In state legislatures and across the executive and legislative branches of the federal government, policymakers are exploring and imposing new work requirements on public assistance programs. While work requirements already exist in some programs, like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), they would be new in others.
“Work requirements” condition public assistance on individuals' working, actively seeking work, or participating in some type of job training or other allowable activity. There are exceptions usually built in to these requirements to exempt individuals who are sick, have a disability or are elderly. However, opponents to these requirements contend that the exemptions do not adequately reflect legitimate reasons individuals may not be employed.
In January, the Trump Administration, for the first time in the program's history, allowed states to impose work requirements on their Medicaid recipients. Medicaid provides health care coverage to low-income individuals and people with disabilities. Consequently many states have either imposed the requirements or are exploring doing so.
In addition to work requirements as they relate to Medicaid, President Trump issued an executive order earlier this month directing federal agencies to review their work requirement policies and to develop recommendations. These could include expanding work requirements to other programs.
In legislative branch activity, House Republicans recently introduced their 2018 Farm Bill, which includes making major reforms to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as "food stamps." The bill imposes work requirements on SNAP recipients, which can be satisfied with at least 20 hours of workforce training per week to maintain public assistance. While the bill would provide an additional $1 billion annually for these workforce programs, it falls far short of the estimated $15 billion it would take to fully fund what would be a drastic increase in workforce development participants.
Work requirements impact the CTE community because the requirement can often be satisfied through job training activities. The goal is to encourage individuals to increase their earning potential by pursuing career-focused education, which would theoretically lead to a smaller population of people eligible for public assistance, thereby reducing government expenditures. However, as structured, job training requirements sometimes limit economic opportunities. For example, TANF limits CTE programs to only counting as a work activity for 12 months, thereby making it exceedingly difficult and infeasible for participants to earn longer-term credentials like associate degrees that are more highly correlated with upward economic mobility.
ACTE believes any changes to current law that would result in increased enrollment in job training programs should be met with the financial resources necessary to serve these new populations. Additionally, eligibility to qualify for public assistance programs through any new or existing work requirements should allow for workforce training of at least 24 months so that participants are allotted sufficient time and flexibility to earn meaningful credentials that could actually increase participants' earning potentials and catalyze upward economic mobility.
ACTE is interested in learning more about how new work requirements across public assistance programs could impact your CTE program. To share your thoughts, comment below or email us at [email protected].
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