[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 133 (Tuesday, September 29, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S11120]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            WELLSTONE AMENDMENT TO THE HIGHER EDUCATION ACT

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I supported Senator Wellstone's amendment 
to the Higher Education Act and I regret that it was not included in 
the conference report. The amendment would have increased educational 
opportunities for people on welfare. It passed the Senate with a 
bipartisan majority, but was rejected by House Republicans, even though 
it was also supported by the White House, and by more than 150 social 
welfare groups.
  The goal of this amendment is to correct a serious deficiency in the 
harsh welfare reform law enacted two years ago. Too often, welfare 
reform around the country has focused on immediate work experience as a 
means to achieve financial independence, but the focus is excessive, 
because it reduced options for welfare recipients who wish to complete 
to two- or four-year college degrees.
  Welfare reform around the country has tended to focus on immediate 
work experience as a means to achieve financial independence. The new 
direction of welfare reform at both state and federal levels has 
generally reduced the options available for welfare recipients who wish 
to complete a two- or four-year college degree. It is extremely 
difficult for single parents to be full-time students and work part-
time and still give adequate time to their families.
  The welfare reform program called Temporary Assistance to Needy 
Families, is based on the idea that work is the best way to achieve 
independence, especially if the work comes with job security and fair 
wages. For many people, education is the best road to jobs that achieve 
these goals. Higher education is often the best way to earn higher 
wages, achieve independence from welfare, and provide protection from 
future poverty and unemployment.
  Recent studies have found that the average wage for a person who was 
previously on welfare and then earned a degree is $11.00 an hour, and 
that each year of education completed by welfare recipients increases 
wages by as much as $1.14 per hour. A study of 4,500 working mothers in 
the Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation found 
that a college degree is worth an additional $2.58 per hour for working 
mothers, compared to the wages of high school graduates. The special 
importance of higher education for women is emphasized by other data 
showing that women need a college degree to make the same amount of 
money that men earn with only a high school education.
  The results of these studies are hardly surprising. We know the 
importance of higher education and the advantages it opens up. The 
Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in March 1995 that adult workers 
with less than a high school diploma earned an annual average of only 
$13,697. Adult workers with a high school degree earned $20,248. With 
an associates degree, they earned $26,363, and with a bachelor's degree 
they earned $37,224.
  The job and career benefits of higher education are also demonstrated 
by the poverty statistics of the Department of Labor. In 1995 only 1.5 
percent of those with a four-year college degree were living in poverty 
compared to 3.3 percent of those with an associates degree, 6.1 percent 
of those with a high school diploma, and 17.2 percent of those without 
a high school diploma.
  The evidence for the Wellstone amendment is overwhelming, and a 
bipartisan majority of the Senate was right to pass it. Under its 
provisions, 24 months of post-secondary education or vocational 
educational training would be permissible work activities under welfare 
reform.
  I commend Senator Wellstone's leadership on this important issue. 
States should have the flexibility to create responsible ways to move 
people from welfare to work, by allowing welfare recipients to include 
higher education as a part of their effort to achieve financial 
independence and provide effectively for their families. The House 
conferees were wrong to reject this positive reform, and we should do 
all we can to enact it as soon as possible.

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