By Kathy Amoroso
June 29, 2009

"As our economy continues to shift, more than half of all new jobs being created require a post'secondary education or advanced training," Hilary Pennington, Director of Special Initiatives at the Gates Foundation told mayors on June 13 in Providence at the Jobs, Education and the Workforce Standing Committee.

Committee Chair St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay shared the important way that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is working to reduce inequity and increase opportunity in the U.S. — ensuring that high school students graduate with the skills they need to succeed in college.

"But what else should we be doing beyond our work in high school to increase opportunity in this country?" Pennington asked the mayors. "The rate of high school graduates in the U.S. who attend college continues to rank among the highest in the world, but college completion rates have remained flat since 1970. In the United States today, there are millions of young adults — especially low-income young adults — who have both the ability and desire to continue their education past high school. However, they are stalled by limited access to affordable, quality options and competing demands for their time and energy."

"A post'secondary credential is the best bridge between poor students and good jobs," Pennington continued. "Unless we dramatically increase the number of students who earn a post'secondary degree, it will be difficult for students from all backgrounds to get jobs and attain middle-class lifestyles."

Enrolling young adults in college is not enough, according to Pennington. Mayors must work to increase the number of students who finish college. "Mayors have the unique opportunity to galvanize organizations around this issue." The payoff comes when students get post'secondary degrees that help them get jobs with family wages.

She proposed five things that mayors could do to achieve this: 1) Set a measurable goal of double post'secondary attainment and track progress against that goal; 2) Continue leadership on high school reform to ensure kids are prepared for post'secondary education; 3) Use the bully pulpit to say it is wrong if kids don't graduate from high school ready to learn; 4) Support innovations that accelerate attainment of a post'secondary degree; and 5) Engage the business community and education institutions to help reach the goal.

Dennis Zimmerman, Executive Director of the CompTIA Educational Foundation also addressed the mayors, outlining the Foundation's Creating IT Futures initiative.

"The CompTIA Educational Foundation provides career opportunities for individuals who historically have been under-represented in the IT workforce. With the support of individuals, industry leaders, companies and the government, the Foundation creates programs aimed at helping U.S. veterans, at-risk youth, women, minorities, dislocated workers, and individuals with disabilities to obtain the technical and business skills employers require. Since its creation in 1998, the Foundation has helped more than 1,000 individuals enter the IT workforce, helping the industry alleviate its shortage of skilled workers," Zimmerman explained.

Jobs, Education and the Workforce Committee adopted the following resolutions:

• Strengthening Workforce Development — urges the federal government to strengthen the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) by significantly increasing its funding and ensuring a continued strong Summer Youth program to address the crisis in youth employment.

• Competitive Workforce — outlines that The United States Conference of Mayors adopts as its policy the actions called for by the mayors in the National Action Agenda on Poverty including timely reauthorization of WIA and full funding of its programs; the workforce system partnering with education agencies; and a new summer youth employment initiative.

• Investing in America's Youth — calls on Congress to make a sustained major investment in our nation's youth; and that this regular investment provide funding for a new stand-alone, non-means tested Summer Jobs initiative.

• Support the Youth Prison Reduction Through Opportunities, Mentoring, Intervention, Support and Education Act (Youth Promise Act) — affirms support for the Youth PROMISE Act and calls upon the United States Congress to enact it in the 111th Congress.

• Supporting an Increase in the Development of Green Jobs Through Green Jobs Training — calls upon the U.S. Congress to fund the $125 million authorized for Green Jobs Training programs passed in the Green Jobs Act for FY 2009 as stated in H.R. 1781.

• American Investments to Solve Environmental and Energy Challenges and Create New Jobs in America — outlines that the Conference of Mayors adopts as its policy on American Investments called for by the mayors in the National Action Agenda on Environment and Energy to: urge the President and Congress to fully fund the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program at the authorized level; increase federal funding commitments to public transit; and green the U.S. Tax Code.

• Encouraging the Establishment of Green Reentry Programs — calls on the U.S. Congress to provide incentives to local and state governments to train persons in custody and subject to court supervision in new and emerging fields and assist them to obtain jobs in such fields, and to provide maximum authorized funding for Green Jobs Act Grants, especially the "Green Pathways out of Poverty" Program and the Second Chance Act Grants for FY 2010; and encourages Conference members to develop innovative strategies to include ex-offenders in the expanding "green" economy.

• Making Green Schools a Reality — reconfirms the Conference's commitment to the goal that in a generation every child in America will attend a green school; and that the Conference of Mayors endorses and is dedicated to working toward the passage of the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act (H.R. 2187).

• Mayoral Leadership and Involvement In Education — urges state and local governments to encourage the engagement of mayors in education in both circumstances where there is mayoral control and informal mayoral engagement.

• Endorsing the President's Education Plan — states that The U.S. Conference of Mayors endorses the President's education plan, as presented by the Secretary of Education, to the Mayors' National Forum on Education.

• Policy Review to Reduce the High School Drop-out Rate and Provide More Engaging Education — urges the U.S. Department of Education to undertake a wide-ranging study of those policies and practices which may enhance the educational experience and completion rates of all U.S. high school students, particularly those groups which are currently most likely to drop out.

• Expanding Investments in Coordinated Full-day Learning Strategies to Ensure the Healthy Development of Youth — calls for federal, state and local levels of government to invest in coordinated full day learning strategies that incorporate academic, social, emotional and physical activities to ensure the well-rounded and healthy development of youth.

• Expanding School Choice Through Increased Support for High Quality Public Charter Schools — recognizes the contribution of public charter schools in expanding high quality educational options and urges the federal government to strengthen its investment in high quality public charter schools.

• Supporting Family Literacy — recommends that federal, state, and local governments expand their support for family literacy programs.

• American Investments to Combat Poverty — resolves that the Conference of Mayors adopts as its policy the investments called for by the mayors in the National Action Agenda on Poverty to: triple the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC); double funding for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG); and increase funding for the Section 8 housing voucher program and for restoration of the HOPE VI program for severely distressed housing developments.

• Poverty — resolves that the Conference of Mayors adopts as its policy the actions called for by the mayors in the National Action Agenda on Poverty to: create a cabinet-rank position to direct, coordinate and promote poverty reduction programs; increase funding for universal pre-K and other early childhood programs; provide universal healthcare for children and families; greatly expand financial literacy programs to meet a critical need in this particularly difficult economic climate; and use a significant portion of revenues from federally imposed fines, penalties and fees on financial institutions to fund local financial education programs and initiatives.

• Require the Earned Income Tax Credit to Be Calculated by the Internal Revenue Service to Better Accommodate Working Families and Individuals — calls on Congress to reform the process of applying for the Earned Income Tax Credit by requiring the Internal Revenue Service to provide the calculation for EITC, so that the benefits available to lower income families and individuals will be increased, simplified, and easier to access.

• Supporting the Creation of the White House Task Force on Middle Class Working Families — supports the creation of the White House Task Force on Middle-Class Working Families and the Task Force's efforts to work throughout the federal government to develop policies to expand education and workforce training, improve work and family balance, restore labor standards and protect working families income and retirement security.

• Investing in America's Communities — calls on Congress to make a major investment in our nation's low-income communities, individuals and families by reauthorizing the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) this year.

• Encouraging Volunteerism — congratulates Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the passage of the Serve America Act, and urges local elected officials to encourage volunteerism among their employees and to promote volunteer opportunities in their communities.