Utah's welfare reform efforts get an "F."

But researchers, advocates for the poor and state officials say the failing grade issued in a report from the Cato Institute today is misguided and based on myth.

"If you are looking at [the Cato report] as your measuring stick, then Utah did well to get an F," said Mary Beth Vogel-Ferguson, project director for the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) review study at the University of Utah. "It seems they've bought into the myths of welfare."

Utah was one of eight states and Washington, D.C., that received a failing grade from the institute - a Washington, D.C.-based, public policy research center founded on the "traditional American principle of limited government."

The report adds: "The greatest result welfare reform could produce would be the elimination of the welfare system."

But others view the welfare system as a safety net for the poor.

"[The reports' authors] don't want the government to be involved in the safety net," said Pamela Silberman, a welfare policy analyst for Utah Issues, a statewide poverty advocacy group. "We fundamentally disagree with that."

Welfare reform was implemented nationally in 1996. The best-known piece of the legislation was lifetime benefit limits, which vary from state to state.

Utah's welfare rolls have gone from a high of 18,000 cases in 1994 to about 9,600 cases in August.

The state's failing grade appears to be "due to the fact we are more flexible and less punitive," said Curt Stewart, a spokesman for the Utah Department of Workforce Services.

Although the report credits Utah for setting a lifetime limit of three years of cash assistance, when most states opted for five years, it concludes, "Utah's welfare reform program is not at all geared toward moving recipients into work and independence."

In October, Stewart notes, Utah received for the fifth year in a row a $3.5 million bonus for moving people into better-paying, lasting jobs.

The report knocks Utah for not reducing the number living in poverty, failing to reduce the teen birth rate and for not creating a "family cap" that discourages women from having additional children while on welfare.

The Department of Workforce Services funds a program that promotes abstinence and pregnancy prevention with TANF funds, said Sara Brenna, a program manager for the agency.

Utah received no points for its work to involve welfare recipients in basic education courses, English as a second language classes, job training and work searches.

Workforce Services isn't planning to change its program based on the results of the Cato report.

"We know we are doing the right thing," said Mike Richardson, the department's director of service delivery support.