The Era of Meanness: Welfare Reform and Barriers to a College Degree

Abstract

In response to the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 and the accompanying block grant, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, broad-based advocacy coalitions formed in many states to lobby for meaningful college programs for welfare recipients. State by state, these coalitions wrestled with creating programs that would allow welfare recipients to remain in 4-year colleges, but only a few states managed to develop such programs. This article compares the advocacy coalitions in two states, Maine and New York, where welfare advocates struggled to achieve progressive state welfare higher educational policies and, in some instances, succeeded in keeping welfare recipients in 4-year colleges.