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By Greg J. Duncan, Aletha C. Huston, and Thomas S. Weisner
Higher Ground tells the story of a group of committed activists and business leaders in Milwaukee who propelled their passion and pragmatism into a fresh approach to addressing one of the country’s most enduring problems, poverty. The experiment was called New Hope. Through the eyes of three women, Inez, Lakeisha, and Elena, readers see first-hand how well-designed policies can make a difference in the lives of working poor adults and their children.
“If you work you should not be poor,” New Hope designers believed. With poverty rates on the rise and with lower-wage service sector jobs replacing manufacturing and other higher-paying jobs, that belief resonates even more today. In 2004, 5.7 million adults were working full-time but still living in poverty, affecting 6.8 million children.
New Hope was designed to help working poor families by offering an income supplement that lifted them above the poverty line, subsidized health care and child care, and offered them a job when they couldn’t find one. New Hope was a social contract—not a welfare program—and participants were required to work at least 30 hours a week.
The New Hope designers knew well the history of many failed antipoverty policies. Therefore, they put their experiment to the test, hiring a group of leading researchers to evaluate its impact in the most scientific and rigorous way.
The results are highly encouraging
• Poverty rates declined
• Employment and earnings increased among participants who were not initially working full-time.
• For those who faced just one barrier to employment (such as need for child care or a spotty employment history), these gains lasted several years.
• More medical needs were met
Children also benefited
• School performance improved, especially for boys
• Behavior problems declined.
• Enrollment in child care centers increased
• Participation in out-of-school activities increased
Blueprint for Antipoverty Policy
As America takes stock of the successes and shortcomings of the Clinton-era poverty and welfare policies, the authors convincingly demonstrate why New Hope could be a model for state and national efforts to assist the working poor. Evidence-based and insightfully written, Higher Ground illuminates how policymakers can make work pay and improve the lives of children in families struggling to escape poverty.
GREG J. DUNCAN is the Edwina S. Tarry professor of education and social policy at Northwestern University and a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research.
ALETHA C. HUSTON is the Priscilla Pond Flawn Regents professor of child development in the Department of Human Ecology at the University of Texas, Austin, and associate director of the Population Research Center.
THOMAS S. WEISNER is professor of anthropology at the Departments of Psychiatry (Semel Institute, Center for Culture and Health) and Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles
For more information or to order the book.