Welfare and Education Policy:
Providing for Personal
Security and Need
Chapter 16
Poverty in America:
The Nature of the Problem

The Poor:
 Who?
 How

Many?
Living in Poverty:
 By
Choice?
 Chance?
© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
2
Politics and Policies
of Social Welfare

Negative government: staying out of people’s
lives, giving people maximum freedom

Positive government: intervention necessary to
buffer economic and social forces beyond a
persons’ control
© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
3
Politics and Policies
of Social Welfare

Social insurance programs
 Social
Security
 Unemployment insurance
 Medicare
© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
4
Politics and Policies
of Social Welfare

Public assistance programs
 Supplemental
Security Income (SSI)
 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
 Food Stamps
 Subsidized housing
 Medicaid
© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
5
Politics and Policies
of Social Welfare

Culture, welfare, and income
 Inefficiency
and inequity
 Income and tax measures
© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
6
Cumbersome Administrative
Process of Receiving Welfare
Benefits
© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
7
Education as Equality of Opportunity

Public education: leveling through the schools
 America’s
heavy investment in public education
 Relatively standardized curriculum

Public school issues
 Disorder
in some schools
 Standardized test scores

The federal role in education: political
differences
© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
8
The American Way of Promoting
the General Welfare

Democracy and economic security
 The American way of welfare
 Differences between the European and
American approach
© 2009 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
9