To Be Equal…Bring back summer jobs for youths
http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/articlelive/articles/40650/1/To-Be-EqualBring-back-summer-jobs-for-youths/Page1.html
Marc H. Morial
By Marc H. Morial
Published on 05/8/2008
For more than 30 years, beginning in the 1960s, the federal government saw the enormous benefit of providing summer jobs to millions of disadvantaged youths across America. But since 2000, the Summer Youth Employment and Training Program, has lost its direct funding, and is now effectively buried among 10 competing programs within the Workforce Investment Act. With the economy reeling, unemployment soaring and the summer heat approaching, there is an urgent need to bring back summer jobs for youths.
To Be Equal…Bring back summer jobs for youths
For more than 30 years, beginning in the 1960s, the federal government saw the enormous benefit of providing summer jobs to millions of disadvantaged youths across America. But since 2000, the Summer Youth Employment and Training Program, has lost its direct funding, and is now effectively buried among 10 competing programs within the Workforce Investment Act. With the economy reeling, unemployment soaring and the summer heat approaching, there is an urgent need to bring back summer jobs for youths.
We know that a summer job experience not only puts much-needed money into the pockets of poor kids and sometimes into the budgets of their families, it also provides opportunities to gain valuable new skills, and can be a pathway to higher education and ultimately to tax paying citizenship. Investing in this effort returns tremendous dividends in reduced welfare dependency, fewer crimes, less incarceration and greater workforce productivity. For some youths, it can be a life-saving alternative to the world of gangs and drugs.
Earlier this year, in separate letters to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, I made, on behalf of the National Urban League, a strong case for including a “summer jobs stimulus” as part of the bipartisan economic stimulus package. For Black teens, a “summer jobs stimulus” is most urgent. In 2007, Black teens, aged 16-19, had an unemployment rate of 29.5 percent compared to 13.9 percent for white teens. The summer jobs stimulus did not make it into the final bill, but all is not lost.
Currently, both the House and the Senate have introduced bills, H.R. 5444 introduced by House Majority Whip James Clyburn and S. 2755 introduced by Sen. Patty Murray, that call for an immediate $1 billion commitment for youth summer jobs this year. While I support their efforts, the current state of our economy makes it clear that $1 billion is not enough. I implore them and Congress to increase that commitment to $2 billion.
The National Urban League has a historic commitment to securing summer jobs for low-income youths and ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to earn. In 2000, we joined a coalition of youths serving organizations, churches, city and county political associations, the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, all calling for Congress to provide emergency supplemental appropriations for summer jobs. And over the last two years, we’ve called for restoring the Summer Youth Jobs Program as a separate program under WIA to be funded with new monies.
For years “The Opportunity to Earn” has been one of the four components of the National Urban League’s Opportunity Compact. We believe that the federal government should act now to provide jobs to disadvantaged youths who want to work, who need to work and who are seeking alternatives to idleness and the dangers of the summer streets.
(Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League.)
We know that a summer job experience not only puts much-needed money into the pockets of poor kids and sometimes into the budgets of their families, it also provides opportunities to gain valuable new skills, and can be a pathway to higher education and ultimately to tax paying citizenship. Investing in this effort returns tremendous dividends in reduced welfare dependency, fewer crimes, less incarceration and greater workforce productivity. For some youths, it can be a life-saving alternative to the world of gangs and drugs.
Earlier this year, in separate letters to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, I made, on behalf of the National Urban League, a strong case for including a “summer jobs stimulus” as part of the bipartisan economic stimulus package. For Black teens, a “summer jobs stimulus” is most urgent. In 2007, Black teens, aged 16-19, had an unemployment rate of 29.5 percent compared to 13.9 percent for white teens. The summer jobs stimulus did not make it into the final bill, but all is not lost.
Currently, both the House and the Senate have introduced bills, H.R. 5444 introduced by House Majority Whip James Clyburn and S. 2755 introduced by Sen. Patty Murray, that call for an immediate $1 billion commitment for youth summer jobs this year. While I support their efforts, the current state of our economy makes it clear that $1 billion is not enough. I implore them and Congress to increase that commitment to $2 billion.
The National Urban League has a historic commitment to securing summer jobs for low-income youths and ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to earn. In 2000, we joined a coalition of youths serving organizations, churches, city and county political associations, the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, all calling for Congress to provide emergency supplemental appropriations for summer jobs. And over the last two years, we’ve called for restoring the Summer Youth Jobs Program as a separate program under WIA to be funded with new monies.
For years “The Opportunity to Earn” has been one of the four components of the National Urban League’s Opportunity Compact. We believe that the federal government should act now to provide jobs to disadvantaged youths who want to work, who need to work and who are seeking alternatives to idleness and the dangers of the summer streets.
(Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League.)