Taking her seat at the horseshoe, Megan Wittrock pulls a book from a slightly soiled yellow backpack and settles in to work on fractions. If Ruth Brown�s take-home paycheck was $300 last week, and she spent $75 at the grocery store, what fraction of last week�s paycheck went for groceries? Megan tenses to do the figuring, head bent over the work, her dun-blond hair just covering the collar on the back of her blue flannel shirt.

Although said by staff to be �quite bright,� Megan is not here by choice. She has been on public assistance since she became pregnant as a sixteen-year-old and dropped out of a Minnesota high school. �I hated school,� she declares, her voice rising. �It didn�t make me feel bad to leave. School was boring. The teachers were all caught up with the kids who like school, the ones that thought it was fun.�

As part of the conversion from AFDC to Wisconsin Works (W-2), the state�s welfare reform initiative, public assistance recipients have been mandated – for different numbers of hours depending on a complex set of factors – to go to school and get a job. The system has finally caught up with Megan. After years away from school and job, she is required to attend classes for fifteen hours a week. For each hour of �non-participation,� according to state guidelines, Megan�s monthly �paid-for-performance check� will be reduced by $4.25.

Megan has been referred to the LVA family literacy program. Here, adults work on reading, math, writing, and other basics in preparation for taking high school equivalency tests and improving employability. The importance of community partnerships at the base of family literacy is immediately seen, since the ABE (adult basic education) instructor in charge of the class has been provided through negotiations with one of the key partners, the Evergreen Valley Technical College (EVTC).

Throughout the morning, LVA volunteer tutors meet with individual students to work on basic skills. In the afternoon adults attend a parenting class taught by another ABE instructor. Regularly scheduled special visits bring adults and their children together in the school or community, for perhaps a story hour or a puppet show�or time to work on writing a book together. As the child dictates the story, the parent serves as scribe, creating a handwritten version of the story to appear beside the child�s illustration in LVA�s annual published book, Animal Tales. Literacy and parenting are two chambers at the heart of the family literacy program.

Collaborating on a book chapter might be good for Megan and her five-year-old daughter, Kimberly. There are hints of trouble in their relationship. Maybe Megan yells too much. Maybe Kimberly disobeys too often. Maybe Megan doesn�t care enough.

�I had Kimberly and a son with my first husband,� Megan says. She brings Kimberly to the LVA daycare in the morning, and then during the lunch break drives her to a kindergarten across town. Megan narrates these facts in a low-pitched, clear voice, her gaze direct, her face impassive. She shifts in her chair when she talks about the son. �Before he was born, his father ran out on us. I had to put him up for adoption.� Her voice softens, and her eyes avert momentarily to the corners of the room. �I�m still in therapy over that.�

Suddenly she shifts again. �Then I had Jason with my second husband.� Fifteen-month-old Jason is cared for by an aunt, who, Megan is quick to assert, runs a certified daycare. �The hardest part about coming to school is leaving Jason. Even if they took babies that young in the daycare downstairs, I couldn�t bring him. Me and him would be glued together for the day.�

The state pays for child care and medical assistance, as well as for the instruction � as long as Megan has not completed high school. Through the family literacy program, Megan is making excellent progress toward receiving her HSED (high school equivalency diploma). The math is harder for her, but just last week, when a score of 40 would have been enough, she passed the reading section of the GED (general education development) test with an impressively high score of 56.

In this region, Pope County Human Services is the agency that determines who receives medical assistance, food stamps, aid for child care, and subsidy of educational programs. Under recent changes in welfare in this county, employment is the number one priority, and any education is undertaken concurrently. Employed parents are now responsible to co-pay for child care; as the parents� income increases, their ability to receive subsidy for child care will decrease. As the number of hours of required employment increases to 30 or 40 hours per week, juggling in education after work will be more problematic. For now, however, Megan can benefit from educational opportunities still in place during the transitional phases of welfare reform.

Is it a good thing for welfare recipients to be �forced� to come back to school and to upgrade for employability? An LVA social worker smiles and nods, �Yes. In many cases this approach works well. In Megan�s, for example.� But the problem arises when parents can�t stay long enough. �It would be a shame if Megan had to leave family literacy too soon,� the social worker says, �when she�s had her first taste of success and her attitude is just beginning to change toward the positive. Kimberly is doing so well. It�s a nurturing environment. It helps a person build self-esteem.�

Evidently Megan is not fully aware that the door recently reopened for her through �schooling� will be swiftly shut � before any substantive prize can be claimed on the other side. Still in the habit of despising those who �force� her to attend school, Megan seems only partly aware that she is beginning to enjoy the vision of a future for herself. When the class works on an employability unit, Megan voices a plan, �I�d like to go to the technical college. I�m interested in police science.�

Megan�s husband has a full-time job as a cook and dishwasher at Skyler�s Cafeteria, a popular restaurant offering �all you can eat� for $7.50. Megan says, �This is the first time someone I was married to had a job.�

The husband�s job performance is monitored by the Human Services case worker �that got him working.� Megan explains that her husband also checks in regularly with his probation officer. He also goes to NA. �That�s Narcotics Anonymous,� she says. �He�s been clean of alcohol and drugs for nine months.�

Megan�s husband is proud of her. �He�s great. He helps with the dishes, puts the kids to bed if I do have to study. He wanted to celebrate Friday night when I passed that GED test, but I said �no.� Not until the entire test is done.�