Can Education Reduce Welfare Rolls?: A Study of California's GAIN Program

Abstract

Welfare programs often attempt to reduce their welfare rolls by pushing recipients into immediate employment, while others provide education and training to people before expecting them to re-enter the job market. In some states, such as California, counties are allowed flexibility in the implementation of welfare programs. This allows the counties to choose to focus on immediate job placement, educating recipients, or a combination of the two.

This study examines three different implementation strategies of California's Greater Avenues for Independence Program (GAIN) in order to determine if the county which focused heavily on educating GAIN participants was most successful in reducing its welfare roll.