California reverses welfare position
Caught between falling budgets and the rising ranks of the unemployed and underemployed on welfare, the state of California has suspended employment assistance services such as child care subsidy for welfare families, according to The New York Times' Erik Eckholm.
After vigorously pursuing policies to push more welfare recipients into the workforce, the state is also dropping work requirements and penalties for single parents with a child aged 1 to 2, or those with two children under 6.
By 2011, the state's welfare-to-work program CalWorks will enforce stricter rules for participants to reduce costs. Until then, the state is slashing those programs because they are ineligible for stimulus act funds.
The reversal of a decade's worth of welfare policies worries many who supported the cultural change effected by California's carrot-and-stick approach to getting welfare recipients back to work.
Mr. Schwarzenegger did wring savings out of the state’s welfare-to-work program, known as CalWorks, and achieved a future tightening of the rules. But those changes do not start until July 1, 2011. In the interim, to save $375 million a year, the state is trimming the employment assistance programs at the heart of the welfare-to-work approach, especially subsidized child care, and suspending work requirements for a large share of recipients.
Those programs were selected, in large part, because they were not eligible for extra federal money under the stimulus act.
--- Kristen Young
The story you just read is only possible because readers like you support our mission to uncover truths that matter. If you value this reporting, help us continue producing high-impact investigations that drive real-world change. Your donation today ensures we can keep asking tough questions and bringing critical issues to light. Join us — because fearless, independent journalism depends on you!
— Jacob H. Fries, executive director
DonateCancel anytime.
Public Health
Do Oregon parents get enough mental health support during pregnancy? Help us answer that question
We want to hear from you about how behavioral health care — or a lack of it — impacted a pregnancy
Union says Providence fired 15 nurses in retaliation for news coverage of girl’s suicide at Spokane hospital
Providence has accused nurses and other staff of violating patient privacy laws
Washington’s safety net clinics face ‘perfect storm’ of federal threats
Cuts to Medicaid and a change restricting services for some immigrants loom over the state’s 27 community health centers.
Oregon quietly halted a new Medicaid program for people leaving prison. Whether it goes forward may be up to the Trump administration.
State health officials delayed a $64 million Medicaid expansion because of the Trump administration’s tax and spending cuts package
Latest
After Homeland Security ‘welfare check,’ Idaho school district says immigration requests will draw new scrutiny
Vallivue School District says school resource officers must now run any requests from immigration authorities past administrators
Idaho’s latest anti-drag crusade began with a falsehood, lawsuit says
Drag queen at center of Idaho culture war takes Christian Nationalist group to court
Washington ferries are going hybrid-electric, but disposal of old ones poses environmental, legal risks
An abandoned ferry in the Puget Sound represents a shared struggle across the West Coast: to sell an old ship or destroy it