Two and five. The idea of 'workfare' has been breached before to reduce endless dependency and return welfare to a safety net and not a vocation. Five years gets the one in the crib to preschool or Kindergarten. Then its time for mom to get (back?) to work. If she needs to update/improve her skill set, there are five years to do that through adult ed/GED and community college programs.
The time when that approach would have worked I think is now past. We have a different set of demographics than we did in 1995, and so I don't think you could get work fare through congress today.
Student loans: get the government out. The bankers would love a source of income, open it up to private investment and you'll do away with six year four year degrees in 'studies' programs that have very limited employment potential. I'm not saying to let the banks choose majors, but let them set interest rates and let loans based on the probability of repayment, much like the sort of risk assessment insurance companies. Engineering? High GPA? lower rates. Grievance studies? Low GPA? higher rates. This would encourage STEM studies, and better scholarship, which lead to better jobs and salaries more likely for the bank to get paid back.
This is a more plausible idea. Of all the ones mentioned, this is the closest to possible, but I still think the current congress wouldn't do it, and would claim to not even see the need to do it.
But we can nibble at this apple several different ways, and I think we need to do some of that.
Texas' efforts to create a $10,000.00 degree program is exactly the sort of thing we need to be doing. Also credentializing the Khan Academy and others like it would take some of the money out of "Higher" education.
The Selling of credentials at exorbitant prices is a long ongoing scam in this nation, and we need to be draining the profit out of it.