Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 23, 1993 TAG: 9306230115
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Nearly four out of five come up with the money. The rest do painting or other maintenance or clerical work, attend parenting classes, spend time with their children and look for jobs. Those who refuse may be jailed.
Known as Children First, Wisconsin's get-tough experiment has brought results in two counties and has interested experts in Washington as the Clinton administration tries to overhaul the nation's welfare system.
President Clinton has promised to make child-support enforcement a key element of his welfare reform plan, due by the end of the year.
Nationally, only 60 percent of single parents have a court order for child support. Only one-third of single parents actually receive any money from court-ordered child support, because billions of dollars in assigned support are never paid, said Clinton welfare adviser David T. Ellwood.
That money, Ellwood said, could be used to lift single parents and their children out of poverty and off the welfare rolls.
"Noncustodial parents need to pay, they need to pay more, and they need to pay more frequently," said Jean Rogers, Children First's administrator.
Wisconsin officials said their modest experiment, now in its fourth year in Racine and Fond du Lac counties, is paying off financially.
Gerald Whitburn, the state's secretary of health and social services, said it ultimately may make men and women think twice before having children.
"We have too many dads who father children without any real plans to look out for the financial responsibilities associated with parenting. And that's wrong," he said.
Robert Rector, a policy analyst for welfare issues at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the program could discourage people from having children out of wedlock if they know "someone is going to seriously come after them for child support."
"Fathers should be responsible for supporting their own children. This is the first serious program to make that a reality," he said.
Whitburn discussed the program with Ellwood last summer, before Ellwood was named assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services.
The number of parents paying child support in Racine County has increased by 83 percent. In Fond du Lac, the number of parents paying is up 37 percent.
Earlier this year, seven additional Wisconsin counties adopted Children First.
Rogers, said Wisconsin's program has also brought absent parents into their children's lives.
by CNB