Welfare law limits educational opportunity

Academe, May/Jun 2003

Welfare Law Limits Educational Opportunity

In its reauthorization of 1996 welfare reform legislation, Congress included a section restricting educational opportunities available to welfare recipients. The bill, passed last February, limits to four months the time that recipients can engage in educational activities during any twenty-four month period; fails to clarify that adult basic and postsecondary education may count toward meeting a mandatory work requirement; and increases the mandated work hours for certain recipients from thirty to forty hours a week, a provision that, if implemented, would make it more difficult for recipients to participate in higher education and job training.

The AAUP joined other members of the higher education community in sending a letter to Congress opposing the bill. To meet the demand for a highly skilled workforce and to ensure that welfare recipients gain the skills needed to become financially independent, welfare programs should include more, not fewer, educational and job training opportunities, the letter said. The Senate will next consider the bill.