Needy Give It the Old College Try

At 43, Mary Alice Macias has been on welfare half her life.

She has come to depend on the system to feed, clothe and shelter herself and her three children.

“Uncle Sam has been my husband for 22 years,” Macias said recently. “I used those welfare checks like a security blanket.”

Jill McDonald never planned to make welfare a lifestyle. But she needed help with making ends meet after she and the father of her daughter split up.

“I do appreciate the welfare system and I try not to disrespect it because it’s free money,” she said at her mother’s Santa Paula home. “But I personally would not rely on it forever.”

Martha and Lino Cantos turned to the state for financial help after Lino lost his sight to diabetes.

“It’s not something we ever expected to do,” Lino Cantos said.

Whether they love welfare or hate it, the three families will not have it as a fallback much longer.

California’s welfare reform began in January, mandating that current recipients find work within two years. Those new to the welfare rolls are restricted to 18 months on aid. In all, people can spend no more than five years on welfare.

In response, Ventura County’s three community colleges have formulated classes designed to provide those on welfare with enough skills to get a job.

Macias is among the first wave of Calworks recipients to attend the new welfare-to-work courses.

The Oxnard classes, which began in mid-April, mark the first time Macias has been in school since dropping out in the 11th grade.

“I’m not going to lie to you, I’m scared as hell,” Macias said moments after the predawn revving engines of neighbors on their way to the strawberry fields awoke her. She was sleeping on a mattress in the kitchen of the small apartment she shares with her 14-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter.

“But I have no choice; I have to get a career,” she said, slipping on a pair of blue jeans and black tennis shoes and applying frosted pink lipstick under the dim light of a lamp. “I just needed that kick in the ass to get me to do it.”

She stuffed books into a backpack, then knelt at the bedside of her daughter, who was mumbling in her sleep. She kissed her daughter goodbye and headed to Ventura Avenue, where she would catch a bus and begin a nearly two-hour journey to Oxnard College.

“See that old lady?” she said as she made the six-block trek to the bus stop. Walking past was a woman in a long black dress and veil that nearly covered her white hair. The woman bent over, picked up a soda can and tossed it into a bag. “She gets up every morning to pick up cans. If she can do that, I can get off my lazy butt.”

At Oxnard College, Macias is taking classes to become a child-care provider. The youngest of 15 siblings, she loves children and they are drawn to her, she said.

“It’s either this or I’m all washed up,” she said, arriving at the stop with time to kill before the 6:35 a.m. bus pulled up. “I’m a middle-aged woman and I’ve only worked in temporary jobs. But I’m as strong as an ox and I don’t drink or don’t do drugs. I’m going for the brass ring.”

1,400 District Students Collecting Welfare

Community college officials figure many in the county’s more than 8,500 welfare families--about 85% headed by single mothers--will attend the courses in order to become self-sufficient. The job-training programs are funded through state grants.

Of the 29,380 students at the district’s three colleges, more than 1,400 will collect welfare this academic year, said Cheryl Shearer, dean of economic development at the Ventura County Community College District.

Of that total, nearly 50%--or a projected 665 students--are at Oxnard College, while 539 are at Ventura College. At Moorpark, a projected 208 students will receive welfare aid this year, Shearer said.

Women make up the overwhelming majority of those students--87%, Shearer said, estimating that most are single mothers.

In response to those figures, the colleges also are expanding their child-care centers to accommodate the expected increase in children whose parents will be attending job-training courses.

Finding Affordable Child Care a Problem

For 28-year-old Jill McDonald, the problem with finding affordable, quality child care for her 3-year-old daughter, Rhiannon, had kept her from working or attending school. She has been on welfare since shortly after Rhiannon’s birth.

“No way was I going to leave her with anybody,” McDonald said. “I thought I would be married and a man would be taking care of me and our child. But it didn’t happen that way.”

After ending a relationship with Rhiannon’s father, McDonald took a part-time job at a Kmart and for the most part stayed home with Rhiannon. But her clerk job and welfare checks were not enough to make ends meet, so she asked her mother to take in her and Rhiannon.

“I didn’t make enough on minimum wage to pay the rent,” McDonald said. “It’s very humiliating to have to move back in with your mom.”

After learning that child care would be provided, McDonald enrolled in a child-development course at Oxnard College--one of the first districtwide programs designed to meet the needs of Calworks recipients.

But like many other students on aid, McDonald had to adjust her long-term goals to fit with the new welfare system’s philosophy. With the slogan, “Get a job, get a better job, get a career,” the Calworks objective is to get recipients employed as quickly as possible, even if it’s in a low-paying job.

Rather than study to become a teacher, for instance, Calworks students can take shorter-term classes to become a teacher’s aide. Or instead of spending the years it takes to become a nurse, they can take courses to become a medical assistant.

The idea, Calworks officials say, is to get clients employed in their desired fields, then encourage them to continue their education and eventually get better jobs.

In McDonald’s case, after taking the 15-week Oxnard course, she will have earned credit to become an assistant preschool teacher, though her goal is to become a preschool teacher. She plans to continue her studies while working as an assistant, she said.

“Sure, I wish welfare would pay me to go through the whole training,” McDonald said. “But if they will pay me to get my foot in the door, so be it. At least it gives us the motivation to do it.”

McDonald said she saw merit in fast-tracking the job-training courses.

“It’s the initial shove to get them out there and get them self-sufficient,” she said. “I think it’s good because so many people just sit at home being lazy and are mocking the system. I know in my heart that I have not taken advantage of the system. I’ve used it when I’ve needed it.

“I’d rather not be on it at all,” she added. “I mean, who doesn’t like free money, but it comes with too much baggage. I guess it’s a pride thing but when I’m on my own again, I never want to go back to this.”

Disrupting Studies to Find Employment

During recent orientation meetings, some students were distressed to learn some programs, such as nursing, are not on the Calworks-approved occupation list, said Ruth Irussi, a Calworks program manager.

“The nursing program takes three years,” Irussi said. “The challenge here is to create courses that can be completed within 18 to 24 months. The objective is that they must become employable.”

Randy Feltman, deputy director of welfare reform implementation for the county, acknowledged that welfare recipients with long-range goals will have to interrupt their studies to get a job.

“In some cases, yes, their studies will be disrupted,” Feltman said. “That will be a concern to people who really want to go to a four-year college.”

But, he said, the work-first doctrine is not unrealistic.

“They will not see their dreams crushed,” he said. “They will have to get a job and go to school too. A lot of people do it. I did. Even single parents can work and go to school.”

Many students argue the hardship placed on these women will be brutal.

“When you’re raising kids and going to school and your social worker tells you, ‘You have to work! You can’t finish your semester without getting a job,’ it’s very hard,” said a 27-year-old single mother on aid who is raising two children and attending classes at Moorpark College to become a college counselor. “If I didn’t have anywhere else to turn I would be lost.”

For some people, a sense of desperation might set in, said the Ventura resident, who did not want to be identified.

“Without a support system, people might turn to the streets, turn to prostitution or selling drugs,” she said. “Whatever they can do to survive.”

Feltman said a broad-ranging support system will be available to recipients, including seven “one-stop” career centers throughout the county. Two of the centers are planned for Ventura and Oxnard colleges.

At the centers, clients can get help finding employment and developing their careers. The centers will also offer job mentors, counseling and workshops on improving interview skills and resume writing.

Ventura County Community College District Chancellor Philip Westin said placing Calworks centers on college campuses will encourage clients to pursue an education.

“The toughest thing you find in education is getting people on the campus in the first place,” Westin said. “People who have never been on a campus say, ‘I can’t do that.’ People will be on campus and our hope is to direct them into classes.”

Ultimately, however, an individual must have the will to persevere, he said, adding that the work-first mantra does not have to prevent Calworks clients from pursuing higher degrees.

“Motivation is the primary predictor of success,” Westin said. “If a person’s only motivation is to flip a hamburger, they will only get to the first phase of ‘Get a job, get a better job, get a career.’ We can not spoon-feed people. They have to have the desire to succeed.”

Expecting people who have relied on welfare for a number of years to suddenly succeed in school and endure in the workplace may be idealistic, Supervisor John Flynn said.

“But that’s what we’ve got to do--put idealistic goals in front of them and have them try to reach them,” Flynn said. “It’s going to be tough. Especially when some of these people have led a tough life already. But this will lead them to a better life.”

Paige Moser of the Simi Valley chapter of the National Organization for Women does not see it that way.

“This whole welfare reform has been a scapegoat against poor women,” she said.

The new system sets women up for failure by not addressing long-term needs, she said. She lamented that Calworks will provide child care and transportation for recipients only until they become “self-sufficient,” which could mean until they get a $5.75-an-hour job.

She questioned how low-paying jobs without health benefits will enable single mothers to afford medical care for their children and themselves.

“People are entitled to these very basic human rights,” she said.”The reform does not address any of these issues.”

Fear of Losing Medi-Cal Benefits

Martha Cantos shares some of the same concerns. She began collecting welfare about five years ago, three years after her husband, Lino, lost his sight. Lino Cantos had been an electrical engineer who designed and assembled computers.

The couple now worry that if Martha makes too much money when she begins working, Lino might lose his state Medi-Cal benefits. Lino said he has applied for jobs but has repeatedly been turned down.

Still, going on welfare was a tough decision for the Cantoses. It was not until the family lost its home and had to move in with a friend that Martha decided to swallow her pride.

“We looked at it as a hard thing to do because I was brought up and my wife was brought up to take care of ourselves,” said Lino, 36, at their Port Hueneme apartment.

Martha, who had preferred staying home to raise her sons, Lino, 7, and Paolo, 3, is mapping out a way to support her family. She enrolled in the Calworks child-development course at Oxnard and plans to run a day-care center from her home.

Above all, she hopes the time limits for those on aid will help eliminate the stigma attached to welfare. She won’t even go grocery shopping and use food stamps without her husband by her side. The negative reaction from cashiers and people in line when she pulled out the food stamps affected her deeply, she said.

“I make sure I take my cane out when we go shopping together,” Lino said. “As if to say, ‘Don’t even think about it.’ ”

With the new laws in place, it’s now up to Martha to provide for her family. The pressure is unnerving, she said.

“Sometimes I want to scream and run out,” said Martha, 30. “But I know I can’t. I’ll do whatever I can to provide for my family. I’ll give 100% of myself to get that job.”

But as the clock ticks on their government support, the couple brace for the unknown.

“I’m not going to say it’s not frightening,” Lino said. “Let’s face it--we don’t know what tomorrow might bring.”