Public Policy Commons^™

Transracial Foster Care And Adoption: Issues And Realities, Fern L. Johnson, Stacie Mickelson, Mariana Lopez Davila

New England Journal of Public Policy

The article places transracial foster care and adoption into a broader perspective that highlights social and cultural factors and the reasons for controversy about this adoption option. The first section describes the demographics of children in the foster care system. This is followed by an overview of requirements for approval as foster and adoptive parents in Massachusetts and information about the laws governing transracial adoption. The controversy over transracial adoption is laid out by explaining the race-blind and race-matching positions. Policy priorities are outlined that take into account the main points of controversy. The final section focuses on growth in …

Global And Local Youth Unemployment: Dislocation And Pathways, Ramon Borges-Mendez, Lillian Denhardt, Michelle Collett

New England Journal of Public Policy

The impact of economic recessions is not felt uniformly across demographic groups, and the detrimental effects of the one-time dislocations can significantly shift the long-term prospects of human development for many years to come. The current recession has been hard on young people in the United States between the ages of 16 and 24, especially minorities (Latino or African American). Labor force participation rates have dropped dramatically and unemployment has reached as high as 30% in some states. Long spells of unemployment and adverse conditions for labor market incorporation further increase the likelihood of other poor life outcomes, such as …

The Repeal Of Rent Control In Cambridge, Robert P. Moncreiff

New England Journal of Public Policy

In the November 8, 1994, state election, Massachusetts voters approved a question placed on the ballot by initiative petition passing a law that effectively outlawed rent control throughout the commonwealth. This law had its most dramatic effect in Cambridge, where a stringent rent control system had been in effect since 1970. The success of the petition was realized primarily through the grassroots efforts of a coalition of small-property owners in Cambridge who felt aggrieved by the city's rent control system. The use of a statewide vote on an initiative petition to enact a law with predominantly local effect created for …

Foreword, Edwin Meléndez

New England Journal of Public Policy

This is the first of two parts of "Latinos in a Changing Society"; Part II is scheduled for Fall/Winter 1995 publication. The following articles provide new insights into several key areas of concern: immigration, employment and income, and political participation. Part II articles will address education, health, and identity and ethnicity.

The Cost Of Home Ownership In Vermont, 1975-1990, Arthur G. Woolf

New England Journal of Public Policy

Housing prices in Vermont, like those in the other New England states, shot up dramatically during the economic boom of the 1980s. This article investigates the causes of that price increase and focuses on the cost of home ownership in Vermont in the years 1975 to 1990. Cost of home ownership is defined as the percentage of family income needed to finance an average-price home. Although prices skyrocketed during the 1980s, the actual cost of home ownership as a percentage of income was about 15 percent greater in 1990 than it was during the mid-1970s. Housing price increases are expected …

The Housing Crisis Enters The 1990s, Peter Dreier, Richard Appelbaum

New England Journal of Public Policy

Homelessness in the United States is a symptom of a much deeper economic and housing crisis — a widening gap between incomes and housing prices. With the end of the Cold War, the nation has the resources to solve these problems, but to do so it must mobilize the political will. This article examines the roots of crisis, the public policies and market forces that created it, and policy recommendations to solve the problem. Key to forging a solution is building the political coalition needed to create a broad public consensus.

Housing The Homeless Through Expanding Access To Existing Housing Subsidies, Barbara Sard

New England Journal of Public Policy

The premise of this article is that homelessness in America today is essentially a product of the lack of affordable housing for very low-income people. The article outlines this central income/housing gap analysis as the factual predicate of the goal to alleviate homelessness through securing subsidized housing resources for the homeless and imminently homeless. It explains why, based on the nature and number of annually available housing subsidies, expanding access to existing housing subsidies is a valuable, workable, short-term, at least partial solution to the immediate crisis of lack of affordable housing, albeit one which does not negate the acknowledged …

Shelter The American Way: Federal Urban Housing Policy, 1900-1980, Ronald Dale Karr

New England Journal of Public Policy

American urban housing policy has featured subsidies for the suburban middle class and parsimonious spending for the urban poor. The outlines of this policy took shape during the Progressive Era: acceptance of the capitalistic market economy, support for the deserving poor needing temporary help, toleration of racial segregation, and the designation of overcrowding as the single most important urban problem. Progressive housing reformers championed stricter housing codes and model tenements, but housing conditions for the urban poor showed little improvement.

The U.S. government avoided direct involvement in housing until the early 1920s, when it promoted local zoning legislation. Under the …

Not By Numbers Alone: A New Decade For Women In The Law, Margaret H. Marshall

New England Journal of Public Policy

There has been a dramatic increase in both the percentage and the numbers of women who have entered the legal profession in the last fifteen years, but women have not penetrated its higher echelons — partnerships in law firms, general counsel of corporations, and chiefs of government bureaus — in the same percentage that those advances should be reflecting. While entry-level salaries may be equal for male and female attorneys, are women in the legal world discovering the same glass ceilings and barriers to entry at these top levels of economic empowerment that their corporate counterparts have experienced? The author …

From The Bar To The Bar: Prevailing Despite Gender Bias, Nancy Woolley

New England Journal of Public Policy

The report of the Gender Bias Study of the Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was released in May 1989. After a thorough study of the areas of family law, domestic violence and sexual assault, criminal and juvenile justice, civil damage awards, gender bias in courthouse interactions, and court personnel, the study committee concluded that there was significant gender-based bias in the courts. The following article demonstrates how bias affected one woman and her children, and how, in spite of it and with the help of individuals and institutions in the private sector, she has attained empowerment and …

Women, Politics, And The Nineties: The Abortion Debate, Susan Estrich

New England Journal of Public Policy

The fight for political empowerment of women may finally break wide open over the issues of reproductive freedom. This article posits that while public attention has focused on courtroom attempts to limit Roe v. Wade, the issues will ultimately be decided in the political arena. Here, Estrich says, the framer of the question may be the ultimate victor. For those on the pro-choice side of the debate, the next election cycle may be their first real opportunity to vote as a bloc and wield real political power.

Employment Leave: Foundation For Family Policy, Mary Jane Gibson

New England Journal of Public Policy

Women and men in the workforce face difficult dilemmas during family crises. Can one be a responsible family member and a responsible employee when an elderly parent is ill, a spouse is disabled, a baby is born or adopted, a child is sick? Employment leave with insurance for wage replacement is a cornerstone of family policy proposed in a workable format in H. 2191 now before the Massachusetts legislature. It can be a model for other states and, someday, the nation.

The Past As Prologue? What Past Industrial Conflicts Within The Gop Tell About The Future Of The Bush Administration, Thomas Ferguson

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article analyzes patterns of GOP campaign finance with an eye to the light they can shed on the future of the Bush administration. After flashing back to 1980 and 1984, it presents a detailed statistical breakdown of who contributed to whom in the 1988 GOP primary, based on a large and carefully constructed sample of top corporate executives and investors. The Dole campaign emerges as especially important for the clues it provides about the opponents of major changes in U. S. policy toward Eastern Europe and the USSR.

Growth Management In The 1980s: A New Consensus And A Change Of Strategy, Susan M. Sinclair

New England Journal of Public Policy

After a decade of relative silence on the issue of land use planning, legislatures in several states are reassessing the relative roles of state and local governments in the management of growth and development. When state governments first addressed the land use issue in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, environmental concerns dominated the debate. During this period a number of states established regulatory mechanisms for bringing certain kinds of development under state review. During the late 1970s and early 1980s there was a hiatus in state-level activity on land use issues. Since 1985, however, the issue has reemerged …

The Problems Of Rural Reindustrialization: A Case Study Of Monroe, Massachusetts, Jeanne H. Armstrong, John R. Mullin

New England Journal of Public Policy

Owing to the departure of the mill industry from rural New England, many small towns have suffered erosion of their economic base. These towns and villages face a declining population, vacant mills, and an aging workforce. Monroe, Massachusetts, is an example of the problems of rural reindustrialization. This article concludes that state intervention is required for the restoration of productivity.

Medicaid And Medicaid Cost Containment In Massachusetts, Fredric A. Waldstein

New England Journal of Public Policy

The purpose of this article is to describe Medicaid's financial structure and examine cost containment efforts to limit future growth of the program, particularly pertaining to Massachusetts. The principal focus is the Massachusetts Department of Public Welfare and the Massachusetts Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the two agencies most responsible for Medicaid cost containment in the commonwealth. Because elected officials are unwilling to face directly the troublesome issues surrounding Medicaid and its growth, the government agencies responsible for cost containment have been left to define the scope of the problem, design remedial strategies, and evaluate their success. This process is found …

It's Hard Outside: Profiles Of Elderly Homelessness, Joseph Doolin

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article is a qualitative study of the lives of homeless elders in Boston. It examines the concerns uppermost in the minds of the homeless including the art of integrating their past lives into the values and milieu of their current homeless situation. Concern about the reinstitutionalization of the mentally ill in public shelters, domiciles once reserved for the older alcoholic, the pressures and stress of shelter life, victimization, the shrinking supply of SRO units, and the role of alcohol are also examined. Considered in detail are various coping strategies and supports utilized by older adults in their survival roofless. …

The Housing Crisis And New England's Economy: State And Local Initiatives To Offset The Federal Retreat, Rebecca Stevens

New England Journal of Public Policy

Housing is a major economic factor for any region. Over the last several years, dramatically increased housing prices in New England have cast doubt on the region's ability to sustain continued economic growth. Indeed, New England's lack of affordable housing has caused labor shortages and other problems for New England businesses. With the federal government slashing its housing assistance in the 1980s, New England states and localities have started to address the region's housing problems by developing a variety of housing programs. But their resources are relatively limited and they are not able to expand the supply of affordable housing …

State Management Systems: The Case For Internal Controls, Joseph A. Mchugh

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article contends that recent managerial improvements in the federal government can and should be replicated by the states. Although effective internal controls in federal agencies and programs had been mandated in 1950, little progress was made until the late seventies and early eighties, when Congress enacted several laws to strengthen federal financial management and the executive branch initiated a modernization program. This happy confluence of events brought significant improvements to federal management as a whole. Now it's time for similar progress in state operations. State and even local administrators should adopt the best features of the federal model in …

Managing Change: Reflections On Innovation In The Public Sector, Ira A. Jackson, Jane P. O'Hern

New England Journal of Public Policy

In January 1983, when Governor Michael S. Dukakis appointed Ira Jackson as commissioner of revenue, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was facing an estimated $300 million deficit. The state was also suffering from a severe loss of public confidence in the integrity of its tax administration. His first and most urgent priority being the restoration of that confidence, Commissioner Jackson implemented a three-part strategy to improve voluntary compliance with the tax laws: raising the stakes for evaders, treating honest taxpayers as customers rather than victims, and changing public attitudes about tax evasion. Productivity gains and innovative procedures at the Department of …