State Study Finds 57% on Welfare Lack Basic Skills

Examining the link between education and welfare dependency, a new state study has found evidence that more than half of California’s aid recipients lack the basic skills that would enable them to find and keep a job.

The state, undertaking what is believed to be the nation’s most extensive literacy testing of welfare recipients, found that 57% of those surveyed needed remedial education in reading, writing or math.

“The welfare system is a holding area for people who did not get a good enough education,” said Carl Williams, a Department of Social Services deputy director who heads the state’s new Workfare program. “The message is pretty clear that we have one heck of a population out there that’s in need of remediation.”

The study, released last week, gives officials concrete evidence that the educational needs of welfare recipients are far greater than they had anticipated when the Workfare program began. It is also likely to focus attention on the shortcomings of the state’s school system and make education a top priority in the effort to get recipients off public aid.

The study was conducted in conjunction with the Workfare program now in its first year. Known formally as Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN), it is designed to replace welfare checks with paychecks by giving remedial education, job training or work assignments to able-bodied welfare recipients with children over the age of 6.

As the first step in their enrollment in Workfare, more than 6,000 welfare applicants and recipients in nine counties were given standardized reading and math tests.

Of those who were tested, 36% scored so poorly they were referred to remedial education for six to 12 months before receiving training or work assignments, the study shows.

Nineteen percent who scored somewhat higher but showed a lack of basic knowledge in some areas were referred to remedial education for from one to 12 months to obtain the equivalent of a high school diploma.

In addition, 2% of those tested scored so low that officials have not been able to develop an educational program to help them, according to the study.

First Real Insight

“Because of GAIN, we are getting our first real insight into who these people really are,” said Assemblyman Art Agnos (D-San Francisco), a key architect of the program. “These people simply are not ready for the fundamentals of work. They cannot read, write or count well enough to hold a job.

“Many people out there think that these are lazy, shiftless, unmotivated people. But these people simply missed the earlier opportunity in their lives to be educated, for whatever reason. We have to pick up where the other parts of our societal systems have failed, and that is education.”

Agnos and other state officials had expected that only about half as many participants in the program would need remedial education before they began looking for work, receiving training or were assigned to public service jobs.

As a result, the Workfare program is off to a slower start than they had hoped and could end up costing more than the $300 million annually that they had forecast because it will take longer to get welfare recipients off the rolls.

Largest Study So Far

Welfare experts at the New York-based Manpower Demonstration Research Corp. said the California survey constitutes the largest such literacy study so far attempted and is an important step in broadening the nation’s understanding of welfare recipients.

More than half the states have adopted their own work programs for welfare recipients. The California program, with its education, job training and mandatory work components, is the most complex and is increasingly viewed as a model for the rest of the country.

“There is a new seriousness in many states around the country to implement new-style workfare programs,” said Richard Nathan, a professor at Princeton University and chairman of the research group. “California is leading the way.”

Williams cautioned that the study does not provide a complete picture of welfare recipients statewide because the tests were conducted only in the nine counties that were the first to begin implementing the Workfare program.

In fact, he said, the percentage of welfare recipients who lack basic educational skills is probably higher than the study indicates because the tests were given primarily to applicants for welfare--not long-term recipients of aid who may have greater educational handicaps.

Detailed Profile Expected

Eventually, most welfare recipients will be required to take the tests and the results are expected to provide the most detailed profile ever of the state’s welfare population. This should enable welfare officials to design programs that best fit the needs of recipients with different levels of skills and education.

Of the first 6,000 people who took the literacy tests, 48.1% had completed the 12th grade or higher, including 2.1% who had obtained a degree from a four-year college.

In all, 56.4% had obtained at least the equivalent of a high school diploma, yet only 43% scored well enough to avoid referral to a remedial education program.

More than 87% of those tested said English was their native language, while 9.5% listed Spanish.

Females made up 57% of the study population; males 43%. Of those tested, 50% were between 25 and 34, 31% were over 34 and 19% were under 25.

In general, participants in the study did far better on the reading portion of the test than on the math section. Questions on the tests included such tasks as adding two four-digit numbers, figuring out how much it would cost to park in a lot with varying hourly rates and identifying the meaning of a sign reading “Authorized Personnel Only.”

Change in Viewpoint

Williams, a longtime advocate of mandatory work for welfare recipients who helped institute former Gov. Ronald Reagan’s ill-fated workfare program in the early 1970s, said the results of the study have helped further a change in his own viewpoint about the problems faced by welfare recipients.

“Back in the early ‘70s, when we started talking about workfare, we were very unsophisticated and naive about the conditions we were trying to deal with,” he said. “I have to admit my views have changed considerably since then. For example, I was unaware how important basic education was, how essential child care was. For the first time, we are getting real information and we are getting away from the rhetorical debate on this subject.”

Agnos, a liberal Democrat who once opposed the idea of mandatory work that has been incorporated in the state program, agreed: “We’re finally doing the job right, instead of just with political rhetoric and sleight-of-hand programs.

“These are people who simply lack the tools that we are finally giving them. That’s why they have been unable to find jobs all these years while politicians have been mired in a stalemate about what to do.”