Between 1989 and 1993, state caseloads in the Aid for Dependent Children program soared by an average of 35 percent nationally. But in Wisconsin during that period, the caseload fell by 3 percent. The main reason is the way Wisconsin administers the federal Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS) program, the national work program in welfare.

Different localities within the state are trying different approaches, and the most successful appear to be those that try to put welfare recipients into the program as soon as possible after they go on welfare, then closely monitor and enforce participation in the program.

• The efficient programs typically stress employment in available jobs and encourage welfare recipients to arrange cheap, informal varieties of child care.

• Only a limited assessment of recipients' job prospects is made up front, in the belief that the job market provides the truest test of employability.

• Everything possible is done to prevent employable recipients from dropping out of the program, including relentless follow-up to see whether they are fulfilling their assignments.

• Recipients who withdraw from the program without authorization are swiftly dropped from the welfare rolls, usually after only two attendance violations.

Most localities determined that it was unnecessary for the JOBS program to fund training or education because these services were available, often for little or no money, through existing programs such as those at community colleges.

Close supervision of participants in the JOBS program appears to play a significant role in Wisconsin's success. Case managers carefully monitor welfare recipients, motivating them with a combination of help and hassle. The favorable result is consistent with what is known of the psychology of poverty.

• Most adults who are poor for long periods have difficulty living by their own intentions and need an environment in which they receive not only help, but also reinforcement for "doing the right thing."

• The intense supervision is taken as a sign of concern - that someone shows interest and wants them to succeed.

• More than most individuals, the seriously poor need to have expectations of altered behavior brought home by human beings who interact with them personally.

Even though this approach has increased rather than decreased welfare administration costs, the state is saving $9 million a month by moving welfare recipients off the rolls and into the workforce.

Some national welfare proposals would spend money on a huge buildup of public employment in order to assure jobs to welfare recipients. But Wisconsin has found that most can find private sector jobs when and if the welfare program forces them to do so.

Source: Lawrence M. Mead, "The New Paternalism in Action," Wisconsin Policy Research Institute Report, Vol. 8, No. 1, January 1995, Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, 3107 N. Shepard Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53211, (414) 963-0600.

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