WASHINGTON — The federal government could do a better job of providing access to higher education for people on welfare, says a new report by the Educational Testing Services.
The report, which also is critical of the skills training provided welfare recipients, places the blame with state governments. It suggests that the welfare-reform laws that were passed in 1996 — which have reduced the rolls from 4.4 million to 2.7 million — have led to low-paying, dead-end jobs for many.
"The goal of work-first has largely been accomplished. In 1998 alone, an estimated 1.5 million people who were on welfare in 1997 joined the ranks of working Americans. The success in achieving work-first has surprised even the most skeptical observers. However, the goal of making work pay is proving far more elusive," the report states.
"For the average woman leaving welfare and still struggling to support her children with a job that pays less than $7 an hour, the promise of welfare reform has yet to be realized," the report's authors assert.
ETS began the survey prior to enactment of the 1996 law. It grouped people on welfare into three categories: advanced skills, basic skills and minimal skills. The report says those with minimal skills are "at least two years from being able to do work even in the most forgiving community college."
For those welfare recipients, the report acknowledges that it might be best to steer them along the job path. But it also says that if that strategy is applied to everyone, it could deny the opportunity to get beyond the dead-end jobs.
"A better solution for these families [in the other two skill groups] is making work pay — in the true sense — by using short-term, targeted education and training to help them raise their earnings," the report advises.
The report, A Piece of the Puzzle: How States Can Use Education to make Work Pay for Welfare Recipients,  may be ordered at no cost from ETS by calling (609) 734-1200.