Maximum Feasible Participation

[Michael Hoover]

Carrol Cox sent me an off-list message recounting his Bloomington-
Normal experience with commnunity action programs established under 
the auspices of the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) in the
mid-60s.  Created to coordinate the Johnson administration's
poverty policies, OEO owed its existence to the 1964 Economic 
Opportunity Act.  As I mentioned in a previous post, initially,
Title II of the EOA called for 'maximum feasible participation'
of those that federal funds & programs were intended to serve.
Carrol mentioned that above local government refused to
participate and very little money was ever forthcoming, save 
some for Head Start.

Same was true here in Central Florida, some money for HS but
little else, and HS served only 600 children in 1967 out of 10,000
families living on incomes of less than $60/wk.  The local program
had a waiting list of 3000 children.  Refusal of municipal (Orlando) 
and county (Orange) governments to participate resulted in the loss 
of funds for a neighborhood center, employment assistance, public 
health clinic, and day care and recreation centers.  Almost no
money existed for housing at all.  Ira Katznelson has pointed
out that southern politicians opposed economic opportunity programs
because they feared they would hasten integration.  As a former local 
community action agency activist here in Orlando has said, 'People 
like to say that the poverty programs were a great waste of money; 
really, they were never given a chance to work.'

First, opponents stripped attempts to 'empower the poor' through
'maximum feasible participation.'  Secondly, money was never
available.  In 1967, less than 2 cents of each federal tax
dollar went to finance economic opportunity programs.  The
much ballyhooed 'war on poverty' was waylayed for a number of
reasons, the 'conservative coalition' of southern Democrats &
Republicans and the escalating costs of Vietnam among them.

As for another kind of 'maximum participation,' AFDC participation
of those eligible in 1995 (year prior to program's elimination) was 
about 50% nationally.  At the low end were Alabama & Arkansas (Prez 
Klingon's state) at 21% while Alaska & Rhode Island were at the high 
end with over 80%.  Others included South Dakota (21%), North 
Dakota (31%), Wyoming (36%), New York (56%), and California (59%).

Michael Hoover