New Bush Welfare Rules Favor Flipping Burgers over Higher Ed

[Omaha Steve]

Full story: http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/08/16/new-bush-welfare-rules-favor-flipping-burgers-over-higher-ed/

New Bush Welfare Rules Favor Flipping Burgers over Higher Ed

In June, we noted the Bush administration was set to implement new rules that will make it much harder for states to help people move from welfare to work by imposing far narrower rules on what counts as education and training.

Now, state officials who oversee the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs funded by federal block grants say programs providing education—vocational and post-secondary—and mental health and drug and alcohol treatment are targeted by the new rules.

According to an article in the Aug. 11 issue of the The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required):

Several post-secondary education programs nationwide are threatened by new federal welfare regulations announced by the Bush administration in June. The regulations would require states to move many more people from welfare to work and at the same time, limit activities like post-secondary education that count as work….

The proposed welfare rules…explicitly state baccalaureate and advanced degree programs cannot count as work. Up to a year of vocational training at a college would still count, but the new rules narrow the definition of “vocational” training to apply only to programs that directly lead to a career. The regulations also state that most general education and language instructional programs, such as English as a second language, would not count as vocational training.

In Maine, Rochelle Riordan has been on the dean’s list at the University of Southern Maine (USM) every semester since she enrolled under a program called Maine’s Parents as Scholars, a program to help welfare recipients get a post-secondary education and move off welfare and into a career.

Under the new rules, Riordan’s class and study time would no longer count toward the 30-hour-a-week work or training requirement and if states that offer similar programs don’t have more people meeting that 30-hour threshold they will lose 5 percent of their federal welfare funding in the first year and as much as 21 percent if they continue to fall behind the federal targets.

Riordan entered the program after she and her young daughter were kicked out of their house by her hard-drinking husband, according to The Washington Post. She told the paper that when she heard her final year in college could be threatened by the new rules:

I felt nauseous…this is my ticket out of poverty.

Studies in Maine, Kentucky and Arkansas show that such post-secondary programs as the one offered by USM have moved people from welfare to living wage jobs, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.

The new regulations however work against those successes, many observers say.

[etherealtruth]

1. The new American "serfdom"

Serfs do not need an education ... as a matter of fact it is probably better that they don't.

I am so disgusted by the Chimp and his cabal.

[acmavm]

2. I don't know what to think or even if I care about his.I know that

when I wanted to go back to school to get my Paralegal Degree when I got my divorce I had to work full time and go to school part time because I couldn't get any assistance of any kind. And I applied. I had to fight for medicaid for my son, but that didn't last after I started working.

I guess I'm rather ambivalent as to whether or not this woman gets assistance while working on her advanced degrees. I really don't think I care, nor do I really think she deserves the assistance.

edit: My opinion is not based on my personal experience but on the fact that I don't think the taxpayers should be supporting her while she gets an EXTENDED education. Anything past her Bachelor's she needs to work.

[Staph]

3. If I'm reading this correctly . . .

any education past high school, other than a single year in a vocational school, doesn't count. "he proposed welfare rules…explicitly state baccalaureate and advanced degree programs cannot count as work." Forget master's degrees - this rule says you can't even work on your bachelor's degree.

[acmavm]

5. I didn't get that out of the article. My understanding was that

they are not going to allow any welfare payments for ADVANCED degrees. I take it to mean that a bachelor's degree is acceptable.

[flordehinojos]

6. it seems to me that taxpayer's money (including mine) going to

assist a man, or a woman, to get a degree, advanced, vocational, creative or otherwise, but which, will, in the end provide a way for that person to receive gainful employment and lucrative salary, is ten gizillions times a much better use of taxpayer's money than the taxpayer money used to wage
illegal, immoral wars, wars of occupation and propaganda mining, and puppet standing in front of microphones spewing lies and cover-ups--such as the bush cabal has taken a fancy to use my taxpayer money.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Strikes me as a good investment.

Help her get that degree and in a few years her higher income and tax dollars will be supporting your social security.

[Solo_in_MD]

4. The goals here are not evil...

There has been a educational scams over the years that were designed to milk federal and state funding, fly by night schools. Rules that work against those, will have some additional effects. I also would like to make the following argument, though its not a popular one here...we need more skilled trades in the US and less liberal arts degrees (heresy to some, but true).

Recent read an interesting write up about pay disparity that is useful here. Typical student with a fresh technical college degree gets around $50K. With a liberal arts degree its around $32K. (BTW most tech degrees are men, most liberal arts degrees are women.) However if instead of college a HS grad went into the electrical trade they could get a masters license within the same time frame, get paid while they do it, and make as much as the student with the tech degree. Trades jobs can not be effectively outsourced and are often union.

Not everyone is college material and the forecast is that there will be quite a few less plumbers, electricians, and other skilled trades than we need in 10 years.