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Community College Pays Off

Women in California who receive welfare benefits
and pursue an associate's degree or certificate are earning substantially higher incomes after college than they did before.

Earnings for women who receive welfare benefits in California appear to increase significantly when they earn an associate's degree or vocational certificate, according to a recent study by the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) and the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office (CCCCO).

From Jobs to Careers: How California Community College Credentials Pay Off for Welfare Participants tracks employment rates and median annual earnings of female welfare participants who left the California community college system in 1999–00. The welfare program in California, known as CalWORKs, enables participants to attend a California community college for up to 24 months as a way to satisfy the work requirements mandated by federal law.

Two years after completing an associate's degree, the CalWORKs participants' earnings were five times higher than they were prior to beginning school—$19,690 up from $3,916. Those that earned a vocational certificate earned incomes three times higher than before attending the community college.

CalWORKs students were also twice as likely to work year-round after attending college as before. And the more education received, the greater the employment rate after exit.

While in school, CalWORKs women were more likely to be employed than the general CalWORKs population—even those who entered college without a high school diploma. And the college-attending population's earnings were 20 percent greater than the general CalWORKs population who were employed during the same time period.

The report disputes the claim that attending a community college distracts welfare recipients from finding work. Fifty-six percent of welfare recipients were working during their last quarter of classes, as compared with the 44 percent of the general welfare population that was employed at that time.

States should be encouraged to include postsecondary education as a welfare-to-work activity and to increase funding for critical on-campus support and employment services. Interviews with CalWORKs students indicated that the targeted support and employment services offered by the California community colleges—such as on-campus child care, work-study, and academic advising—were often the key factor in their academic success.

To read the new CLASP and CCCCO report, visit www.clasp.org/Pubs/Pubs_PostsecEd.