Education And Welfare

Education is the key staple to furthering the life standard for all humans. So why is it that the collectors of welfare and public aid are statistically the ones with the least amount of education? Within this paper I plan to address this issue and those that contribute to education, or lack there of, for welfare recipients. I feel this issue has a great deal to do with race, gender and lack of equality in all aspects of public policy.

Let us start at the beginning. Most women on welfare were raised in homes that collected welfare. This is the first major issue. Unfortunately, poverty and collection of welfare are often an issue that relate mostly to women with children. Not men or married families, but women who are in turn the heads of their home. Two out of three adult recipients of public assistance are women. Commonly these are women that became pregnant at a young age, or their partner left them after the child came. Most are lacking a high school diploma or were not able to attend college after graduation because they did not have the money or their grades were not good enough to give them a scholarship. So they are often stuck, left to raise children with no job, or an underpaying as the case often is.

A harsh reality for women is that they have always made less than men. Currently women only make about 77 cents for every dollar that their male counter part makes. My women's studies teacher told us this semester that when a divorce occurs, the male half's income rises by 25% and the female's income decreases by about 60%. This is a horribly awaking statistic, yet this is also a frequent contributing factor that leads women to welfare and poverty. This is where education can be a key factor in getting mothers back on their feet and being able to independently support herself and her family. "In 1997, children under age 6 living with single mothers were five times as likely to be poor (56%) as were those living with both parents (11%)" (National Center for Children in Poverty, p6).

Another very noticeable issue with welfare dependence is that of race. While many people stereotype welfare as being a service for the Black or Hispanic community, statistics show us otherwise.

( TANF "Leavers", Applicants, and Caseload Studies). From this graph you can see that Blacks and Whites closely mirror each other in terms of receiving public aid, while Hispanics fall quite a bit under them both. The Hispanic pattern is very closely related in growth and decline yet not nearly as large of a population. Then again that may be do to their large minority status. One thing to notice is that Whites have also fallen off the rolls faster then Blacks. However with this graph it is too soon to tell if this is the beginning of a trend or a short term variable.

Lack of education and welfare receipt go hand in hand. The following statistics are borrowed from the National Institute for Literacy; in the 1992 NALS,

* 31% of welfare women had minimal skills (similar to high school dropouts/NALS Level 1), compared to 13% of non-welfare women;

* 37% had basic skills (similar to below average high school graduates/NALS Level 2), compared to 25% of non-welfare women;

* 25% had competent skills (similar to people with some postsecondary education/NALS Level 3), compared to 37% of non-welfare women; and

* 7% had advanced/superior skills (similar to people with a bachelor's degree or more/NALS Level 4/5), compared to 25% of non-welfare women.

As well as;

In the 1992 NALS, the average prose literacy proficiency of the total population:

* without a high school diploma was 218 (Level 1), compared to 212 (Level 1) for welfare recipients;

* with a high school diploma was 270 (Level 2), compared to 261 (Level 2) for welfare recipients;

* with a postsecondary education was 310 (Level 3), compared to 287 (Level 3) for welfare recipients

The prior statistics show that lack of an education leads to more dependence on state and government aid. With the availability and access to better educational programs and more support for child care during the use of such programs it would greatly improve the status of welfare recipients. Therefore making it possible for them to get higher paying jobs and support their families without help. According to the National Institute for Literacy it could take

* 900 hours of education and training for minimally (similar to high school dropouts/NALS Level 1) skilled welfare women to move up to the basic level (similar to below average high school graduates /NALS Level 2);

* 200 hours of education and training for basic skilled recipients to move up to the competent level (similar to people with some postsecondary education/NALS Level 3); and

* 200 hours for competent skilled welfare women to move up to advanced skill level (similar to people with a bachelor's degree or more/NALS Level 4/5).

According to this information, if the States would put the money into training and educational classes for literacy, specialized trade and post- secondary education it would greatly decrease dependence.

However many states choose not to implement such programs and choose only to get welfare recipients into the workforce with minimal training prior. When states choose such options it often leaves the recipient and their family in poverty. Also, with