Texas Means Friend, But Families Are the Foundation

States spend billions of taxpayer dollars on programs intended to help vulnerable families, but the data suggests they are largely not setting recipients on a path of independence and flourishing. When you dig into the numbers, it has less to do with a lack of funds and more to do with how those funds are administered.

The federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program appropriates block grants to the states to reduce welfare dependence and promote the well-being of children. New research from TPPF’s Noah Torres and Hannah Bruck suggests the state of Texas’s administration of TANF funds has drifted from that original mission and is no longer structured to build lasting, stable families. It’s time for a course correction.

For background: “TANF was a paradigm shift in human services and welfare in the United States, departing from a cash assistance entitlement program and in turn moving towards a program centered on four principal goals: ensuring that children can be raised in their own homes, ending the dependence of individuals and families on welfare, decreasing out-of-wedlock pregnancies, and promoting and maintaining stable, two-parent households.”

From 2018 through 2021, Texas devoted just 2.3% of its TANF block grant funds to the program’s goal of encouraging two-parent families. Some key activities allowed under that category include:

By 2023, Texas had accumulated approximately $355 million in unspent TANF block grant funds. That’s a lot of money lying around while families experience some of their darkest hours.

But this is about more than just checking boxes on a federal spending report. It’s widely acknowledged that children raised in stable, two-parent households tend to experience better educational, economic, and behavioral outcomes. Keeping families together is a positive benefit for the communities where they live.

Unfortunately, Texas’s TANF problems aren’t limited to spending priorities. TPPF’s research identifies fragmented oversight, inconsistent reporting, and a lack of clear long-term performance measures as separate issues. Without a coherent strategy or meaningful accountability, taxpayers have little assurance that the state is getting the best results from the money it spends.

To be clear, public policy alone can’t manufacture healthy relationships, but it can counter the sociocultural forces working against them.

TPPF recommends better coordination among state agencies, a stronger focus on evidence-based programs that promote marriage and responsible fatherhood, and clear metrics to measure whether those programs improve family stability and long-term self-sufficiency.

If Texas wants the next generation to flourish, strengthening families is the place to start. Carefully reorienting the state’s utilization of existing TANF funds can ensure the program works better for the families it’s meant to support.