ourselves able to build complete forces back.”

Repeated call-ups not only decimate their military infrastructure, but harm the civilian
infrastructure — families and jobs — that support the national guard in times of
peace. After eighteen-month deployments or injuries, many come home to find their
job gone, or even worse, their spouse.

NEXT STEPS
States should move to draft and pass legislation along these lines, particularly since at
this point the political will and substantive research supporting this policy are in ready
supply.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

Stacy Bannerman, “Volunteer Soldiers Devastated by Iraq Weren’t ‘Asking for It.’”
AlterNet. March 10, 2007.
Lisa Burgess, “Divorce rate among active-duty Army officers, enlisted has risen
dramatically.” Stars and Stripes. June 9, 2005.
Michael Moss, “Pentagon Study Links Fatalities to Body Armor.” New York Times.
January 7, 2006.
“PERPICH v. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, 496 U.S. 334 (1990)”. FindLaw.
Rone Tempest and Peter Spiegel. “Guard troops are called up.” Los Angeles Times. March
2, 2007.
Ann Scott Tyson, “Possible Iraq Deployments Would Stretch Reserve Force.” Washington
Post. November 5, 2006; Page A01.
57
 Improving Accessibility to Art Museums
Nancy Thebaut, Agnes Scott College

Subsidies to reduce museum admission fees would significantly increase access

to these institutions and their societal benefits for all Americans, especially
those who are economically disadvantaged.

Broad-based accessibility to museums has been shown to play a significant role in the
growth and economic development of urban areas and to foster civic engagement,
volunteerism, and cohesion among
differing socio-economic groups. KEY FACTS
However, many museums in the • Museum accessibility has been linked to
United States are becoming economic development and civic engagement
increasingly inaccessible to lower among differing socioeconomic groups.
and even average income Americans • Adult admission fees are as high as $20 at some
and are therefore slowly abandoning art museums.
their traditional roles as non-profit, • The Baltimore Art Museum found that the
public institutions in the service of number of non-white visitors tripled after
society as a whole. eliminating its entrance fee.

With adult admission fees as high

as $12-$20, institutions such as
the Museum of Modern Art, the Frick Collection, and the Art Institute of Chicago
are effectively excluding a significant portion of the general population that would
otherwise partake in the educational, cultural, and social benefits that these art
museums provide. The impact of rising admission fees on disadvantaged groups,
especially racial minorities, has been particularly severe. It is therefore in our country’s
interest to initiate actions that will enhance museum accessibility and increasingly
democratize the public sphere.

The program I propose would be administered by the National Endowment for the
Arts (NEA), and it should be coupled with other national initiatives, including the
Institute of Museum and Library Services, to stimulate interest in our public museums
and the various resources they offer. Funding would be based on competitive grant
applications from institutions
dedicated to the development of
TALKING POINTS society as well as equality of
• Museums are an important asset to our opportunity in learning. Award
communities and it is important that their criteria would include strong
benefits can reach everyone. community support as measured by
• The NEA has a responsibility to not only fund the NEA and, since there are varying
arts education programs but also to ensure degrees of dependency on the
access to our nation’s art. revenue public museums receive
• All of America benefits when each of us, no from admission fees (approximately
matter how disadvantaged, has access to five to twelve percent each), the
museums. demonstrated need of the institution.
58
Program resources should be such that the number and size of awards will significantly
increase access to public museums in the United States. Without affordable access to
these educational arts programs and exhibits currently funded by the NEA, their
widespread benefit is ultimately lost.

ANALYSIS
This proposal focuses on the funding of art museums, rather than natural history
museums, as there is a present lack of arts education in American public schools, and
the evidence showcasing the educational benefits of the arts for children is outstanding.
For instance, Americans for the Arts has found that young people involved in the arts
(including access to art museums and their attendant educational programming) exhibit
“higher academic performance, increased standardized test scores, more community
service, and lower dropout rates.” Also, legislation such as the No Child Left Behind
Act has deemphasized the relative importance of the arts in public education; some
71 percent of teachers “have reduced instructional time in at least one other subject to
make more time for reading and mathematics.”

Increased federal funding of museum admissions fees through the NEA is the best
mechanism for making museums more accessible to the underprivileged. Currently,
the NEA is not allowed to give grants in support of the operative costs of museums,
which includes the subsidization of admission fees. Thus, regardless of what the cost
of this initiative might be, the NEA needs to reallocate its present funds so that they
may be allotted not only to arts education programs and specific exhibits at museums,
but also to the cost of admission at these institutions.

NEXT STEPS
While the political climate in Washington has recently shifted in a way that may be
favorable to federal funding of admission fees, it is not clear that the initiative would
be politically tenable at this time. The cost and focus on the war in Iraq and most
lawmakers’ lack of knowledge regarding the civic benefits of museums would certainly
be impediments to this legislation. But a good case can be made for bipartisan support
of this measure as it would economically bolster individual legislator’s communities
with museums, and it would also assist in community building efforts amongst diverse
groups in these areas. Another potential obstacle is the attitude some have that
museum access represents a commercial service that individuals—not society—should
pay for. Yet it is clear that while individuals certainly benefit from visiting museums,
all of America benefits when each of us, no matter how disadvantaged, has access to
museums.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

*A full list of sources is available upon request.

59
 Welfare Reform: Focus on Community Service
Kate Berlent, Hamilton College

By placing at least 15 percent of welfare recipients per state in paid

community service positions, we can decrease TANF caseloads and increase
self-sufficiency among workers while directly improving communities.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is the nation’s primary welfare
program, federally funded yet implemented uniquely by each state. It aims to move
welfare recipients into work and build strong families. However, recent reforms to
welfare legislation have not
sufficiently reduced poverty in KEY FACTS
America. We must also protect • TANF recipients constitute a largely untapped pool
the emotional well-being of of community service labor, yet only 9.9 percent of
parents and children during working recipients held service positions in 2004.
transitions into the workforce • Children who grow up in poverty cost the economy
by making health care, childcare, $500 billion per year because they commit
transportation subsidies, and more crimes, spend more time in prisons, incur
livable wages accessible through staggering health costs, and are less productive in
employers. Currently, a child is the workforce.
removed from one in six homes • 37 million Americans live in poverty.
in the five years after parents • 4.4 million individuals are TANF recipients.
apply for welfare. TANF
recipients can face difficulty
finding steady employment for
health and personal reasons. While service work may prove empowering and satisfying
to many, some may prefer other work, or be unable to find sufficient forms of
employment. Those ultimately unemployable will be protected under an expanded
human services force.

HISTORY
The needy serving the needy has a successful history in America dating back to FDR.
In the 1970s, the Comprehensive
Employment and Training Act
TALKING POINTS (CETA) included a large public
• Instead of having jobs and benefiting society as sector component and increased
defined by TANF service guidelines, welfare- the average earnings of poor
to-work programs frequently place workers as women substantially. According
cashiers, hospitality workers, and receptionists. to the New York Times, economist
• By focusing welfare reform on elevating community William Darity stated in 2006,
service participation, we not only reduce poverty “something like CETA should be
for welfare recipients, but for entire communities. revived, not to supply make-
• It is morally and financially cost-effective to work jobs, but to satisfy pressing
invest in poverty now. Over several years, such social needs.” Current initiatives
an investment can significantly reduce tax dollars such as Job Opportunities for
directed at human service. Low-Income Individuals (JOLI)
60
do not encourage service nearly enough. JOLI offers $5.5 million annually to train
and create jobs for low-income individuals; directing JOLI’s resources towards
community service would promote citizen engagement and tangibly improve the
communities that need it most.

ANALYSIS
TANF recipients are not paid for their service hours, but receive federal assistance
in exchange. Despite more low-income individuals in the workforce, they are
underemployed; 70 percent of adults requiring federal assistance did not meet TANF
work requirements in 2005. Community service work can provide steady, useful
employment, utilizing a variety of different skills and potentially generating long-term
programs out of short-term repair operations. By turning volunteers on TANF into
wage-earning, tax-paying employees, workers can rely less on federal money. Programs
such as TANF create work opportunities to alleviate poverty, but as statistics show,
“more effective models of post-employment supports that lead to career development
and wage progression are needed.”

AUDIENCE
While operated and funded on a federal level, states can execute varied forms of paid
community service programs so that we may evaluate which programs work best. A
public-private partnership will be necessary to fully fund such a program.

NEXT STEPS
We should create jobs for low-income workers in U.S. departments and in state and
local agencies. For example, the Department of Agriculture currently runs a program
that aims to recover the millions of pounds of food that typically go to waste every
year. By placing low-income workers as crop gleaners or food salvagers, we can
dramatically reduce hunger in America and provide steady employment for those in
need. Furthermore, incentives to hire and maintain low-income workers and expand
an employer’s workforce should be offered to private businesses in human services
such as hospitals and nursing homes. Funding required would likely see a return in
new taxpayers and service workers.

———————————— SOURCES ————————————

Carson, Larry. 2005. BRAC May Create New Jobs For Poor. Baltimore Sun,
November 28.
“CETA Training Programs- Do They Work for Adults?” Congressional Budget
Office. 1982.
Children’s Defense Fund. www.childrensdefense.org. 2006
Eckholm, Eric. 2006. For the Neediest of the Needy, Welfare Reforms Still Fall
Short, Study Says. New York Times, May 17.
Administration for Children and Families. Reauthorization of the Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families Program; Interim Final Rule. June 29, 2006
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/tanfregs/tfinrule.htm.
Administration for Children and Families. TANF Annual Report To Congress
2004. http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/particip/2004/table05b.htm
Uchitelle, Louis. 2006. Chasing Full Employment. New York Times, February 12.
61
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