Making Policies for Children A Study of the Federal Process (1982) / Chapter Skim
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5 Future Federal Policy Formation Affecting Children and Their Families
5 Future Federal Policy Formation Affecting Children and Their Families
Pages 72-77
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From page 72... ...
What have we learned from our study about the conditions and constraints inherent in federal policy making toward children and families that is likely to influence the content of policy proposals in the near future?
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From page 73... ...
Responsibility for policies and programs for children and families remains widely distributed among many congressional committees and administrative agencies. As the case studies demonstrate, the House Education and Labor Committee, the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Agriculture Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, and the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare are just a few of the diverse groups in Congress responsible for the interests and well-being of children and families.
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From page 74... ...
Similarly, programs such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the Supplemental Security Income Program, and the Work Incentives Program have helped address the income and unemployment problems of families with children. Nevertheless, more comprehensive policy proposals -- the Family Assistance Plan and the Comprehensive Child Development Act, for example -- have consistently failed.
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From page 75... ...
Of all the major federal program initiatives on behalf of children and families -- Aid to Families with Dependent Children; the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment Program; the School Lunch Program or any of the child nutrition programs; and Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act or any of the major education programs, to name just a few -- none is housed in the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families or was in its predecessor, the Office of Child Development. These agencies have seldom taken the initiative in proposing major new programs for the federal agenda or in restructurizing existing policies and programs to improve their effectiveness and efficiency.
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From page 76... ...
Participants in federal policy formation have frequently failed to comprehend the governmental decision-making process itself. Specifically, they have not recognized that policy outcomes depend to a large extent on the mechanisms by which they are formulated, that there are few governmental actors well-positioned to enhance the children's cause, and that strategic opportunities and levers for change vary according to the nature of the policy issue and the participants involved.
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From page 77... ...
Short of a major upheaval in social values, no theory or ideology is likely to emerge that will clarify the appropriate place for children's policy and programs on the public agenda. Short of a major reorganization of the congressional committee system and the agency structure in the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, coherent federal leadership on matters of children's policy is unlikely very soon -- and probably not desirable.
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