Politics & Policy

The Preschool Mirage

By Rachel Sheffield & Lindsey M. Burke December 10, 2014

The Obama administration has just announced a new $1 billion initiative ($750 million in federal grants and the remainder from private funding) to enroll more children in government preschool programs. ...

It’s About Welfare Reform, Not the Sequester

By Rachel Sheffield April 5, 2013

  The sequester is forcing devastating cuts on the nation’s welfare system at a time of record poverty levels — or so shouts a recent Associated Press dispatch,  magnified with glee ...

Washington Post’s Faulty Fact-Checking on Welfare

By Rachel Sheffield March 4, 2013

The Washington Post’s “fact-checker” columnist, Glenn Kessler, recently took aim at a chart on federal welfare spending released by Senator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), as well as a statement the ...

Politics & Policy

Welfare Is at an All-Time High

By Robert Rector & Rachel Sheffield October 22, 2012

Welfare spending has hit a stunning all-time high. A new Congressional Research Service report confirms what research here at the Heritage Foundation has shown: Means-tested welfare programs now cost taxpayers ...

Romney Urges NAACP to Embrace School Choice

By Rachel Sheffield July 12, 2012

In his speech Wednesday morning at the NAACP convention in Houston, Mitt Romney threw a spotlight on the rampant educational inequality facing the nation’s black schoolchildren. The presumptive Republican nominee ...

The Economic Inequality of Unwed Births

By Rachel Sheffield May 21, 2012

A new study from the Journal of Economic Perspectives suggests that teen childbearing is more an outcome of poor economic circumstances than a cause. As the authors assert: Taken as a ...

Unwed Childbearing is the ‘New Normal’? Depends on Where You Stand

By Rachel Sheffield February 21, 2012

Unwed childbearing is the “new normal” for women under 30, reports the New York Times. A study from the research organization Child Trends reveals that 53 percent of births to ...

Politics & Policy

Obama’s New Poverty Measure ‘Spreads the Wealth’

By Robert Rector & Rachel Sheffield November 9, 2011

On Monday, the Census Bureau released a new poverty measure created by the Obama administration. Based on this new calculation, census officials assert that more than 49 million Americans are ...

Permissive Sex Ed Linked to Higher Teen-Pregnancy, Abortion Rates

By Robert Rector & Rachel Sheffield October 28, 2010

Planned Parenthood pounced quickly after the Centers for Disease Control released a report last week on state variations in teen births. In a press release, Planned Parenthood asserted that the CDC ...

Welfare in the Bronx: Personal Responsibility Is Still the Key

By Rachel Sheffield July 30, 2010

“Need Welfare in the Bronx? Come Back Tomorrow, Maybe” — that’s the title of a recent Womensenews.org piece that questions the success of welfare reform. Caseloads may have dropped, argues ...