Getting "tough" on welfare reform has been a battle cry of politicians across the nation in recent months.

Nowhere has the battle over the future of welfare been more intense than here in Massachusetts, where Governor William F. Weld '66 has said he is determined to place limits on the length of time welfare recipients may remain on the government payroll.

But Radcliffe President Linda S. Wilson has a few things to say about that. She has responded to Weld's stance by leading a group of 16 female college presidents in an effort to prevent caps from being placed on welfare aid to recipients enrolled in approved higher education programs.

Weld's Reform Plan

The recent surge in government welfare reform has come in large part from a campaign promise by President Bill Clinton to change welfare as we know it."

Since Clinton took office in 1993, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has granted petitions to 27 states that allow them to explore and design welfare plans that are tailored to each state's needs. Massachusetts' application is still pending.

Governor Weld joined the push for reform in February, when he signed a bill that included, among other provisions, language that bars people from remaining on welfare for more than two out of any five consecutive years.

Although many protested the time limit, Weld defended the bill, saying it will end welfare's tradition of giving rewards for irresponsible behavior. He also said it will help to break the cycle of dependence on welfare for many families. "Welfare in Massachusetts will now be oriented around work and parental responsibility," Weld said when signing the bill.

Women College Presidents

But Wilson disagrees with Weld's arguments and has spoken out against the measure on several occasions. She has also led the Women College Presidents group in actions to prevent Weld's plan from being adopted.

The Women College Presidents is a group comprised of 16 presidents from public and private institutions of post-secondary school education across Massachusetts, and included the presidents of Radcliffe College, Roxbury Community College and the University of Massachusetts at Boston.

The group was organized in 1991 by Chancellor Sherry Penney of U-Mass Boston and Zelda Gamson, director of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education. Penney is currently the acting president of the U-Mass system.

The two chose to focus the group's efforts on the difficulties faced by students who receive aid under the Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. Wilson, who now leads the group with aid of Pamela S. Greene, a public policy fellow at Radcliffe, has continued the women presidents' efforts to support AFDC students.

Wilson has argued on behalf of her colleagues that welfare recipients should not be stereotyped or grouped in a category characterized by the abuse of federal aid. Instead, she says, Massachusetts legislators need to recognize the value of supporting degree programs for hardworking individuals who receive aid under the Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program.

"One pervasive myth is that recipients of Aid of Families with Dependent Children are a homogeneous group consisting of able-bodied layabouts who procreate recklessly while the rest of society provides support," Wilson wrote in a February op-ed piece in the Boston Globe.

Wilson also challenged "another pervasive myth:" that teenage mothers appropriate more than their fair share of public aid. She maintains that, in fact, the 1994 Green Book of the federal government's House Ways and Means Committee shows that teen mothers constitute only 3.8 percent of all aid recipients.

Wilson's op-ed piece went argues that by waiving the two-year time limit for AFDC recipients who are enrolled in approved degree programs, the state can greatly improve their chances of moving off welfare permanently.

"An individual working at minimum-wage job offers her family a subsistence-level existence at best--a stark contrast to the almost unlimited potential of a holder of a college degree," Wilson writes.

By arranging family-friendly schedules and providing academic counselling so that AFDC recipients pursue paths toward realistic careers, Wilson and her associates are arguing that higher education, not what Wilson calls "arbitrary and unrealistic time limits" on welfare, is the ticket to ending dependence on federal aid.

"One-size-fits-all welfare reform is unworkable and unwise," Wilson writes.

The Mass. Budget Battle

Wilson's op-ed piece spurred Rep. Harriet L. Chandler (D-Worcester) into action, according to Chandler's assistant Paul F. Matthews.

"When Harriet took office, they [the State House of Representatives] were facing the welfare reform debate," Matthews said. "She noticed the op-ed and thought it was very moving."

Chandler approached the Women's Legislative Caucus, a bi-partisan group of legislators at the Massachusetts State House, with the information from Wilson's article. The group invited Wilson, Penney, Sister Sheila Megley, president of Regis College, and Grace Brown, president of Roxbury Community College, to address the caucus.

Chandler's constituency, Worcester, is a college community, Matthews said, and Chandler had been told "that former AFDC recipients had used higher education to get off the welfare track."

"The Worcester residents asked that the avenue not be closed," Matthews added.

During an hour-long question and answer session earlier this year, the panel of college presidents fielded questions from the caucus and presented information supporting their theory that higher education is a valuable tool for helping AFDC recipients get off welfare.

"The Women College Presidents group pointed out that post-secondary school education is the most effective strategy for enabling women to get off welfare," Chandler told the Boston Globe. "They provided statistics showing that even one year of college really makes a difference in what women can earn," she added.

The result of the lobbying action was that representatives introduced Sections 225 and 226 to the House budget bill. The addition, which was sponsored by Rep. Daniel Bosley (D-North Adams) provides an education exemption to the two-year welfare cap proposed by Weld provided that "the recipient is enrolled in an educational program or institution of higher learning approved by the department."

Weld's Veto

The outside language of the House budget was vetoed by Weld, who called the exemption a "loophole" and charged that it would almost certainly be misused by AFDC recipients.

"Basically, you could spend 10 years going to school part-time, maybe talking one course a semester at night-time working toward a degree in basket weaving, and still demand taxpayer support full time all the way," Weld said to the Boston Globe.

"The loophole is so large that the entire welfare caseload could find the time to camp out there if they wanted to," Weld added.

House Override

Supporters of the education exemption reacted to the Governor's comments with anger, saying he was engaging in hyperbole and suggesting that Weld was interested more in relieving the welfare caseload than in helping aid recipients. The House responded by overriding Weld's veto.

"In terms of the substance of Governor Weld's remarks, I would have to say that not only are they without foundation, but extremely disobliging, both to the recipients themselves and to the institutions of higher learning in which these women are enrolled," Greene wrote in a memo to colleagues at Radcliffe.

"Basket weaving? God. This is nothing more than histrionics," Bosley, the state representative said. "All the statistics show that people are much more prone to staying off welfare if they have higher education."

The statistics cited by Bosley, Chandler, Wilson and others include a 1988 study of New York residents who were AFDC-dependent when they entered college. Results of the study showed that 89 percent had jobs a few years after graduating from college, and 87 percent no longer received welfare. The Howard Samuels state Management and Policy center at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York conducted the study.

Another study, complied by the Center for Women Policy Studies in Washington, indicates that a woman with an associate's degree makes about 65 percent more than a woman without one.

And still another study found that a single year of college can affect a person's performance in the work force. This study, conducted by the University of Madison, found that women who completed one year of college were almost twice as likely as high school graduates to get off welfare voluntarily.

The Future of Welfare Reform

Ultimately, the decision on whether enrollment in post-secondary school degree program will entitle AFDC recipients to an exemption from Governor Weld's two-year limit will rest with the Massachusetts State Senate.

Wilson and the Women College Presidents continue to support higher education as a means for preparing aid-dependent individuals for life after welfare.

"Education is the only sure route out of poverty and off of the cycle of public dependence," Wilson said. "There are many wonderful success stories; it would be a terrible waste of human potential to let opportunity and future dreams fall by the wayside."