The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA)
greatly reformed the provision of cash assistance–or welfare–to poor families nationwide, replacing
Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF). In contrast to the former AFDC program, TANF requires work-ready adult recipients to
engage in employment or activities that lead to employment in order to receive benefits. Education
leading to a postsecondary degree, although not precluded by the federal law, is not encouraged in
most states (Cox and Spriggs 2002; Greenberg, Strawn, and Plimpton 2000).This limitation in
welfare recipients' access to college has been a key issue for debate among policy makers and
advocates. The 1998 Wellstone Amendment, which would have doubled the period of time allowed
for training and education to two years and counted postsecondary education as a federal work
activity, did not pass. Current plans for TANF reauthorization impose even stricter limits on access
to postsecondary education (Fremstad et al. 2002).