The Role of Postsecondary Education in Welfare Recipients' Paths to Self-Sufficiency

Abstract

The effectiveness of higher education as a route into self-sustaining employment has been demonstrated by decades of educational and economic research. Despite this, recent policy changes at the federal level have led to a widespread denial of access to postsecondary education for welfare recipients, arguably one of the most economically disadvantaged groups in society. Participants in the recently created Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program--implemented as part of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act--are strongly discouraged by requirements set out in federal law from pursuing postsecondary education as a route out of poverty. Instead, shorter-term options such as immediate job search, vocational training that lasts a year or less, and subsidized or unsubsidized employment are among the activities available to assist low-income parents transition to self-sufficiency. In limiting postsecondary educational options to welfare recipients. TANF legislates some of the biases already inherent in societal institutions that steer disadvantaged and minority young women away from higher education. Research has shown that young people with lower socioeconomic status have worse educational outcomes, including lower rates of college attendance and graduation (Bainbridge & Lesley, 2002; Haycock, 2001; Sewell & Shah, 1967). Among those with low socioeconomic status, minority students in particular tend to have lower aspirations for college (Kao & Tienda, 1998). This may disproportionately affect young women, whose socioeconomic status has been shown to be even more important in their college-going decisions than intelligence (Sewell & Shah, 1967). Higher socioeconomic status students' comparatively better educational outcomes are due, in part, to both their more highly educated parents (Haveman, Wolfe, & Spaulding, 1991; Sewell & Shah, 1968) and the higher per-pupil expenditures in their schools (Elliott, 1998). Practices within schools themselves, such as tracking, dissuade some high school students, particularly those with low socioeconomic status and minority backgrounds, from attending college (Rosenbaum, 1976, 1980). Even efforts to de-track schools face hurdles in overcoming long-held attitudes about racial differences, social stratification, and intelligence (Oakes & Wells, 1998). Because welfare recipients disproportionately stem from low socioeconomic status families and minority backgrounds, they would face considerable challenges in pursuing postsecondary degrees, even in the absence of TANF regulations. TANF's anti-higher education stance has the potential to affect both welfare recipients and their children. Research has shown that mother's educational attainment is strongly linked to children's educational achievement (Haveman et al., 1991; Sewell & Shah, 1968). The effects of this policy may reverberate for generations to come. Welfare recipients are not all equally prepared for higher education and, as has been discussed for high school students (Rosenbaum & Person, 2003), should not be universally encouraged to attend. Barriers to employment such as mental health and substance abuse problems, low literacy, and learning disabilities are pervasive among the welfare population (Turner, Danziger & Seefeldt, 2004) and may place postsecondary education out of the immediate reach of a sizeable proportion of welfare recipients. Still, access to higher education can provide a second chance for some women on welfare, particularly the 44% of recipients who had their first child as a teenager (Wertheimer & Moore, 1998). Early parenthood has been shown to have negative effects on educational attainment for women (Ahituv & Tienda, 2004; Marini, 1984) and TANF provides another layer of discouragement for welfare recipients. Research is suggestive of improved outcomes for welfare recipients who attend college while on aid, but few studies have addressed this issue specifically. …