ࡱ> LOK} L"bjbj55 4@__L""eeeeeyyyydy.$|"feQQQeeQeeQ:,YPyg 0.R"}"Y"eY@ W.QQQQ"" +: Geetha Rajaram Assistant Professor Whittier College Preconceptions versus reality about welfare recipients The goal of this project is to incorporate an active learning process in teaching welfare reform in my Economics of Race and Gender course. The learning objective is to assess the validity of students' preconceptions of welfare recipients, and determine if welfare reform achieved its objectives. The course satisfies an upper-division general liberal education requirement in cultural studies. Thus, this class attracts a variety of majors. All have completed the introductory microeconomics or introductory macroeconomics course as a prerequisite. For some non-economics majors this course may be their only upper-division economics course. Hence, I do not want to miss the opportunity to communicate to students that economics can be interesting, relevant, and applicable to understanding poverty. The topic of poverty and welfare reform comprises approximately three weeks of the course. The first week consists of basic labor economic theory and models such as leisure-consumption constraint and labor supply. In addition, students will be exposed to the literature and statistics of poverty, pre-welfare reform (AFDC), and post-welfare reform (TANF). The goals of TANF were to promote work and reduce dependency, prevent non-marital pregnancy, and encourage marriage and a two-parent family. The implementation of the project is divided into four stages. Stage 1 The project begins with an exercise where students list their pre-conceptions about welfare and welfare recipients. Students are told beforehand that their list will be kept anonymous. We then discuss the pre-conceptions in class. Students can refer to their list throughout their project. Some examples of student preconceptions of welfare are: People on welfare do get quite a lot of money and choose to stay on it because it is free money. They get money for each child they have, quite a bit in most cases, which is the reason the birth rate is higher among welfare recipients. Welfare recipients not only get the cash but all other forms of welfare, such as food stamps, heating assistance. Welfare recipients are mostly single mothers. They dont want to get married, so that they can keep their welfare. Stage 2 Next, the class engages in a detailed budget and income exercise based on two case studies of welfare recipients living in Denver, Colorado. For this project to be effective, the instructor should first gather information on welfare recipients for a county that does not overlap any assigned to students. The two case studies discussed in class are of a single mother with two children, and a married woman with two children. Two scenarios are presented: one in which the woman (and/or her husband) works and has positive wage income, and the second in which the woman (and/or her husband) does not work, and has zero wage income (she may or may not have non-wage income in the exercise). The asset and income requirements for Denver County are discussed next, as well as how welfare is calculated. The resulting calculations demonstrate the income level at which the recipient will no longer be eligible for the benefits. Using information derived from the case study, the class assesses the goals of TANF. Stage 3 The students are then tasked with replicating the Denver case study for one of the five counties in Southern California: Los Angeles, Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange Counties. Each student is randomly assigned a county. They are to assume eight case studies of welfare recipients for their respective county. Information is usually obtained through a visit to the welfare office. The student gathers information on asset and income requirements, and the amount of welfare they are eligible for under the given scenarios: Single mother who works full-time at minimum wage Single mother who works part-time at minimum wage Single mother who does not work. Married mother with a husband, both working full time at minimum wage Married mother with a husband both working at minimum wage Married mother with the husband both not working Married woman with only the husband working full time at minimum wage Married woman with only the husband working part-time at minimum wage While at the welfare office, students are asked to validate their pre-conceptions. Students are encouraged to keep a log of how they collect all information. Next, students write a report with a detailed profile of their county, budget and income accounts of their cases, their findings (including all of their calculations when income changes), and the economic analysis of the impact of receiving aid to the family and county, including a section on the reality versus myth of their preconceptions. In addition, students assess the goals of TANF using the information gathered. Stage 4 At the end of the project, students from the same county make class presentations. Given the larger size of the class, presenting by counties instead of individually solves the time-constraint problem. Included in their presentations are conclusions about which of their preconceptions turned out to be erroneous, and which were accurate. Students are generally surprised at how varied the welfare amounts are by counties for similar cases, as well as how many of their preconceptions turned out to be inaccurate. For example, students found with varying degrees that increasing the number of children only marginally increased welfare benefits in some of the counties. This active learning strategy has been successful with students because they appreciate learning economics through application to actual situations. Using the case study method, students were allowed to test the realities of their pre-conceptions on their own, instead of the professor showing them otherwise. The evidence of its success includes copies of the most recent papers written by students as well as their evaluations of the project. A brief abstract with the objective and teaching strategy of the project will be presented on the poster. It will also include a summary of all the steps to the project including sample preconceptions of students, an example of a case, the summary of findings of the case for all five counties, student comments of the project, and a copy of a student paper as a sample of the final written outcome of the project. By including an active learning component using case studies, students experience the issue of welfare and its recipients rather than listening to several lectures on welfare. 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