|
by Anna Kirsch/Poverty and Media Activism Intern
"What do we want?"
"Education"
"When do we want it?"
"Now"
The voices of welfare mothers and their children boomed into the sky
above the Oakland Federal Building on Tuesday morning. Ten years after
the implementation of welfare these mothers, struggling to survive and
get an education, gathered to speak out to dispel all myths of welfare
reform
As I gazed at the colorful signs reading, "You Get an F" and "Welfare
Deform," my mind wandered to the past Saturday and the two young girls
who were adamantly coloring these posters. The sisters with matching
long brown hair, curious round eyes and bright lime green sandals
concentrated on their coloring while their mother Vivian Hain spoke
openly about her experiences on welfare. Above the chatter of
children's voices and the sounds of crashing wooden block toys, Hain
described her battle to come up and out of poverty through education.
She spoke on Saturday morning at a parent information meeting organized
by Low-Income Families' Empowerment through Education (LIFETIME) to
inform parents about the upcoming changes to the welfare deform system
(as it's known to any of those who have experienced it). Wearing a
bright red tee shirt reading "Don't Target Our Children," Hain told the
attentive crowd about how her life fell apart when she broke her leg
working at Wal-Mart.
"I didn't know what to do, so I got on welfare and I became homeless
for three and a half years," she stated honestly and unapologetically.
Hain, like many mothers trying to survive on welfare and get an
education, has long days. Starting around 6:30 a.m. everyday, she
juggles getting her three daughters to school, feeding them, going to
class and studying to get her B.A. in multimedia at Berkley City
College. She does all this while clothing, feeding and caring for her
three kids and herself on a welfare check of just $723.00.
Hain is just one of many mothers who might be denied an education come
October 1st when changes to the welfare to work system take a hold at
the state level. These changes, which focus on work and not education,
could prove disastrous for many low and no income families.
The maze that is welfare deform just got messier and even more
confusing. Now the federal government will be defining what is counted
as work at the state level and apparently education isn't important
enough to make the cut. After just twelve months of education, welfare
parent-students will be unable to attend school full-time and still
receive funding.
"We know that education and training are the best ways to get off
welfare, but education is not valued," Anita Rees, LIFETIME's associate
director and former welfare mother, told the audience. "You all have the skills in life, but now you just need the piece of paper to prove you have these skills." Now it seems getting that piece of paper is going to become even more difficult for these already stressed parents.
"These new work requirements are going to screw everybody. Most
low-income people have more barriers, like financial aid, childcare and
housing that impede them from getting an education and who can get an
associate's degree in one year with no assistance anyway?" Hain said.
Good question. The honest truth is that it's pretty much impossible for
anyone, even with the best circumstances, to get any sort of
meaningful education in one year. It should not come as a surprise that
the average number of years needed to complete a community college
program ranges from 3.2 to 3.5 for parents shouldering significant work
and family obligations.
“The problem now is that states will be penalized if welfare cases
aren't reduced. So case reduction, not poverty reduction becomes the goal,” Hain said, echoing the message of Rees. "There is a bigger influx of people in poverty as a result of this and people are just slipping through the cracks," she stated, shaking her head.
Diamond Williams, another full time student and mother trying to make
it on welfare, faces the same dilemma as Hain. Williams, who lives in West Oakland, majors in Africana studies and education at San Francisco
State University and hopes someday to get her PhD to teach college.
There's a chance she'll have to drop out of school in October because
she's already completed her allotted 12 months of education.
"They want you working at McDonald's or Wal-Mart for the rest of your
life and this is putting the American people in a bad situation,"
Williams adamantly stated. "What I heard today makes me want to take
action. I want to be knowledgeable about my rights."
Williams' day starts at 6:30 a.m. when she wakes up to pump breast milk
for her six month old and doesn't end until 10:30 p.m. after two or
three hours of studying. She's active in school and has been on the Dean's list several times. Williams, Hain and these other student-parents don't really fit the description of lazy welfare moms. An all too common misconception the public and politicians readily believe in.
The truth is that welfare mothers "work more than anybody else. They
work before, after and during their time on welfare," Rees, who speaks
from experience, stated. "Now we need to raise public awareness to let
people know that this (welfare) isn't working and that the people in
charge have failed us," she added.
As Hain stated, it's time to let the government know that "they need to
value education first because it's a pathway to a career, not a job;
because we want careers, we want medical benefits, we want a retirement
fund, and we want a better future for our children."
For more information about the changes happening to the welfare system
and support for welfare families, see LIFETIME's homepage:
www.geds-to-phds.org. For more work on issues of poverty and racism by
the low and no-income youth who experience it first-hand go on-line to
www.poormagazine.org.
| 
