Fight poverty with college
INSTEAD OF marching automatically from welfare to work, more poor women should have the chance to move from welfare to college. College graduates tend to earn more than those without college degrees, according to census figures, and those higher wages can keep a family off welfare for good.
But obstacles block the road to higher education. Some women lack college-level skills. And the state's "work first" policy had steered many recipients into jobs, not higher education. In 2003, state law started to change, so that eventually welfare recipients could count education and training programs toward meeting welfare's work requirement.
A new report asks whether this policy shift succeeded -- whether women who received benefits between 2003 and 2006 went to college. The finding: There was no increase in the percentage of women engaged in educational activities, according to the report's author, Erika Kates, research director of the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. Kates points to several barriers, including recipients' personal problems, welfare staffers who didn't fully implement the policy, and onerous state procedures.
Past welfare debates have collapsed into rants about laziness. But as welfare has shifted out of the policy red zone (replaced in part by immigration), there's less pressure to move recipients into any available job. There's room to ask how to maximize their long-term prospects, perhaps by employing them in healthcare and other sectors that need skilled workers.
Among those offering solutions is Massasoit Community College, where welfare recipients and low-income workers can enroll in a program called Choices. Participants go through a three-day assessment, exploring careers and taking placement tests. Then they can make a choice: take remedial courses, pursue short-term training, enroll in college, or search for a job. Those who opt for college get help with applications and financial aid, as well as on going support.
The tougher task, as Kates's report shows, is to help those who aren't ready for Massasoit, those who lack child care, can't speak English, or work long days.
Under previous governors, this report might have gone unheeded. But Julia Kehoe, the state's welfare commissioner, is shifting away from the work-first policy and toward building careers. Kehoe plans not just to improve access to education, but also to work with other agencies to expand housing, child care, and transportation services.
The welfare department need not be just a place to get a benefit check -- or a referral to a dead-end job. Massachusetts needs a comprehensive effort to fight poverty by building economic self-sufficiency, and college is a crucial piece of that effort.
