By Melissa Grothus
February 12, 2007

Mayors’ workforce directors from across the country gathered in Washington (DC), January 24-26, for The U.S. Conference of Mayors Workforce Development Council (WDC) Annual Winter Meeting, held in conjunction with the 75th Annual Conference of Mayors Winter Meeting.

WDC President Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board CEO Sallie Glickman presided over the session, which focused on reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), Department of Labor appropriations, and preparing the future workforce for a 21st century global economy.

“For the first time I can recall, people actually don’t think the next generation will be better off,” Congressman John F. Tierney (MA) told the group in his keynote address. According to Tierney, a member of the House Education and Labor Committee, Congress will look to WIA reauthorization as a way of answering America’s uncertainty over the future.

“If reauthorization is not tackled early in the 110th Congress,” Tierney said, “it could well be overshadowed by reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act and the Higher Education Act.”

“It looks like the Senate is ready to move a little more quickly on this than the House,” he continued, “but George Miller [Chair of the House Education and Labor Committee] is truly one of the finest members of Congress, and I know that he wants to fully examine the issues regarding reauthorization of this legislation and I believe that he is committed to moving this bill before the end of the summer.”

“The Administration’s original proposal would have taken away local control of the workforce system and put it under the control of governors,” Tierney continued. “I assure you that the new bill will not include this language and there will be no threat of privatization. You can definitely expect a more comprehensive data collection system and more accountability under the new legislation — and youth will be a main component, as well as language in order to help veterans and persons with disabilities integrate into the workforce system.”

In closing, Tierney indicated his intent to work for full restoration of WIA program funding. “WIA boards struggle year in and year out with severe cuts to their budgets,” he said. “$11 million dollars an hour is spent in Iraq, and we can’t find the money to put people in jobs.”

Echoing Tierney’s observation, J. D. LaRock, Majority Senior Education Policy Advisor, and Beth Buehlman, Minority Education Policy Director for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, both indicated that Committee Chairman Senator Edward M. Kennedy (MA) and Ranking Member Senator Michael Enzi (WY), are ready to move forward in a bi-partisan fashion on WIA reauthorization legislation. “Senator Kennedy plans to use last year’s Senate-passed bill, S. 1021, Workforce Investment Act Amendments of 2005, as a starting point,” LaRock said in his remarks to the WDC.

According to both LaRock and Buehlman, Kennedy and Enzi hope to reauthorize WIA early in the first session of the 110th Congress, as it is now in the fourth year of reauthorization, and stands to be overshadowed by reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act and the Higher Education Act.

Movement in the House isn’t expected to be as timely as in the Senate according to Michele Varnhagen, Majority Labor Counsel, House Committee on Education and Labor, who also addressed the group. “We plan to start with field hearings in March,” she said.

With respects to its consideration of WIA reauthorization, the House intends to start with an entirely new bill, as last year’s House bill, H.R. 27, Job Training Improvement Act, passed by a vote of 224-220, and is considered a partisan bill.

While there is no plan to make radical changes to the system, the House does intend to make current programs more efficient and successful, according to Varnhagen.

James Bergeron, Counsel to the Committee’s Ranking Member Howard “Buck” McKeon (CA) also addressed the group. “While we plan to start with a new bill, Rep. McKeon is fully committed to WIA reauthorization and plans to work in a bi-partisan manner,” he said.

WDC members also heard from John Colbert, Partner, Ross, McGee, Bradley, and Colbert, on legislative strategies for movement on reauthorization. His presentation provided an overview of how the changes in Congress will impact the local workforce development system over the coming year.

More than ever, the issue of global competitiveness and preparedness has become a key focus of the WDC. Marc Tucker, Vice-Chairman and Staff Director of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce addressed this concern with an overview of the Commission’s newest report, Tough Choices or Tough Times.

According to Tucker, this report reveals that the dynamics of the global economy will lead to a steady decline in the American standard of living if this country does not undertake the first complete overhaul of its education system in a century.

“With the proposals set forth by the Commission in this report, we can graduate 95 percent of our students (not two-thirds, as we do now) after 12 years and the majority after only 10 years of grade school,” Tucker said.

“In addition billions of dollars can be saved by changing the way students progress through the grades. The money saved can be used to build high quality early childhood education systems, attract the best and brightest teachers, and provide the resources for even the most disadvantaged students to reach world class standards,” he said. Additional information on the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce can be found at http://skillscommission.org.

Continuing the discussion on workforce preparedness, Doug Levin, Senior Director of Education Policy at Cable in the Classroom, and Barbara Stein, Manager of External Partnerships and Advocacy at the National Education Association, outlined the collaborative effort behind the Partnership for 21st Century Skills that defines a vision for education to ensure every child’s success in the 21st century workforce. According to Levin, “The U.S. is falling behind and we need our students to become effective 21st leaders.” The Partnership encourages schools, districts and states to advocate for the integration of 21st century skills into education and provides tools and resources to help facilitate and drive change. In closing, Levin reiterated the importance of integrating 21st century skills in the classroom, “As many of you know the threat is out there. As Thomas Friedman said in the World is Flat, ‘parents used to tell their children to eat their dinner because children in India are starving. Now they say study hard because children in India and China are starving for your job.’” For more information on the Partnership for 21st Century Skills visit the website http://www.21stcenturyskills.org.

The final panel focused on successfully linking education and the workforce with an in-depth examination of the America’s Promise/CVS Pharmacies “Pharmacies of Promise” initiative.

Nancy Volpe, member of CVS Pharmacies Government Programs, gave an overview of the program and encouraged the WDC members to find out information for their own local areas. “Through this innovative initiative, CVS Pharmacies supports the hiring, training, development, and retention of quality pharmacy technicians; and allows for a clear career ladder that many students may have never known,” Volpe said. In addition, WDC members heard from two local areas already involved in the “Pharmacies of Promise” initiative. Allison Motz, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development in Cleveland, explained that while the project is newly incepted in her city and have run into a few obstacles, she is “optimistic about the investment in human capital”. Similarly, Susan Gilbert, Interim Director of the D.C. Department of Employment Services has been working with “Pharmacies of Promise” for several years now and explains that it “raises the level of what people can expect from a One-Stop.” In her final remarks, Gilbert concluded that, “This isn’t your typical training program - it is in fact making investment in human capital a priority.”