by Erika Kates, Brandeis University

One bleak October morning, Donna, a tired-looking woman, is attending a workshop at a community college in Boston. The workshop's purpose is to familiarize women with Massachusetts' welfare reform law, particularly how it affects access to education and training for low-income mothers. During a question-and-answer period Donna learns that she had been erroneously informed by her caseworker that she must drop out of college and find work. She did find a job but, unwilling to forgo her education, she works at night and takes college classes in the morning. A relative cares for her young daughter, whom she now can see only on weekends.

This scenario illustrates how poorly conceived and implemented policies place the interests of mothers and children in opposition to one another. The specific policy with which we are concerned here is federal welfare reform. PRWORA (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act) was enacted in 1996 and designed to "change welfare as we know it." PRWORA ended poor families entitlements to cash benefits, introduced mandatory work requirements for mothers, and-most significant for this discussion-ended the "human capital investment" approach that permitted education and training to fulfill women's work requirements. The new Work First approach requires mothers to enter the labor force as soon as possible. Its premise is that the best preparation for employment is having a job, and its mantra is "any job is a good job." Although states have some leeway in determining their own policies, this premise significantly limits education and training .

At WETAC (Welfare, Education, Training Access Coalition) at Brandeis University, we are concerned with restrictions on mothers' access to education and training, and with the narrow definition of activities that count towards work requirement. We think that these restrictions undermine a family's chances to escape poverty, are likely to have negative effects on children's educational achievements, and are detrimental to a family's-and ultimately community's-quality of life. The following sections explore each of these points.

Undermining families' chances to escape poverty. Aggregate data on the relationship between level of education and median income show a direct and positive relationship between the two. Studies of former welfare recipients who participated in education show 80 percent had greatly increased their incomes and no longer required welfare. Education not only leads to better pay but also to greater job stability and more benefits. Further, with the median earnings of women continuing to lag behind those of men regardless of education level, it has become even more important for women to acquire as much education and training as possible. Several WETAC advisory board members are former welfare recipients who benefited from the previous human capital investment policy; many have become educators and human service providers and have not returned to welfare. Now, with Work First, women drop out of courses before completing them and limit opportunities to boost their incomes.

Negative effects on children's educational achievements. There is clear and consistent evidence from both national databases and small-scale studies that a mother's educational aspirations and achievements are strong and valid predictors of children's cognitive development and educational outcomes, that this relationship holds from preschool to school completion, and that it appears to be independent of income levels. Children benefit not only from mothers who read to them and who encourage them to read on their own, but also from seeing their mothers studying and persevering at difficult tasks.

In addition, new work requirements that result in educational activities being piggybacked on to employment mean that mothers have less time to help children with their education-homework, reading, visiting teachers, and attending meetings of parent-teacher organizations. Paradoxically, this occurs as school reforms promote more parent involvement, increase homework assignments, and introduce new standardized testing. Yet, according to current policy, none of these activities are considered as "work."

Detrimental to family's quality of life. In fact, work requirements make it increasingly difficult for single mothers to spend time on essential parenting tasks such as visits to doctors, lawyers, courts, or counselors. Although families usually remain eligible for Food Stamps, childcare, and Medicaid after mothers have found jobs, many do not take the time to reapply. Such activities can easily take up an extra 35 hours of "work" time, outside of the official work requirement, without counting the routine responsibilities of caring for children. This may explain the considerable decline in benefits among the eligible populations. Stress is a fact of life for many working families, but it is the single, low-income mothers with the fewest resources and the most needs who are especially hard hit.

Educational Resources for Mothers and Children

Despite this dismal picture, some initiatives in colleges and community-based programs are beneficial for both parents and children.

Educational resources for mothers. A 1993 survey conducted by this author provides some examples of how colleges provide supportive environments for low-income mothers and their families.

• The University of Tennessee at Martin adapted traditional student housing into HUD-certified apartments to allow low-income families to live on campus, and built a custom-designed childcare center that could accommodate infants.
• At Spokane Falls Community College, Washington, student fees were used to build a childcare center that could accommodate infants , offer care to mildly sick children, and provide parents with free consultations from social workers.
• At Texas Women's University, funds were obtained to convert student dorms into family apartments, build playgrounds, and provide a computer room for parents and children.
• At Rockland Community College, New York, a housing coordinator volunteered to run a resource center for students that stocked food, diapers, and other staples donated by local businesses.

Educational resources for children. Head Start programs have typically offered parents opportunities to build leadership skills and have encouraged education and training. For example:

• In Philadelphia, Head Start administrators crafted an interagency agreement between JOBS and seven Head Start agencies to provide parents with information about education and employment opportunities. They also extended Head Start hours to accommodate working parents.
• At La Guardia Community College, New York, parents could drop their children off at the campus preschool center and attend parent education classes that stress the importance of reading to children.
• An educational program in El Paso, Texas, which was designed to encourage Mexican-American girls not to drop out of school, evolved into a program that also helped their mothers further their education. Separate orientation sessions on educational resources were provided for the mothers.

Programs and Policies That Support Parents and Children

One morning in July 1993, a hall at the University of Texas is filled with over 200 people: young Mexican and Mexican-American women and their mothers, teachers and counselors, the superintendent of schools, prominent business owners, two women faculty and their mothers. All are dressed up and the room is filled with flowers and balloons. Awards for educational achievements are being presented to thirty young women and three of their mothers.

Several common elements are key to building supportive resources for both mothers and their children. Researchers at the Foundation for Child Development and the National Center for Children in Poverty have appropriately named this outlook the "two-generation" approach. Key to this approach is:

• Recognizing the importance of basic family needs
• Responding to parents' expressed concerns
• Encouraging parents to speak out
• Adopting flexible and culturally sensitive practices
• Encouraging community participation
• Encouraging agency collaboration

We clearly need to adopt a longer-term approach to address the problems of families living in poverty. Specifically, we must:

• Focus on reducing poverty, instead of the welfare rolls
• Focus on long-term development and well-being, instead of immediate jobs
• Identify programs that promote educational access for both mothers and children
• Restore the human capital investment approach, and count a wide range of education activities
• Sustain cash benefits until mothers have basic literacy skills and are ready to enter the workforce
• Count family work toward the work requirements, especially in single-parent households
• Focus on access to education and training in evaluation research

At WETAC we find it unacceptable for low-income mothers who lack basic education-about half of the adult welfare recipients-to forgo their schooling, or for children in low-income families to be deprived of the assistance, encouragement, and role models they need in this information age. Allowing mothers to have access to education is a societal investment that aids mothers' personal development, improves the family's economic status, and benefits the children and the communities within which they live.


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