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ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ>Chop Here>ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ THE URBAN UNDERCLASS: CHALLENGING THE MYTHS ABOUT AMERICA'S URBAN POOR Paul Peterson and Christopher Jencks, co editors of "The Urban Underclass," and William Julius Wilson, a contributor to the book, will conduct a public symposium from 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 16, in the Brookings auditorium. Discussants will include James Johnson of UCLA, Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute and Isabel Sawhill of the Urban Institute. The conference is open to press and other interested parties. If you plan to attend, please call 202/797 6105. ____________________________________________________________________________ FOR RELEASE: April 16, 1991 CONTACT: Paul Peterson, 617/495 8312 or Christopher Jencks, 708/491 8724 or Lisa Pullen, Assistant Public Affairs Director, 202/797 6105 Palatino Conventional wisdom asserts that the United States is witnessing a significant expansion of its urban underclass, that chronically poor percentage of the population inhabiting Americas central cities. Among the trends cited: An inevitable rise in the percentage of teen agers who are unmarried mothers, exploding welfare rolls, and legions of high school dropouts consigned forever to joblessness. Yet none of these perceptions is true, according to a new Brookings book, The Urban Underclass. Edited by Christopher Jencks of Northwestern University and Paul E. Peterson of Harvard, this set of essays attempts to separate the truth about poverty, social dislocation and changes in American family life from the myths that have become part of contemporary folklore. According to a number of indicators the underclass is shrinking, writes Peterson in his introductory essay. A higher percentage of the minority population is receiving high school diplomas, a smaller percentage of teenagers is having babies out of wedlock, both blacks and whites are experiencing fewer crimes committed against them, and the use of drugs is declining. Perhaps it is not so much that the situation is deteriorating as that Americans' social expectations are rising. The editors find that the most troublesome aspect of poverty, the rise in the percentage of children living in poverty, is due to the rise in female headed households and the decline in the earnings of young men. The United States has more children living in poverty than seven other industrialized nations used for comparison. In 1987, University of Chicago sociologist William Julius Wilson book, The Truly Disadvantaged presented systematic evidence of a growing concentration of the minority poor in large cities, economically and socially isolated from mainstream society. The Urban Underclass brings together 19 essays by sociologists, economists, political scientists, and policy analysts in a test of Wilson's theories, as well as those in other recent works, including Charles Murray 1984 book entitled Losing Ground. In his essay, editor Jencks shows that poverty rates declined from 1959 to 1974, but then progress stopped. Poverty has not become increasingly confined to blacks blacks constituted 31% of the poor in 1988, the same percentage as in 1967. Black poverty has, however, become more urban, making it more visible to opinion leaders, Jencks writes. A Different Kind of Underclass Jencks finds that poverty has not increased, but has simply changed. The proportion of individuals with family incomes below the poverty line, which had fallen steadily from 1940 to 1970, has not changed much since 1970, Jencks writes. Only the character of poverty has changed. It has become less common among the elderly and more common among children. Poverty has also become more concentrated among families in which the head does not work regularly. He argues that while some problems plaguing the poor male joblessness and increasing numbers of single parent families have gotten worse, others such as welfare dependency and teen age pregnancy have gotten better. Jencks finds that blacks, often seen as making up the underclass, constituted 45% of all welfare recipients in 1969. By 1987, the percentage had fallen to 40%. What has changed, Jencks writes, are the reasons for being poor. In 1968, 74% of the poor had what Americans consider socially acceptable reasons old age, physical disability, school enrollment and low hourly wages for being impoverished. This figure dropped to 54% in 1987, thus diminishing public sympathy for the poor, he argues. The essays acknowledge the impact of recent changes in American society, particularly the increase in female headed households during the past 20 years. The trend leaves too many children with impaired financial support, inadequate adult supervision and instruction, compromised security, fewer alternatives for establishing intergenerational relationships and fewer adult role models, writes Peterson. Additional essays in The Urban Underclass examine a wide range of issues concerning the poor, including the impact of economic change, the importance of labor market conditions and patterns of segregation in residential areas. Solving The Poverty Paradox The main issue, argues The Urban Underclass, is not so much a growth in the size of the underclass as its persistence decades after President Johnson launched the War on Poverty in 1964. The book suggests that greater efforts are needed to address the poverty paradox the persistence of poverty in the most affluent society in the world. Peterson suggests that solutions to the problem of the underclass lie in a more integrated, comprehensive national welfare policy. Theda Skocpol of Harvard advocates universal family security programs including child support assurance, parental leave and health benefits that would apply to all groups and be paid for by the entire population. Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities calls for a mix of programs, ranging from universal health care to increased funding for targeted programs such as Head Start. Wilson concludes the book by elaborating on and extending his theories of ghetto poverty. He argues that solutions should place emphasis on race neutral programs that would not only address the plight of the disadvantaged among minorities, but would apply to all groups in America. The real challenge is to develop programs that not only meaningfully address the problems of the underclass but that draw broad support, Wilson writes. Other contributors to the book include Richard B. Freeman; Paul Osterman; Marta Tienda and Haya Stier; Greg J. Duncan and Saul D. Hoffman; Robert D. Mare and Christopher Winship; Joleen Kirschenman and Kathryn M. Neckerman; Paul A. Jargowsky and Mary Jo Bane; Reynolds Farley; Jonathan Crane; Susan E. Mayer; James E. Rosenbaum and Susan J. Popkin; Jeffrey M. Berry, Kent E. Portney, and Ken Thompson; J. David Greenstone; Theda Skocpol; and Robert Greenstein. These essays were initially presented at a conference held at Northwestern University in October, 1989, that was sponsored by the Social Science Research Council Committee For Research on the Urban Underclass, under a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, and by Northwestern University Center For Urban Affairs and Policy Research. Christopher Jencks is professor of sociology and urban affairs at Northwestern University. His books include Who Gets Ahead (1979) Inequality (1972), and The Academic Revolution (1967). Paul E. Peterson, former director of the Governmental Studies Program at Brookings, is the Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government at Harvard University. Among his other Brookings publications are Welfare Magnets: A New Case for a National Standard (1990), Can the Government Govern? (1989), When Federalism Works (1987), and The New Urban Reality (1985). ___________________________________________________________________________ "The Urban Underclass," Christopher Jencks and Paul E. Peterson, editors. Published April 1991. 450 pages. Paper (ISBN 0 8157 4605 9), $12.95, or cloth (ISBN 0 8157 4606 7), $34.95. ___________________________________________________________________________