Welfare To Work

ONE WAY to measure the success of welfare reform is by caseload counts: Since 1996, America has cut its caseload by more than half. Another indicator is the resilience of welfare reform's working mothers, who have retained their jobs throughout the recent economic downturn. Their progress is the reward of their hard work and embrace of the American dream. And contrary to dire predictions, as a recent New York Times analysis of federal statistics also notes, these last-hired low-wage earners were not the first fired in this recession - they don't hold the technology and other skilled service jobs that have been shed.

Gary MacDougal can provide circumstantial evidence that welfare reform in Maryland reduced poverty, but only by ignoring the eyewitness accounts that indicate otherwise ("The welfare reform model," Commentary, Sept. 8). Since 1996, the University of Maryland School of Social Work has, at the behest of the state, engaged in a comprehensive longitudinal study of those who exit the welfare rolls. This information indicates that roughly half of the "welfare leavers" are employed in the three months after they leave welfare.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Deborah C. Washam shook her head with an emotion that appeared to be equal parts sorrow and exasperation.Of the more than 80 women she has hired over the past 17 months as part of a generous welfare-to-work program sponsored in part by Kansas City's corporate community, fewer than 25 remain on the job. Many of the others quit in a huff over perceived slights -- Washam calls it their refusal to follow directions."

WASHINGTON -- Ten years have passed since President Bill Clinton signed a tough welfare-reform law. I feared the worst. It feels good to be wrong. The worst has not happened, but the success is mixed. Mr. Clinton signed the law, with Republican support, to fulfill a campaign promise to "end welfare as we know it" and to make welfare "a second chance, not a way of life." The law was not as tough as two Republican-based bills that Mr. Clinton vetoed that would have cut Medicaid, child care and other benefits for those moving from welfare to work.

Eighteen West Baltimore women are on their way from welfare to work or the promise of work typing medical reports.They are the first graduates of Back to Basics Inc., a program based in the city's empowerment zone to teach medical transcription to welfare recipients, many of whom live in public housing projects.Among them are Lakisha Hood, 22, who starts work today as a $6.55-an-hour transcriber with the University of Maryland Medical System."A lot of people say that's not much money. But you have to start somewhere," Ms. Hood, the mother of a 2-year-old daughter, said yesterday after a graduation ceremony at the Baltimore City Community College's Harbor Campus.

MILWAUKEE -- In building a bridge from welfare to work, Wisconsin, perhaps more than any other state, has prided itself on doing things right.It has spent heavily and pledged lavishly to give poor families the tools they need, from baby sitters and bus passes to case managers and community service jobs.On paper, no state has done more to replace welfare checks with workers' support.But a year after moving to the streets, Wisconsin's celebrated effort bears only an intermittent likeness to the program of customized employment services outlined in planning documents and praised from the Oval Office down.

A study of California's effort to put welfare recipients to work says it resulted in lower welfare payments and higher earnings for the people enrolled in the program -- a finding that bodes well for similar job-training strategies in Maryland and other states.The study, which is scheduled for release today, is being hailed as an initial report card on the 1988 national welfare reforms approved by Congress.OC The federal Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training programprovides up to $1 billion a year to states with programs designed to get people off welfare and into the work force.

Officials, residents to honor welfare-to-work partnershipCity officials and community residents will honor a model welfare-to-work partnership between Carroll Independent Fuel Co. and Northeast Career Center from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. today during the opening of Carroll's convenience store at 750 E. 25th St."Our newest venture and its development strategy are focused on hiring from the communities in which we market, and offering employees career opportunities within our entire organization," said John H. Phelps, vice president of marketing and advertising of Carroll, the 14th largest employer in Baltimore.

Congress passed legislation in 1988 requiring welfare recipients to join a job-training or education program. In one of the first large-scale assessments since then, researchers in California reported this week that reforms there have raised the earnings of welfare recipients and reduced state payouts. That's encouraging news for Maryland and other states.The California study found that those who participated in welfare-to-work programs earned 17 percent more than those who did not, and that welfare payments to participants were 5 percent lower than to non-participants.

IN 1996, welfare reform sent millions of women rushing from the public assistance rolls to jobs in the private sector. One groundbreaking piece of legislation, the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity and Reconciliation Act, ended welfare as we knew it. The old system, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, relied on indefinite cash assistance to the poor. That approach robbed welfare recipients of their dignity and independence and often sentenced them to a lifetime of poverty and hopelessness.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration plans to issue sweeping new rules today that will require states to move much larger numbers of poor people from welfare to work. The rules represent the biggest changes in welfare policy since 1996, when Congress abolished the federal guarantee of cash assistance for the nation's poorest children. Since then, the number of welfare recipients has plunged more than 60 percent, to 4.4 million people from 12.2 million. For the first time, the rules set a uniform definition for permissible work activities and require states to verify and document the number of hours worked by welfare recipients.

Welfare reform a success story for Maryland The editorial "Independence pains" (Jan. 5) noted the remarkable decreases in state welfare caseloads since the mid-1990s reforms, but quickly moved past that fact to the so-called bad news the writer believes the state has ignored. The truth of the matter is that in our state, two-thirds of clients work after leaving welfare and most keep on working. And the implication that welfare reform has increased foster care caseloads is just not correct.

WASHINGTON - Welfare programs around the country are in limbo because of a stalemate in Congress that has prompted state officials to postpone new investments in child care, expansions of job training and most other initiatives for welfare recipients and low-wage workers. Congressional Republicans insist that stricter work requirements must be part of any effort to renew the 1996 welfare law. Democrats, including some who voted against that measure, now embrace it, saying only minor changes are needed.

ONE WAY to measure the success of welfare reform is by caseload counts: Since 1996, America has cut its caseload by more than half. Another indicator is the resilience of welfare reform's working mothers, who have retained their jobs throughout the recent economic downturn. Their progress is the reward of their hard work and embrace of the American dream. And contrary to dire predictions, as a recent New York Times analysis of federal statistics also notes, these last-hired low-wage earners were not the first fired in this recession - they don't hold the technology and other skilled service jobs that have been shed.

WASHINGTON - New government figures show a profound change in welfare spending, money shifted from cash assistance into child care, education, training and other services intended to help poor people get jobs and stay off welfare. Cash assistance payments now account for less than half of all spending under the nation's main welfare program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, federal officials say. The proportion has been declining steadily since 1996, when Congress revamped welfare and abolished the guarantee of cash assistance for the nation's poorest children.

AS THE NATION'S unemployment rate has risen, welfare caseloads in many states have been creeping up after years of reform-fueled declines. Welfare-to-work worked, of course, when the economy was booming; but now, industries that provide many opportunities for the working poor are struggling. In February alone, the U.S. economy shed 300,000 jobs -- more than 200,000 of them in service industries, according to labor figures released Friday. States' efforts to reduce their poorest citizens' dependence on handouts will suffer if the bust continues, welfare experts worry; as always, the last hired are among the first fired or laid off. So tomorrow, when the Senate Finance Committee takes up welfare reform, uppermost in members' minds should be recession-proof alternatives that build on the success of the current program.

EVEN CRITICS of welfare reform acknowledge that states have gotten at least one important break: A robust economy has helped reduce the number of people on the welfare rolls, making it much easier for states to meet federal targets for moving people from welfare to work.The number of welfare recipients across the country has fallen from 5.1 million families in 1994 to 3.9 million as of last May. In Maryland, year-old welfare reform initiatives have helped put the state among only 17 that are certain to meet today's federal target for showing that 75 percent of their two-parent families receiving welfare benefits are employed or are participating in job-training programs.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- In the continuing battle for the nation's fourth-largest state, President Clinton touted his welfare policies in this conservative region of Florida yesterday, the morning after wooing Cuban-Americans at a late-night visit to Miami's Little Havana.With American flags and palm trees whipping in a breeze and a green and orange sign behind him proclaiming "Welfare to work, a new beginning," Clinton promoted his signing of a Republican-originated bill that sets stringent time limits on welfare benefits.

WASHINGTON - Half the Senate, including many Democrats, called on the majority leader yesterday to schedule a debate on re-authorizing the welfare program created by an innovative 1996 law that expires in three weeks. In a letter Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the senators said the program should be extended for five years, with more money for child care. In May, the House passed a welfare bill along the lines favored by President Bush. It would impose stricter work requirements on recipients and provide a modest increase in money for child care.

IN 1996, welfare reform sent millions of women rushing from the public assistance rolls to jobs in the private sector. One groundbreaking piece of legislation, the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity and Reconciliation Act, ended welfare as we knew it. The old system, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, relied on indefinite cash assistance to the poor. That approach robbed welfare recipients of their dignity and independence and often sentenced them to a lifetime of poverty and hopelessness.