Welfare Reform and Enrollment in Postsecondary Education

Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) has dramatically decreased welfare rolls, but has it reduced the college attendance rate of welfare recipients or limited the college enrollment of those who might have been on welfare without this policy change? The authors examine whether the work-first emphasis of welfare reform has reduced postsecondary education enrollment, principally in community colleges. Second, they consider whether welfare reform has increased enrollment in short-term, noncredit programs at the expense of degree-granting curricula. Third, they assess whether states with more restrictive formal policies regarding higher education have lower enrollment of welfare recipients than those with less restrictive policies. Finally, they examine whether welfare reform has affected the enrollment rates of young single mothers who might have been on welfare in the absence of TANF. They review enrollment data from a variety of sources and present original analyses of data on postsecondary enrollment patterns from multiple national data sets.