Learnfare Fails To Boost Attendance, New Study Finds

Learnfare, Wisconsin's pioneering effort to link public assistance to school attendance, has not resulted in improved attendance among students whose families are on welfare, the first comprehensive study of the program has found.

The federally commissioned study, released this month, has drawn criticism from state and federal officials, who question some of its research methods and argue that some of the data do not support its conclusions. The Wisconsin secretary of health and social services also has called it "biased" from a liberal perspective.

Nevertheless, the study by the Employment and Training Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is believed to be the most thorough examination so far of a program linking welfare benefits to school attendance, a concept already adopted in Ohio and being eyed...