New welfare policy hurts kids — and society

Talk about good intentions with unintended consequences, welfare policy is one of them.

The original intent of the 1935 federal Aid to Families with Dependent Children (welfare) program was to help mothers keep and raise their children in their own home. Scientific studies about infant brain development now re-affirm the importance and wisdom of that policy.

The revised system, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) however, is anti-child because it forces states to focus on getting the mother out of the home to get a job. It ignores the importance of early child development and parental bonding. It may be a factor in creating today's generation of children who have no sense of attachment, no appreciation of human life, no security and who are prone to violent and impulsive behavior — the children who have no sense of tomorrow.

The federal TANF program, with its emphasis on the mother leaving the home to find a job, even if it is below the poverty level, prevents states from focusing on some of the most important factors that influence how individuals will function through adolescence and even adulthood — the development during the first three years of life.

In addition, we now have a proliferation of programs created around symptoms of human problems that replace the role of parents. The government seems to have made the same mistake as with the war on poverty: It hired an army of mercenaries and never enlisted the civilians to help fight the war. The government has once again created a bureaucracy that has spun off a "social service industry" with good jobs, but none for the needy.

One of the harmful things government regulations tend to do to families is run them through a guntlet of multiple and impersonal delivery systems designed by, and for, the convenience of the bureaucracy. The bureaucracies are insulated from any scrutiny by worn out principles incorporated in the delivery of government programs: "non-duplication of services, collaboration, communication and coordination." The result: the creation of monopolies that give poor customer service and have no incentive to change since they are the "only show in town."

Elected officials, and the public, are often led to believe that "professionals" are the only ones that understand the problem and the needed solutions. They are not required to deliver a product, only process.

Scientific research now finds that much of brain-cell formation is done before birth; rapid development takes place before age 1 and later is more susceptible to environmental influences than ever suspected. Environment influences the number of cell connections, and how they are "wired." It further confirms the importance of the prenatal and postnatal months and the first three years.