The higher education option for poor women with children

Postsecondary education is the key to exiting from poverty pemanently. Yet, the PRWORA allows women only up to 12 months of vocational training while on welfare. This paper focuses on bringing back the importance of investing in the education of poor women, particularly the postsecondary education o f poor women with children, to the forefront of the welfare debate. In this paper we review federal and state level welfare policies toward postsecond ary education of poor women with children. Some states are interpreting fed eral welfare policy strictly and allowing only tip to 12 months of vocation al training while on welfare. Other states allow poor women attending posts econdary education to count class hours and homework hours toward the work participation requirement. Support services-childcare and transportation-to women attending college vary from state to state. Services for welfare mot hers who wish to go on to college are severely inadequate. We argue that fe deral and state policies should be designed to encourage poor women to comp lete two- and four-year college degrees because education of women is assoc iated with better economic and social returns for women, children, families and society at large. We propose that welfare policies should encourage wo men's college education by providing support services and by stopping the f ive-years clock for those attending college. In addition, programs such as Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) and AmeriCorps should be expanded to increase postsecondary education opportunities for poor women.