By  John Kelly

(EXCERPT)

The initiation of the pilot was surely born of advocacy for a more progressive approach to evaluating TANF that does not look at workforce as the only possible successful outcome of the support. Here is the Center for Law and Social Policy’s view of Work Participation Rate, or WPR:

CLASP has deep concerns about the WPR, including that it is a) grounded in racist stereotypes about the need to force public
benefit recipients to work; b) does not measure the effectiveness of work activities; c) does not give states credit for engaging
recipients in activities such as full-time education and training beyond a year, or for addressing issues such as mental health
needs or substance abuse treatment; and d) forces caseworkers to focus on compliance and spend undue amounts of time tracking.

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