Despite our collective best efforts, a House–Senate conference committee failed to include the Wellstone amendment in the final compromise version of the bill reauthorizing the Higher Education Act (H.R. 6). The Wellstone amendment would have made 24 months of postsecondary education or vocational training a permissible work activity under the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program and would have removed teen parents from the 30 percent cap on the number of a state's welfare caseload that may be enrolled in educational activities.
Instead, conferees agreed to authorize a study on the effectiveness of postsecondary education (the actual bill language follows). The compromise version of H.R. 6, which authorizes the study, subsequently passed the House by voice vote and the Senate by a vote of 96–0. The President signed the bill on October 7, 1998.
Advocates will have another chance to increase access to postsecondary education for welfare recipients. Senator Wellstone (D-MN) has vowed to reintroduce his proposal as a free-standing bill when the 106th Congress convenes in January.
SEC. 861. EDUCATION-WELFARE STUDY.
(a) STUDY—The Comptroller General of the United States shall conduct a study of the effectiveness of educational approaches (including vocational and postsecondary education approaches) and rapid employment approaches to helping welfare recipients and other low-income adults become employed and economically self-sufficient. Such study shall include—
(1) a survey of the available scientific evidence and research data on the subject, including a comparison of the effects of programs emphasizing a vocational or postsecondary educational approach to programs emphasizing a rapid employment approach, along with research on the impacts of programs which emphasize a combination of such approaches;
(2) an examination of the research regarding the impact of postsecondary education on the educational attainment of the children of recipients who have completed a postsecondary education program; and
(3) information regarding short- and long-term employment, wages, duration of employment, poverty rates, sustainable economic self-sufficiency, prospects for career advancement or wage increases, access to quality child care, placement in employment with benefits including health care, life insurance and retirement, and related program outcomes.
(b) REPORT—Not later than August 1, 1999, the Comptroller General of the United States shall prepare and submit to the Committees on Ways and Means and on Education and the Workforce of the House of Representatives and the Committees on Finance and on Labor and Human Resources of the Senate, a report that contains the finding of the study required by subsection (a).