By Kathy Amoroso, Juliette Jardim, and Anthony Zei
September 28, 2009

Over 100 workforce development professionals from across the country gathered in Washington (DC) on September 21-22 for the 21st Annual Conference of Mayors Workforce Development Council (WDC) Congressional Forum. Forum participants discussed the outcomes of, as well as issues and concerns raised by, this year’s Summer Jobs program, funded under the Recovery Act, and to hear from Department of Labor officials and other Washington insiders about Workforce Investment Act reauthorization, President Obama’s community college initiative, the RAISE UP act and other workforce development issues before this Congress.

Through the Recovery Act, more than 226,000 of the nation’s young people had the opportunity to participate in meaningful summer employment this year. After a decade without dedicated federal funding, the stimulus funds provided opportunities to create real work for thousands of the nation’s youth, while at the same time, support career readiness programs such as skills training and mentoring activities for tens of thousands of youth that will continue year-round. These opportunities would not have existed otherwise.

“The Conference of Mayors has long advocated for reinstatement of a federal Summer Jobs program,” said WDC President KentuckianaWorks Executive Director Michael Gritton, who presided over the meeting. “What we have on our hands is a teen unemployment crisis. We have witnessed a steady decline in teen employment rates from 45 percent in the year 2000 to a mere 29 percent in 2009. If we don’t act soon, the situation will only get worse.”

The meeting, held in partnership with Jobs for the Future, opened with a joint strategizing session featuring remarks from Jobs for the Future Workforce and Education Strategies Group Vice President Ray Uhalde and Senior Counsel John Colbert.

“The recession appears to be over, but recovery is a slow process. Unemployment is going to be a major focus of Congress, particularly how to address it,” said Colbert. “This Administration is much more interested in job training and workforce development than any Administration has been for a long time. This is good news and bad news. It means our issues are being talked about, but it brings a lot of interests into play in our world.”

Department of Labor Assistant Secretary Jane Oates provided the keynote address for the Forum, in which she praised attendees for their hard work and determination in quickly turning out a successful Summer Jobs program. “We would have never seen such youth employment without your hard work in cities across the country. You make it easy to be an advocate for summer youth jobs in 2010,” said Oates.

“I’m only recognizing your work because it was a success…I would just as easily have criticized you if you had failed,” she continued, employing her customary “tough love.” Oates went on to outline the elements of the program’s success: 1) Summer Jobs put money in the pockets of both kids and their families, which she noted as exceptional at a time when most families were facing diminished incomes; 2) the program afforded actual job and work-readiness skills, something often lacking in minimum wage retail or food service positions; 3) those skills helped participants build their resumés, leading to a step-up in the post'secondary education job hunt; and 4) exposure to the heightened expectations of the job world resulted in youth taking their studies more seriously. “The young people who participated in this year’s Summer Jobs program are now more likely to join the workforce, and these are the kids we are counting on to pay OUR social security,” she said.

In closing, Oates outlined the Summer Jobs program’s positive impacts on juvenile crime rates in cities by keeping kids out of trouble. “We literally dodged bullets by mitigating the impact of mass youth unemployment in many violent cities, which made for a kinder gentler summer,” she said.

House and Senate Appropriations staff then briefed the group on FY 2010 Labor-HHS appropriations and the outlook for FY 2011. Mark Laisch, Majority Professional Staff for the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Labor-HHS, and Stephen Steigleder, Majority Professional Staff for the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Labor-HHS, noted that both the House and Senate and the House have demonstrated their intent to make a “robust investment in workforce investment,” by expanding funding for “green” and healthcare jobs in 2010.

“This workforce system knows how to serve individuals, get them into the right jobs and knows how to train,” said Laisch. “The Recovery Act was your opportunity to show that the system is effective.” Appropriators intend to keep other workforce funding relatively constant in 2010, he advised WDC members, in order to address higher priorities such as reducing the deficit and health care reform.

The next presenter was Martha Coven, Special Assistant to the President in the Domestic Policy Council’s Office of Mobility and Opportunity, where she is charged with policy initiatives regarding education and training. She outlined President Obama’s intent to support five million new college graduates by 2019 through his new American Graduation Initiative: Strengthening Community Colleges, part of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), H.R. 3221 recently passed in the House.

The legislation provides $9.5 billion for community colleges, broken down into three programs: 1) $2.5 billion is provided in FY2011 for grants to community colleges to repair, renovate and modernize their facilities; 2) $6.3 billion is provided over ten years for the Community College Challenge Grant Program (the program will offer competitive grants geared towards community colleges during the first four years and targeted to states during the remaining six years); and 3) $700 million is provided for competitive grants designated for national activities, including grants to develop free online courses and training.

Participants were also briefed on Senator Debbie Stabenow’s recently introduced Reengaging Americans in Serious Education by Uniting Programs (RAISE UP) Act, S. 1608. The legislation provides support targeted to youth who have dropped out of high school, assisting them in attaining a high school diploma, a post'secondary credential, and a career.

The Act unites education, workforce and youth support services by funding community partnerships in the three categories to create a dropout recovery system. The measure targets disadvantaged young adults including youth with disabilities, those in foster care and homeless and runaway youth. Funding priority is directed towards communities with high dropout rates, high youth unemployment rates and large populations of youth from low-income families. The legislation is authorized at $1 billion.

Congressional staff on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee closed the meeting with an update on Workforce Investment Act (WIA) reauthorization. “We’ve conducted numerous listening sessions with key stakeholders in which we’ve asked them to review the legislation and ask themselves, if WIA was a burning building: what would you save and take out of the building, what would you let burn, and what things would you rebuild to make new?” asked David Johns, Education Policy Advisor to the Senate HELP Committee.

Crystal Bridgeman, Majority Professional Majority Staff for the Senate HELP Committee outlined Employment and Workplace Safety Subcommittee Chair Senator Patty Murray’s priorities regarding WIA. “Her goal is to see a bill passed by the end of this Congress, meaning early next year,” she said. She described the Senator as a “champion” of the local workforce system, and expressed her strong belief in its value. Her specific workforce priorities include Summer Jobs; a career pathways approach to connect individuals to careers, not just jobs; regional growth strategies to connect larger regional and community growth plans; and a dual customer approach to address the future needs of both employer and employee.

Beth Buehlmann, Minority Education Policy Director for the Senate HELP Committee advised WDC members to focus on connecting the workforce and community college systems. “We’re looking at links between education and workforce,” she emphasized, “creating a system that’s more seamless with respect to the individual.”

In closing, Bridgeman encouraged attendees to send their success stories to Senator Murray. “It’s the individual stories that make a difference with policymakers,” she said.