Every Wisconsin resident currently receiving federal Aid to Families with Dependent Children is assessed by state caseworkers and, if possible, matched with a job in the private sector. Single mothers are required to work as soon as their infants are 12 weeks old. Everybody can do something. There are other risks as well, says Nan Brien, associate director of the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families. She claims that even with a near tripling of the state budget to pay for increased childcare services, many infants are being placed in inadequate environments while their mothers earn their aid checks.
People just see the reduced case loads and think that's success.
The heavy lifting to put Wisconsin's poor to work is done in a network of some 80 job centers. This month, Jankowski administers just 373 cases, and he says half of those already have jobs. Now she spends 30 hours a week doing clerical work for the Kenosha Job Center at the minimum wage and an additional 10 hours a week in mandatory training classes. The state pays the bulk of her childcare costs and an hourly wage.