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LIFETIME Celebrates Significant Milestone in Ongoing Campaign to Support CalWORKs Students

Low-Income Families’ Empowerment through Education (LIFETIME) is a statewide grassroots organization that advocates for higher education as the means to help low-income parents attain the skills they need to get off welfare and out of poverty for good. LIFETIME’s mission is to empower low-income parents to determine, pursue, and achieve their goals for education, employment and economic security. As a result of the ongoing campaign that began at founding director Diana Spatz’s kitchen table, the California state legislature passed a law in September 1999 counting homework time as a work activity for CalWORKs students. On October 10th Governor Gray Davis vetoed the larger bill, AB 1039, which contained the provision. However, student leaders plan to meet with representatives of the governor in Sacramento to pursue this and other measures to support low-income students with children, including LIFETIME's push for a state education grant to help low-income parents pursue higher education and high-wage jobs.

The foundation for LIFETIME began in 1992 when founding director Diana Spatz fought a legal appeal against the county welfare department to stay in college, and began organizing to help welfare mothers at City College of San Francisco know their rights to education under welfare law. Spatz subsequently won a scholarship to the University of California Berkeley, where she met Professor Jane Mauldon of the Goldman School of Public Policy. With Mauldon's sponsorship, Spatz developed a service-learning class to help low-income students with children share survival strategies, learn their rights under welfare law, and develop organizing and advocacy skills to bring their collective voice to the policy process around welfare reform.

Spatz recognized the connection between higher education opportunities and long term economic security. She saw higher education as a critical resource which enables low-income parents to secure stable, long-term employment at wages that support a family. She understood that unless academic credit was available, it was difficult to get people involved as many "have less time than money." Understanding the need for students to cultivate advocacy skills while receiving academic credit, Spatz created an environment where student-parents and welfare recipients could engage in a dialogue which would eventually shape policy. After graduating with honors with a BA in 1995, Spatz was awarded an Echoing Green Public Service Fellowship to develop LIFETIME. What began as a single class is now a dynamic, grassroots organization that empowers low-income parents to organize and advocate for long-term self-sufficiency as the goal of welfare reform.

Since its inception, LIFETIME has grown in its ability to reach out to larger groups of people. LIFETIME’s staff has increased to three full-time positions and ten student intern positions who serve as outreach workers and peer advocates.

LIFETIME has successfully advocated for access to higher education in a variety of forums, expanding from educating those in the classroom to educating those in legislative committee rooms. The group proposed that the definition of work activity expand to include homework and study time. Class time clearly met the definition of work activity, but preparation for class was not included. This distinction did not acknowledge the link between employment success and studying. LIFETIME connected the two in advocating that education is necessary in securing economic stability and an essential element to success in education is a commitment to homework and study time.

After researching the CalWORKs legislation, LIFETIME concluded that homework and study time fit within the definition of work activity because they promote the goal of finding long-term employment. LIFETIME organized student parents, college faculty, administrators and community supporters in Alameda and San Francisco Counties to press welfare administrators to submit county welfare plans to the state that counted homework and study time as a work activity. The group began by getting students to testify as to their own struggles for education at meetings of college trustees to enlist their support for the proposal. Students also testified to their own experiences before county and state legislators. According to Spatz, the students' stories were extremely moving and led one college administrator to testify in support of the proposal at a public hearing, as well as to allocate additional financial aid monies for low-income parents with children at his college.

LIFETIME’s effectiveness lies in its strategy of combining students’ testimony with policy and academic analysis. The Carnegie Standard and Title V research were used to justify counting as a work activity two hours of homework for every one hour in class. LIFETIME pointed to studies that document the increased earnings potential of welfare mothers who complete college degrees and that show that education is required for jobs paying wages of $12-$15 per hour, the head-of-household wage identified as necessary by the Wider Opportunity for Women (WOW) self-sufficiency standard. LIFETIME’s efforts persuaded San Francisco and Alameda Counties to count homework as work, and twelve other counties subsequently followed suit.

With this accomplishment, LIFETIME took its campaign to the state legislature to have this standard apply to the entire state. LIFETIME mobilized advocates and supporters for AB 1039, legislation which would allow two hours of homework and study time to count as work activity for every one hour a CalWORKs student spends in class. At the Governor's insistence, the proposal was scaled back to allow a maximum of 6 hours of preparation time per week to count toward the work requirement. In addition, the bill would have given the state welfare department the authority to increase the hours in two years after an assessment of its effectiveness. The bill subsequently passed the legislature, but then was vetoed. Had the bill been signed into law, it would have been the first welfare legislation enacted in 10 years that was initiated by an advocacy organization. Spatz has used the LINC Project listserv to share news of the progress of LIFETIME’s campaign and to inspire other organizers across the country.

LIFETIME will continue to push for homework and study time. The group is currently building support for state education grants for low income parents and for the expansion of financial aid policies to benefit students with children. The campaign has already succeeded in convincing San Francisco County to commit $200,000 in local funds for scholarships for CalWORKs students, and LIFETIME student leaders are organizing to duplicate this success in Alameda, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz Counties, as well as statewide. LIFETIME also collaborates with legal advocates including the Western Center for Law and Poverty, Equal Rights Advocates, the Employment Law Center of San Francisco and the Center on Poverty, Law and Economic Opportunity. It successfully pressed state and county welfare administrators to address county welfare plans that were pushing students into low-wage work - in violation of state law. In this collaboration, LIFETIME was able to educate many recipients on their rights to higher education, and get them re-enrolled in school. LIFETIME has also helped students receiving welfare understand financial aid eligibility and continues to support and encourage parents in finishing their education.

LIFETIME’s strength has been in its ability to bring together government officials, university staff, community-based organizations and low-income student parents. This dialogue has been a powerful tool in giving collective recognition to many unheard voices. As Spatz describes, "it is a learning process for all." And she continued, "There is a real need to know that there are possibilities."

For more information on LIFETIME, contact Diana Spatz at 2065 Kittredge Suite E, Berkeley, CA 94704; tel.(510) 452 -5192; fax (510) 452-5193, e-mail: dspatz@hotmail.com.

WLC Legal Intern Becky O’Brien contributed to this article.