Short-term and Long-term/ Cash and Policy

From the Drum Major Institute Blog

By WRI Co-Director Maureen Lane

On August 11, 2009, New York State and The Open Society Institute announced a program giving $200 to families who receive social services or food stamps in NYS. Economists tend to agree that stimulus funds work best when they are targeted and temporary. The $200 meets a real need for many families. There are students at the Welfare Rights Initiative (WRI) where I work who have already seen the money added to their accounts. Short-term cash helps a little, but struggling New Yorkers need much more. Access to education and training is the cornerstone of a long-term economic policy strategy that will have a deeper, more meaningful impact on their lives.

WRI students have found that lasting empowerment comes from policies that aid people receiving welfare to get decent jobs.

WRI started working a couple of years ago in New York City public high schools, most of which receive Title 1 federal funding. Most of these students qualify for free or reduced fee school lunch. Most families receive some form of public assistance (cash, food stamps, Medicaid) and would benefit from money for school clothes and supplies.

Unfortunately, in NYC, we have welfare policy that insists education is not for people receiving welfare. It says the only way to move from welfare is through work programs that offer low-wage short-term jobs. WRI students know this is wrong. Our students are proof positive that when people get the education they need, they can move through self determination out of poverty and pursue a path to a better life.

The main reason some families on welfare now need a quick infusion of cash is because we have only allowed them to work low-wage jobs and remain poor. But expanding access to education will help many families realize their economic potential and lead to higher graduation rates and brighter futures for the next generation. This is the smarter choice our political leaders must make.

Blocking the Quickest Way to Success

From the Drum Major Institute (DMI) Blog

Maureen Lane, WRI Co-Director

Earlier this week the state Assembly in Albany voted to expand access to college education for people receiving welfare. This legislation could help many poor and vulnerable New Yorkers, but the gridlock in the state Senate is jeopardizing its future.

The leaders of the political circus upstate should take a moment to consider the story of someone like Hirah, whose life is literally in their hands and depends on their action.

When Hirah graduated from high school last year, the NYC welfare agency notified her that she must do 35 hours of workfare and that her college education does not count. She got into Hunter, and is the first in her family to go to college--no small feat for a teenager receiving public assistance. She even scored an internship and started with a full load of classes. "I was then assigned nine hours of WEP (Work Experience Program) to go along with my internship and my classes. I was so upset. I kept thinking to myself, 'How will I be able to maintain a good GPA, take part in an internship, and fulfill the WEP requirement all at the same time?'," she told me. "My mom was even more worried and scared than I was. My mom was afraid that our family's case might get sanctioned and we would be left with no benefits. I am also afraid, right now, for my siblings. I do not want them to be in my same situation when it is their turn to go to college."

She continued: "When I was given the WEP assignment regardless of having 13 class hours and 22 hours of internship- which adds up to 35 hours of work activity- I felt like welfare policies were placing obstacles in my way to prevent me from going to college. The hours I would have spent fulfilling the WEP requirement were going to replace the hours I would spend studying and doing homework. I was scared I might have to drop out of college. I was overwhelmed. Within the last three months, I have already missed classes because I had to attend appointments at my welfare center, at the team assessment group, at the job center, and at a fair hearing."

Thousands of people like Hirah need access to education and training while receiving public benefits, especially right now, with welfare rolls growing,as the Wall Street Journal recently reported. 

WRI URGENT CALL TO ACTION ON BILLS S5846 AND A1827A

IN ALBANY, NEW YORK!

WHAT ARE NYS SENATE BILL S5846 AND ASSEMBLY BILL A1827A?

The bills expand access to education across New York State!

S5846 and A1827A ensure all New Yorkers can access higher education by allowing baccalaureate (4-year) degree programs to count as appropriate work activities for women and men receiving public assistance.

WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW:

Call NY State Senator Daniel L. Squadron and tell him YOU support S5846 and want him to bring it to a vote THIS SESSION. Senator Squadron is Vice-Chair of the Social Services Committee in Albany: 518-455-2625.

Call your NYS Senator (Albany) and tell him/her to support S5846 and that you want the NYS Senate to vote on this bill. To find your representative call the League of Women Voters for NYC 212-725-3541 or visit the NYS Senate website is http://www.nysenate.gov.

Starved for a Brighter Future

From the Drum Major Institute (DMI) Blog

Maureen Lane, WRI Co-Director

Krsytle Cruz, the mother of a bright 4 year old girl, recently graduated from the Hunter College Nursing program. She received welfare while she earned her degree. The welfare agency in New York City told her she had to complete 35 hours of workfare each week. For four year college, New York welfare law only counts work-study and internships—not academic classes.

This doesn’t make any sense. Almost 90% of women receiving welfare who graduate college are lifted out of poverty. The ripple effect on kids attaining higher education is well-documented, too. Fortunately, Assemblyman Keith Wright has introduced a bill that would bring New York state welfare policy in line with federal policy and recognize the indisputable connection between educational opportunity and economic opportunity.

Through the Welfare Right Initiative at Hunter College, Krystle was able to complete 35 hours of internships and work-study each week while raising a family, attending classes and studying. It was a struggle that not all students can tackle. She was able to stay in school in part because of considerable advocacy on her own behalf. On average, Krystle was called into the welfare office twice a month and sent notices that she and her little girl would be cut off from food stamps or Medicaid. Even though she fully documented all her activity, she was still told that her hard work to acquire a college degree—work that gives her and her daughter opportunities for a better life—didn’t count.

When I last spoke to Krystle, she said: "In my own experience with women receiving public assistance, I have observed how their strong desire to go to school is crushed by caseworkers telling them that they cannot. Instead, women are sent to dead-end workfare assignments. The family remains starved for money, and starved for a brighter future."

A recent New York Times article reported that low-wage workers who move from welfare to employment often fail to advance because they need advanced skills and higher education. But Krystle was able to realize her dream and break out of this cycle. Her caretaking of sick family members led her to pursue nursing. Her family's pride in her accomplishment is shared by her college president, fellow students, and others who today receive public assistance. Better welfare policy would create more stories like hers.

Balancing Work and Education

From the Drum Major Institute (DMI) Blog

Maureen Lane, WRI Co-Director

Many low income students at the Welfare Rights Initiative at Hunter College perform a difficult balancing act each week: they work up to 35 hours and take college classes, but New York doesn't fully recognize the role that education plays in guiding their transition from welfare to economic security and gainful employment.

New York City isn't enrolling nearly enough people receiving welfare in higher education and employment training. A new report by the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies shows that only 3% of the city's welfare caseload is enrolled in education and training--an astonishingly small number.

Part of the problem is that city and state agencies in New York are sending mixed messages about the relationship between higher education and job opportunities. The city argues that people receiving welfare should focus on landing entry-level jobs, while the state argues that any job will now be more difficult to get without better skills and advanced education since all sectors of the economy are contracting in this deepening recession.

A bill introduced by Assemblyman Keith Wright offers a way out of this quandary. It would count higher education as work-related activity--something that federal law already does, but that New York state law has yet to do, as this City Limits article points out.

Dillonna Lewis, the co-director of the Welfare Rights Initiative, has called this bill "a win-win situation for students and local districts," since it would prevent students from having to juggle schoolwork and workfare, while enabling a higher percentage of the welfare caseload to combine education and employment activities.

It's time for city and state leaders to make it easier for people receiving welfare to pursue the higher education that will put them on the path to success and ensure that they compete for more than minimum wage jobs. Federal law counts education up to and including four-year college as a viable means for people to become self-determinant. NYC and NYS need to do the same.

A New Beginning for Welfare?

From the Drum Major Institute (DMI) Blog

Maureen Lane, WRI Co-Director

This week the New York Times ran a front page story on welfare. The last time I saw a front page article on welfare it anticipated many of policy changes I have seen devastate the students, families and advocates I work with at CUNY’s Welfare Rights Initiative (WRI).

In 1995, when welfare reform was hotly debated, CUNY statistics showed that 88 percent of women on public assistance who graduate from college with a bachelor’s degree move permanently off welfare within a year of graduation. Years later, in April 2006, studies conducted by the Institute for Women's Policy Research showed similar findings on the positive impact of education for the entire family.

In the past decade, welfare reform has virtually eliminated access to education, a proven path out of poverty. Since 1996, more than 21,000 CUNY students alone have been forced to drop out of school because of new workfare laws, not to mention the literacy and other education and training programs that have been decimated.

And now, Ron Haskins, a key architect of welfare reform in the 1990s, is having second thoughts. “There is ample reason for concern here,” he admits in the Times article. He acknowledges, all-too-belatedly, that the very reform he helped legitimize has left states ill-equipped to help poor families make it through the current recession.

In New York City, people receiving welfare have suffered too long from a punitive policy that sanctions, rather than strengthens, families, forcing them to appear in court to fight for housing assistance and other basic benefits. Most sanctions, when aggressively contested at a fair hearing, are revealed to be illegal. But reinstating benefits often requires an endless series of bureaucratic interventions at the state and city level. What sense does it make for students struggling to earn degrees and pursue a career to spend all day in court or in government offices?

But I remain optimistic. I view the Times article as the harbinger of a new policy discussion focused on what will help stabilize families on welfare and lift them out of poverty. In the coming weeks, I will highlight model welfare policies and explain how they have served families in need. I look forward to working with government representatives, advocacy organizations, and grassroots groups on replicating those successes. And I welcome comments from readers.