By Josie Hathway

On July 1, Louisiana, Texas, Kentucky, Florida, New Jersey, Vermont, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Utah officially ended operations of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) and implemented the new workforce law – the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA). WIA replaces JTPA, the law that governed our nation’s employment and training system since 1982. Pennsylvania, Nevada, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Massachusetts and Oregon are not far behind the first nine. All states must implement WIA by July 1, 2000.

The intent of the new law is to sweep away old employment and training systems and usher in a national network of locally-driven, seamless workforce development systems that are truly responsive to the needs of employers and leverage economic growth. Mayors of cities that have been designated as service delivery areas (SDA’s) are at the helm of their local workforce development system. They appoint the workforce investment boards (WIBs), are fiscally responsible and guide and approve the strategies designed by the WIB to meet the community’s economic development goals and employment-related needs. Acquiring, training and retaining workers is more critical now than ever in order to keep businesses competitive and feed the economic engines of metropolitan areas that are driving our nation’s economic prosperity.

It is rumored that some states including Ohio, Colorado, West Virginia and Maine are considering setting up systems where the metro-regional economies are not in the driver’s seat. Rather, the state would become one large service delivery area (SDA) where services are contracted to the multitude of counties in that state – similar to the current welfare system. Some of these states may be considering this due to the lack of funds. The Act did not provide for a sub-state hold harmless allocation, as in current law, which would ensure that no local area would be severely affected by new funding allocations under WIA. An informal survey of the U. S. Conference of Mayors Employment and Training Council (ETC) indicates that many cities will be impacted by a significant reduction in funds, although other cities will have a significant increase.

Some of the legislators who authored the Act are also concerned about the hold harmless issue which was expressed in the WIA hearing on July 1 called by Senator Michael Enzi (WY), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s Subcommittee on Employment, Safety and Training. Senator Paul Wellstone (MN) reported that 11 out of 17 local SDAs in his state will loose funding because of the lack of a sub-state hold harmless and will have to close or severely curtail operations. Wellstone committed to work with the Chairman to support a legislative fix on the lack of a sub-state hold harmless in WIA.

The other needed legislative fix to WIA, raised by Senator Enzi, was allowing youth who are eligible for free school lunch to be eligible for services under WIA. The Conference of Mayors ETC has recommended a technical amendment and Senator Enzi offered his support. Also discussing youth issues was ETC Board Member, Terry Hudson of Houston Works. Hudson emphasized the success of the Youth Opportunity (YOA) grant program in Houston, a successful pilot demonstration block grant targeted to concentrated areas of poverty to lift unemployed youth who have dropped out of school into the economic mainstream. He urged Congress to expand YOA under WIA to address the critical needs of our youth across this nation.

Hudson also delivered a message from Houston Mayor Lee Brown. "New programs have been designed and implemented to address many of the problems confronting our young citizens. I am pleased to support the programs that the Department of Labor has initiated to address the problem of youth unemployment. The Kulick Youth Opportunity Grant has been extremely successful in Houston. The youth in the program have found jobs, continued their education and have a new pride in themselves. More programs are needed to continue ensuring that all youth have the opportunity to be the best that they can be."

Senator Mike DeWine (OH), who was key in passing WIA and has since moved to another committee, testified emphasizing the importance of business as the driver for the system because of the major economic problem in our country – the skills gap. Robert Jones, CEO of National Alliance of Business, echoed DeWine’s comments urging, "We have a rare opportunity to successfully engage the business community in a demand-driven system under this legislation. The economic environment is positive. There are tight labor markets everywhere…The challenge for us all is can WIA fit into a system needed by business, and can it provide high-value skills for the participants it serves?"

Assistant Secretary Raymond Bramucci, Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) assured the panel that WIA will deliver. In his travels across the country over the past year, Bramucci has witnessed great momentum for WIA by stakeholders at every level. A major focus for Bramucci is making workforce development responsive and seamless at the federal level. He stated, "The next twelve months will be a crucial period for the implementation of WIA. Over the next year we will be working with other Federal agencies to address any obstacles to effective implementation and seamless service that exist at the Federal level."