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No Child Left Behind?

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  • Timothy Smeeding

Abstract

The title of this article is taken from the inspirational slogan of President George W. Bush, whose recently passed Elementary and Sunday Education Act bears this title. In this bill, as in the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, accountability won the day over federal fiscal support for low-income families. Of course, the 1996 Welfare Reform Act is a major accountability success story, with the AFDC/TANF caseloads (households) falling from over 5.0 million in 1994 and 4.5 million in 1996 to 2.2 million cases by June 2000, about one third of the 6.6 million households which benefited from the SSI program in that same year. But, what is the larger context is within which we should interpret these programmatic changes and slogans? The slogan clearly challenges us to judge a society by how well it treats its children. But when we compare the well-being of American children Canadian or European kids, can we really say that the United States has not left any of its children behind? What can we say about equality of opportunity or fair life chances for Americas children compared to their counterparts in other rich countries? This paper summarizes the poverty status of American children and then the variance in their real standard of living. Then we briefly look at the reason why low-income American children and their parents are in such straits and conclude with a few low cost policy suggestions on how to improve the living standards of poor children, so that their greater accountability and better labor market for performance is rewarded by better family outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Timothy Smeeding, 2002. "No Child Left Behind?," LIS Working papers 319, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    • Handle: RePEc:lis:liswps:319
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Hwanjoon Kim, 2000. "Anti-Poverty Effectiveness of Taxes and Income Transfers in Welfare States," LIS Working papers 228, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    2. Richard B. Freeman & Robert Topel & Birgitta Swedenborg, 1997. "The Welfare State in Transition: Reforming the Swedish Model," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number free97-1.
    3. Freeman, Richard B. & Topel, Robert H. & Swedenborg, Birgitta (ed.), 1997. "The Welfare State in Transition," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226261782, July.
    4. Robert Summers & Alan Heston, 1991. "The Penn World Table (Mark 5): An Expanded Set of International Comparisons, 1950–1988," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 327-368.
    5. David T. Ellwood, 2000. "Anti-Poverty Policy for Families in the Next Century: From Welfare to Work--and Worries," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 187-198, Winter.
    6. Lane Kenworthy, 1998. "Do Social-Welfare Policies Reduce Poverty? A Cross-National Assessment," LIS Working papers 188, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    7. Richard B. Freeman & Robert Topel & Birgitta Swedenborg, 1997. "Introduction to "The Welfare State in Transition: Reforming the Swedish Model"," NBER Chapters, in: The Welfare State in Transition: Reforming the Swedish Model, pages 1-32, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Cited by:

    1. Lee Rainwater & Timothy Smeeding & Irwin Garfinkel, 2004. "Welfare State Expenditures and the Distribution of Child Opportunities," LIS Working papers 379, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    2. Kathryn Wilson & Kristina Lambright & Timothy M. Smeeding, 2006. "School Finance, Equivalent Educational Expenditure, and the Income Distribution: Equal Dollars or Equal Chances for Success?," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 1(4), pages 396-424, September.
    3. Yngwe, Monica Åberg & Fritzell, Johan & Burström, Bo & Lundberg, Olle, 2005. "Comparison or consumption? Distinguishing between different effects of income on health in Nordic welfare states," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 627-635, August.

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