Text of email to Jace Johnson regarding the importance of an amendment
to HR 4 RS (the Senate Finance Committee bill to reauthorize the 1996 Welfare
Reform Law) to extend countable months for education and training from 12
to 24, sent by UREAP staff on October 21, 2003.
Dear Jace,
A week or so ago, we mentioned concerns about aspects of the PRIDE Act with
regard to opportunities for TANF recipients to access education and training.
At the time, we had the current law, highlights of the PRIDE proposal, and
the text of Senator Snowe's filed amendment before us. Since HR 4 RS has
become available for study, we remain very supportive of the part of the
bill added by Senator Snowe, but we are now even more convinced of the need
for an amendment that would increase countable months for education and training
from 12 to 24. We hope Senator Hatch will consider supporting such an amendment.
Of those filed prior to mark-up for which we have the full text, that numbered
Bingaman #6 (or #53) appears to us to be the best alternative. We offer the
following information and request your consideration for discussion with
Senator Hatch:
1) An extension in the months of education and training that would be countable
from the current 12 months to 24 would directly mirror what has been in Utah
statute since 1996, ensuring that Utah TANF recipients who can benefit from
longer term education and training are able to continue, even as the state's
participation rates increase and there is need for recipients to participate
in countable activities. We talked with Helen Thatcher at DWS about this
today and she said DWS is strongly supportive of a 24 month provision in
federal law. It will allow Utah to continue to allow TANF parents to pursue
vocational education and training for jobs in demand. She is unable to provide
numbers of TANF parents who are currently engaged in 24 month training, per
se, but said it is her impression that more of those who are seeking vocational
education or training programs are enrolling in programs in the health and
related fields because those are most in demand. Those programs tend to be
longer than 12 months as are other training programs that allow qualified
recipients to increase their earning power. But with increases in participation
rates on the horizon and caps on employment and caseload reduction credits
working together, future policy and practice will need to ensure that parents
are engaged almost exclusively in countable activities. That will mean that
DWS will need to deny parents' requests for training that will take longer
than 12 months, even though the Utah statute allows it.
2) In states where post-secondary education/degree programs are controversial
as an approved activity for TANF recipients, the option described in Senator
Snowe's amendment may not be taken and countability of longer term vocational
education and training programs would be lost along with it. We only know
about Utah in this regard, but there is no doubt that the Legislature has
historically resisted facilitating post-secondary education for welfare recipients,
whereas, as noted above, vocational education and training has been supported,
even after the national 1996 welfare reform law restricted months to 12.
Helen shared our doubt that the Utah legislature would authorize the establishment
of a "Parents as Scholars" type of program. If we are correct and countable
hours for education and training are not increased through the reauthorization
legislation, we fear the same consequence that we described above--TANF parents
in Utah will be prevented from pursuing training for jobs in demand and their
ability to become self-reliant will be thwarted.
3) The prohibition in language reflecting Senator Snowe's amendment on spending
TANF dollars for tuition is both perplexing and troubling--it effectively
reduces the utility of a program that might be established to assist TANF
recipients. It will be a rare TANF recipient who is able to either pay tuition
from her own resources and other means are scarce, hence we suspect that
the program here or in any state would be underutilized. The practical effect
is likely to be that anyone who would otherwise qualify for the Parents as
Scholars-style program will instead need to be funnelled into educational
and training programs under the 30 percent cap so that their tuition can
be covered. Without an amendment to HR 4 RS to increase countable months
to 24, the door to most training intended under the PaS provision will be
closed.
4) Vocational education and training is, indeed, a frequent activity for
TANF parents in Utah and we are anxious to maximize that trend. We are concerned
that, even if a program allowed under Senator Snowe's amendment were to be
authorized in Utah but the federal law does not also increase countable months
of vocational education and training (with its 30 percent cap), the 10 percent
cap on participants in longer term training would not be adequate to preclude
a rather dramatic disruption in our current practice. Dr. Garth Mangum, a
retired Economics professor with extensive experience with welfare reform
and training programs for low-income people, will soon release a monograph
on Utah's efforts on these topics. He provided us with these figures for
PY 2002 and we have supplied an estimated percentage of caseload:
Applied technology 1,381 (16.3% of total average caseload
of 8,500, which we understand to be the way the cap in Senator Snowe's amendment
is to work)
Associates degree 549 (6.5%)
Bachelors degree 179 (2.1%)
Basic education 2,671 (31.3% of total caseload, although
we are aware that the 30% cap for education and training in the current law
is calculated on the basis of the number of parents counted as in work activities
for purposes of state participation rates)
By themselves, these numbers do not allow us to know exactly how close to
the existing 30 percent cap on E & T, nor do they indicate the adequacy
of the 10 percent cap for PaS. We do not know the duration of any of these
training programs (those working on a BA enrolled in TANF with hours already)
beyond that a maximum of 24 months will be allowed and there is some duplication.
However, we believe the numbers indicate that TANF reauthorization legislation
that only allows 10 percent of the caseload to engage in education and training
beyond 12 months will prevent a significant number of Utah TANF parents from
achieving self-sufficiency by receiving education and training they need
to find work in higher paying occupations in demand in this state. Since
the trend in Utah is for increasing participation in vocational education
and training, if we are not already straining the caps, that seems bound
to occur in the near future.
We therefore respectfully request that you convey this information to Senator
Hatch, along with UREAP's request that he do everything he can to ensure
that the months of education and training that can be counted towards state
participation rates are increased from 12 to 24 in HR 4 RS. If you have any
questions or need clarification or other information, please contact
us.
Helen asked us to invite you to call her if you have any questions of her.
Her number is 801-526-4370.
We are also willing to share our thoughts on these matters with staff of
other Senators, including Senator Snowe.
Thank you for considering this request.
Sincerely,
Shirley Weathers and Bill Walsh, UREAP staff
Walsh & Weathers Research and Policy Studies
P. O. Box 270090
Fruitland, UT 84027-0090
(435) 548-2630
FAX: (435) 548-2438