Pathways to Independence/Making a Difference for Families and Foster Youth

WM Work and Welfare: Pathways to Independence: Supporting Youth Aging Out of Foster Care, January 17, 2024

First, to better meet the needs of the non-college bound, expand the Job Corps program, especially those centers with residential facilities. The program has been a demonstration project for long enough. It needs to be expanded and devolved to the states, but with sufficient block grant support.  

Students on an academic track should be enrolled at a four-year university or college (including private colleges) for the semester during which they age out.

....How the public and private sectors compensate for inflation must be reformed. It contributed to price inflation because prices chase the median dollar if adjusted gross income, which is paid to families in the 90th percentile. Equal dollar per hour wage and equal monthly COLAs for Social Security will control inflation while reducing inequality.

WM, Worker and Family Support: Making a Difference for Families and Foster Youth, May 12, 2021

First of all, no one should be “aged out” of the foster care system. While youth should be able to leave or stay, any funding should continue until the student graduates from high school with some sort of credential, either traditional or non-traditional. 

Second, students should be paid to attend school, in other words, they should be compensated for the opportunity costs they incur for not working, although they are eligible to do so after their sixteenth birthday. Such payments should be distributed by the school at the statutory minimum wage. 

All workers should have easy access to paid training, especially those with educational deficits, including linguistic ones. English as a Second Language should not only be free, but workers should be paid to attend, irrespective of immigration status. Part-time workers should also be eligible for this benefit.

This plan assumes passage of the President's proposal to provide funding through community college, although it is recommended that funding should include the freshman and sophomore year at four-year institutions as well. Technical training should be covered as well at both public and accredited private schools, including religious schools. In Espinoza v. Montana, prohibitions on funding private schools (Blaine Amendments) were found to be unconstitutional. New (and existing) funding should reflect that fact.

This is also the perfect time to reorganize the grade structures in education. Frankly, for some students, time spent in general education is wasted. College credits, where applicable, should be granted for advanced high school work so that graduation can occur earlier. Community college or technical high school could start after grade 10. 

As an aside, it is past time for the Catholic School system to join the non-college bound sector, rather than focusing mostly on college prep. Grades 8-10 would be combined, with middle school from grades 5-7. Neither of these would include full-contact football. 

Third, foster youth with children themselves would receive a refundable child tax credit for each. The current COVID level is $300 per month for young children and $250 per month for others. This should not only be made permanent, it should be doubled. Foster parents would receive payments for foster-grandchildren and foster children. States can either supplement the payment for all parents with an additional stipend for their service as foster parents.

Foster youth should be allowed to leave early (and foster siblings) if their affairs are in order (including receipt of child tax credits as parents) and be provided with continued help if their affairs are not, especially those with emotional or cognitive challenges. For such individuals, different funding streams and supervision will be made available.

Fourth, the foster care system must not be used to destroy the families of addicted parents. Rather, specially trained foster parents should foster the addict (including alcoholics) and their child or children. Addicts should not be pressured to give up permanent custody, nor should providers expect them too. This is not to say that they cannot be allowed to use without concern. 

Once diagnosed, relapse should be grounds for readmission in a longer term setting, but with the understanding that seeking recovery will not mean permanent loss of custody. Too many addicts use the desire to maintain relationships with children to not work on themselves adequately. Taking permanent loss of custody off the table takes that excuse away.

Fifth payments for tuition, stipends and family support would be funded by employer-paid subtraction value added taxes (please see the attachment).  Ideally, both state and federal subtraction VAT will be enacted. A federal VAT would be levied to assure that a minimum amount of funding is available should states underfund their programs, which some will.

The American Recovery Plan Act requires payment of the child tax credit in advance of the annual tax filing. This is appropriate and will change the culture of such credits, which should be for continuing support, not an annual bonus. 

The current plan is for the IRS to manage payments. I submit that, over the long-term, it would be more acceptable to distribute them either through other government subsidies, such as Unemployment Insurance, Disability Insurance, or a training stipend OR through wages. In the latter case, until a subtraction value added tax is in place, the credit would be paid in advance by employers and then deducted from their quarterly tax payment.

Sixth, wages must be increased for all workers, including foster youth, whether within the system or exiting it. Aging out or early exit from foster care, even if education is not pursued, would be much easier with a higher minimum wage By higher minimum wage, an increase to $10 per hour should be immediate and indexed to inflation. 

It is the poor job indeed where the physical productivity of workers in comparison with other factors is under this level, especially when child tax credits are excluded from the equation. The intermediate goal should be either a $12 minimum wage (so that it is comparable to the buying power experienced in 1965) or an $11 wage with a 32 hour work week. Over time, the minimum wage should reach $16 (before indexing).

As an aside, that such a wage increase would drive other wages up is an additional reason to support a higher wage, especially when the difference between worker pay and the pay of “middle management” is glaring. 

SEE BOLD ABOVE FROM 2024

The conditions of franchise employment and agreement deserve attention as well in terms of agreed to standards, payment of franchise owners in low wage industries and the ability of workers to organize. If some firms decide that turning franchise employment into full-time employment, so much the better.

Lastly, the unemployment insurance must be less punitive, particularly where younger workers are concerned. In lower wage jobs, the preference is to find potential supervisors (whose compensation is usually subpar as well) and keep a file of infractions to justify firing workers who do not work out. A punitive work environment that does not exactly make any kind of work attractive. 

In certain circumstances, unemployment compensation should be available on a no-fault basis. Better still, employees should be allowed to voluntarily leave firms with a history of quickly dismissing employees without penalty. There should be no expendable jobs or workers. 

Attachment: Tax Reform Videos included