Employment and Training Council Addresses Summer Jobs 2000 Crisis, Youth Funding and City Workforce Issues

By Josie Hathway

Mayors’ workforce development representatives and other professionals from cities across the country gathered at the Employment and Training Council (ETC) Annual meeting held in conjunction with The U.S. Conference of Mayors 68th Winter Meeting in Washington, DC. Summer Jobs 2000 dominated the agenda because many cities are facing a two-thirds reduction in the number of youth served this summer and ETC members are accountable to mayors to manage this crisis. The new requirements of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) – year-round comprehensive services for youth – have doubled the cost of services and the unintended consequence is a significant reduction in summer jobs.

Summer Youth Employment 2000

Raymond Uhalde, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), presented draft guidance for summer 2000 which was developed with input from the ETC. The guidance eases the requirements to allow for modest follow-up measures and a broad range of locally determined performance measures.

While the guidance provides relief, the cuts are still significant. Long Beach Mayor Beverly O’Neill, Chair of the Standing Committee on Jobs, Education and the Workforce, initiated an emergency resolution on youth employment for summer 2000 which was unanimously adopted by mayors. The resolution strongly supports an emergency supplemental appropriation to address the shortfall of funds needed to continue serving 500,000 youth (the same number served in summer of 1999) beginning with the implementation of WIA in the summer of 2000. It also advocates for increased funding in the Federal FY 2001 budget to meet the projected doubling of program costs resulting from the comprehensive and year-round requirements as called for in WIA. In her address to the mayors, Secretary Alexis Herman, U.S. Department of Labor, said that DOL had never planned for such a significant drop in numbers and committed to join with mayors to fight for more funding for youth.

Congress did not anticipate such drastic cuts either, according to Mary Gardner Clagget, Deputy Director for Policy on Workforce Development, National Center on Education and the Economy, and former staff of the House Education and the Workforce Committee. Clagget moderated the ETC WIA panel on emergency issues facing cities in WIA implementation. Jackie Edens, Commissioner of the Mayors Office of Workforce Development in Chicago, said that mayors support the richness of youth services in WIA, but that turning a system upside down in one summer, when mayors already are not serving enough youth, is a serious concern for this nation.  Commissioner Edens is responsible for managing a loss of approximately 10,000 summer youth jobs in Chicago. Clagget said mayors are key to getting Congress to support more youth funding.

Jane Oates, Minority Education Adviser, Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, agreed and said that the problem is that some Congressional staff continue to point to the “bad apples” in youth programs. Oates urged ETC to be more proactive with communications about the progressive enrichment of youth programs that mayors have implemented over the past few years. Oates believes that the breakthrough in money will come when cities show Congress the longitudinal impact of youth programs on kids. Oates said, “I am ashamed that we as an administration had more dollars in youth programs in 1993 than we do now in 2000”.

Barbara Chow, Associate Director, Education, Income Maintenance and Labor, Office of Management and Budget, listened attentively to ETC members describe the drops in numbers. The ETC urged DOL and the Administration to use their leadership to call on Governors to spend their 15 percent of WIA youth funds and TANF surplus to address the crisis for this summer and the ongoing needs of youth. Chow reinforced the Administration’s commitment to increase funding for youth.

According to Paul Harrington, Associate Director, Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University, summer jobs are critical for at-risk youth. Harrington stated that early work experience is a very powerful predictor of success and earnings in the labor market. Early work experience raises earnings over a lifetime by 10-12 percent (versus a one- percent net gain for attending an elite school).

Youth Programs

The ETC youth panel moderated by Lorenzo Harrison, Director, Youth Office at DOL described how cities are meeting the comprehensive needs of youth and indicated that local youth systems have never been better. Harrison said that quality of Youth Opportunity Grants applications is unmatched and reflects great progress in the system. Harrison committed to capitalizing on this progress by launching a study to investigate how to best transform public tax dollars on the local level to serve youth.

Karen Sitnick, Assistant Director of Youth Services, Mayor’s Office of Employment Development in Baltimore, said that Baltimore required potential members of their Youth Council to complete an application. Youth Councils are newly required under WIA. The applications reflected a deep commitment in the city to develop a comprehensive youth system. Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley will address the Youth Council at the first meeting. Upesi Mtambuzi, Director, City of Richmond Employment and Training in Richmond, CA, described Richmond Youth Works, a model youth system which incorporates every facet of the community including youth, faith-based organizations, city parks, welfare-to-work, the police activities league, school to careers, college readiness, family literacy, community-based organizations and the private sector. Jan Hennessey, Youth Director, of the New York Association of Training and Employment Professionals, presented New York’s Youth Council Tool Kit – a basic “how to” which is one of the first of its kind.

Other WIA Implementation Issues

Another pressing challenge for cities in implementing the mayor’s vision for WIA is the 10 percent administrative cost provision. The Conference has worked closely with DOL on revising the definition in the regulations and has asked for further refinement. Sue Cleere Flores, Assistant General Manager, Community Development Department, City of Los Angeles, who operates a larger de-centralized system, said that it will be very difficult for Los Angeles to come under the 10 percent limitation. The current definition requires administrative costs to apply to One-Stop operators, which are often multiple sub-contractors in larger cities. Uhalde indicated that DOL is still open to comment and will contact the larger cities to re-evaluate the definition. Thelma French, Executive Assistant to the Mayor, New Orleans, described the critical need for better partnerships between the state, local and regional levels in WIA implementation. French mentioned her frustration about lack of local input into state WIA plans. Many ETC members share this frustration.

Metro-Economies and the Labor Market

James Gillula, a Principal with Standard and Poor’s DRI, described the competitive advantages of metro-economies, a priority focus of the Conference of Mayors. “Since the competitive advantages of metro labor markets are available to the unemployed, investments in job training and education can have large returns,” Gillula said. Metro-economies have highly efficient labor markets, linkages between businesses in the production process, dense and diversified consumer markets and superior telecommunications and transportation networks. Labor market advantages for workers and employers are greater employment opportunities, access to specialized skills and a broad labor market pool for businesses. Metro-economies have high concentrations of untapped labor pools - 4.2 million. The ETC called for more data on central cities employment trends to distinguish the unique needs of the central city labor force.

One-Stops

Congress’ interest in workforce development, specifically One-Stops, is growing, according to D’Arcy Philps, House Committee on Education and Workforce. Philps said that though the House Committee will focus on education legislation this session, it is a good year to talk about the integration of other partners in one-stops, especially the welfare system (TANF). Committee staff are concerned that food stamp caseloads have dropped due to lack of information and see integration of TANF into the one-stop system as a solution. Philps asked for recommendations on coordination issues in welfare reform.

Welfare-to-Work

Dennis Lieberman, Director, Office of Welfare-to-Work (WTW) at DOL announced that the Administration is recommending a two year extension for spending WTW funds in the FY 2001 Budget in order to give cities and local areas an opportunity to fully implement WTW. Lieberman also introduced the Administration’s “Fathers Work/Families Win” initiative as an important next step in welfare reform and the logical extension of existing WTW funds. The proposal in the President’s FY 2001 budget will help non-custodial, low-income parents and families work and support their children. The initiative calls for $255 million per year - $125 million for non-custodial parents, $125 million for low-income families and $5 million for states to provide information through the one-stop system. Judy Taylor, Senior Project Manager, Jobs for the Future, described DOL’s big city WTW initiative which facilitates information exchange and best practices for ten cities. Representatives from the Welfare-to-Work Partnership also addressed the ETC with the message that they want to work in partnership with mayors and cities to market the advantages of WTW to the nation’s businesses.