A lesson from the JOBS program: Reforming welfare must be both dazzling and dull

The Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS) program created by the Family Support Act (FSA) of 1988 made considerable progress in expanding opportunities for welfare recipients to go to school, train for employment, and seek work. Yet federal and state officials sought further welfare reform because they were impatient with a program that was costly and produced little evidence of positive outcomes; they realized that the FSA did not address perverse incentives in the AFDC program; and they saw political gains to be reaped from reform itself. It concludes that successful reform requires leaders who can articulate a vision of welfare that dazzles enough to motivate many layers of actors and who can pay attention to the dull management details of implementing it.