Note:
Justice Talking's grant funding expired in 2008 and the
project has been closed. This website is an archive of
the entire run of Justice Talking shows through June 30,
2008.
It is no longer being maintained. We apologize for
any stale or broken links.
|
|
| Note: Justice Talking ceased production on June 30
of 2008. Link information on this site is not maintained and is provided for historical interest only.
Although correct when posted, The Annenberg Public Policy Center makes no claim as the the accuracy or
continued availability of any third party web links found on this site. |
|
Six years have passed since former President Clinton and Congress signed legislation to codify pledges to “end welfare as we know it.” A booming economy throughout most of the 1990s helped thousands find jobs and move from welfare to work. Now, with the legislation set to expire this year in an uncertain economy, welfare advocates are pushing to rebuild the safety net for those most at risk. They note that welfare rolls are starting to rise for the first time since the legislation went into effect suggesting welfare dependence fluctuates with economic ups and downs, not political threats or promises. Reform supporters, however, point to the unprecedented drop in welfare dependence as a sign of success. In no prior economy have we seen the exodus from public assistance we saw after the legislation passed. If more people are working, reformers ask, aren’t the policies working?
|
|
|
|
Frances Fox Piven
is the Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the Graduate School and University Center, City University of New York. Piven is the co-author of numerous books on welfare policy, poverty and disenfranchisement. Her book, Regulating the Poor, co-authored with Richard Cloward, a look at the role of welfare policy in controlling the working poor, is widely acknowledged as a social science classic. She has participated in many welfare and political reform efforts and was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters at Adelphi University in l985, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1973 and of a Council of Learned Societies Fellowship in 1982.
|
|
|
Jason A. Turner
is a Visiting Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, specializing in welfare reform issues. Before joining Heritage, Turner served as welfare commissioner of New York City where he created the largest work program in the country. Under Turner’s watch, welfare caseloads in the city dropped by 47 percent and more than 400,000 former welfare recipients were placed in jobs. Turner is also well known as one of the chief architects of the Wisconsin welfare-to-work program under former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson. He worked as Director of Family Assistance at the Department of Health and Human Services during the first Bush Administration, where he oversaw the federal welfare program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children.
|
|
|
|
|
"There is nothing new about poverty. What is new is that we now have the techniques and the resources to get rid of poverty. The real question is whether we have the will."
— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
|
|
©1999-2010 University of Pennsylvania. All rights reserved.
Any Justice Talking program downloaded or podcast from this site is for personal use only. Any
Justice Talking program, or portion of it, may not reproduced, publicly distributed or displayed,
used to create a derivative work, or otherwise copied or transmitted to a third party, in any
format now known or hereafter discovered, except as expressly permitted by Law.
To request permission
to use Justice Talking audio, please contact
support.
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
| NOTE: Justice Talking Blogs and Forums have been closed. |
| Justice Talking’s last broadcast & podcast was June 30, 2008. Read more... |
|
|