States can use their extra funds to create additional pots of money to help start-up transportation projects, including vanpools, guaranteed ride home programs for parents who may need to leave work in the event of an emergency, transit passes, or bus routes. States could also expand or strengthen basic education and literacy skills for welfare recipients in need of them. Many community organizations have fought for and won funding for these kinds of programs. The extra TANF funds mean that states can afford to invest more money into effective training programs that combine work and training strategies. Organizers should also note that states that have experienced dramatic welfare declines have been awarded with credits against their federally mandated work requirements.
Some states face virtually no federally mandated work requirement.
This means that many states have enormous flexibility in determining what can count as a work activity, potentially opening doors for welfare recipients to new training and education opportunities. Due to the caseload declines, such states are also likely to have TANF surpluses that can be used to cover the cost of these programs. States could create an entirely new program with extra funds in addition to using funds now used for cash assistance to cover some or all of the costs of a publicly funded community job program. Such a program could alleviate severe job shortages in depressed communities and could integrate formal job training or other mentoring services, provide wages higher than the minimum wage, and ensure involvement in child care and health insurance programs. States could create a program under which all low-income families can afford quality child care, regardless of current or recent receipt of welfare benefits, by providing child care assistance through a mix of contracts with providers and vouchers given directly to parents.