Utilizing Workforce Investment Act Programs and TANF To Provide Education and Training Opportunities To Reduce Poverty among Low-Income Women. Testimony [before the] House Education and the Workforce Committee, Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness.

Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and the TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) programs can be coordinated in a number of ways, some of them especially focused on women. For example, research suggests the following: (1) WIA and TANF can be coordinated to improve low-income women's human capital development; (2) many states and localities intend to use the Workforce Investment Act to provide high quality training; (3) research shows that women experience low wages, poor job quality, and continuing poverty following welfare reform; (4) most welfare recipients and former recipients need skill development to get good jobs; (5) job training and education increase earnings and employment; and (6) education and training improves child well-being. Recommendations for the future include expanding state flexibility and allocating resources to provide quality education and training; removing TANF's 12-month limit on vocational education and training; articulating and expanding the types of education and training that can count as work; eliminating the arbitrary 30 percent cap on education and training; and maintaining or increasing levels of funding for training and education through the Workforce Investment Act. (Contains 43 references.) (KC)