Description
Book SynopsisDrawing on interviews with 115 families, the authors look at how parents plan to use this annual cash windfall to build up savings, go back to school, and send their kids to college.
Trade Review"Humanizes the working poor in an unforgettable way." The Kansas City Star "An important contribution to poverty policy scholarship." -- Vanessa D. Wells Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare "It's Not Like I'm Poor inspires one to wonder whether there are existing educational interventions that, with changes to their delivery method, might lead to better experiences and outcomes for children and families... Not only did their work dispel many of the negative stereotypes of welfare-reliant mothers and present an honest picture of the financial realities these families faced, it also helped forecast the relative hardships families would face when the effects of welfare reform took shape." -- Celia J. Gomez Harvard Educational Review
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Family Budgets: Staying in the Black, Slipping into the Red 2. Tax Time 3. The New Regime through the Lens of the Old 4. Beyond Living Paycheck to Paycheck 5. "Debt--I Am Hoping to Eliminate That Word!" 6. Capitalizing on the Promise of the EITC Appendix A: Introduction to Boston and the Research Project Appendix B: Qualitative Interview Guide Notes Bibliography Index