Error processing SSI file
Cynthia Bell helps Carl Watts of Detroit learn to type at a Michigan Works! office. In 2002, Bell's agency, the Detroit Workforce Development Department, ran out of training funds in five months.Exclusive Report:Tax Cut Impact
Job training cuts shut some poor out of work
Federal reductions come as Michigan loses 241,000 jobs; training loss makes it harder to escape welfare
To pay for federal tax cuts, many programs that served the working poor were reduced or eliminated as the deficit grew. This report shows that the amount of money millions of Americans now pay for services ranging from child care to housing is greater than the amount they saved through the tax cuts.
Tamera Jackson works with a client at the Southeast Los Angeles Crenshaw Worksource Center. Federal job training budgets have dropped $597 million during the Bush administration.Sunday, Sept. 26: Hundreds of thousands of people across the nation who qualify for assistance are on waiting lists or get turned away when they apply for help with child care, meals and utility bills.
Monday, Sept. 27: A housing program that replaces dilapidated buildings has been cut, rent subsidies frozen and a public housing crime prevention program eliminated, leaving thousands of poor living in squalor, unsafe conditions or homeless.
Tuesday, Sept. 28: Even as the country lost jobs during the past two years, $600 million was cut from job-training programs designed to provide skills for the unskilled or unemployed. Federal financial aid grants have been frozen even as tuition has spiked at U.S. colleges.
Is the country better off?
Do you feel the federal tax cuts were worth the reduction in job-training programs, college financial grants and services for the working poor, such as assistance in housing, child care and food? Share your thoughts.
Nick Sridee, 4, tries to stay busy as mom Tina Meadow fills out applications and her partner, Songyos Sridee, searches the Internet for jobs at a one-stop jobs center in Canton, Ohio.
Willie Howard, left, and John Kodad attend a security guard training course at the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans in Boston. Those who complete training find jobs 90 percent of the time, but the shelter has lost federal funds in the past year.
Comment on this story
DETROIT — Michigan has lost 241,000 more jobs than it created since the country went into recession in March 2001 — the worst job deficit of any state in the nation.
This year, it also lost $6.2 million in federal funding for centers that train and provide assistance to the unemployed. Among those affected by this cut are the state’s poorest, many of whom lack the training and skills to compete in the workplace.
But cuts in job training programs within the Employment and Training Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor are not unique to Michigan.
Federal job training budgets have dropped $597 million during the Bush administration, making it more difficult for those living in poverty to find work and get off government assistance. Job training programs, rooted in the war on poverty, are critical elements of welfare-to-work initiatives.
The funding cuts, which have affected the poor and the suddenly unemployed alike, happened even as the nation experienced one of the longest employment slumps on record.
The funding cuts were made as Congress and the administration pushed through more than $600 billion in tax cuts that went primarily to those making more than $288,800. The money cut from job training is less than 1 percent of the tax breaks received this year by those earning an average of more than $1 million, according to an analysis of the Bush tax cuts by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, using data from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is a policy organization working at the federal and state levels on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals.
To offset the loss of the tax revenue, the administration has amassed record federal deficits and trimmed social spending.
Many programs are critical elements in welfare-to-work initiatives and were already badly underfunded.
The job training programs are among those that have been cut, frozen or scaled back during the Bush administration. America’s working poor have seen any benefits they received from the tax cuts eclipsed by the loss in services.
For example, the poor find it more difficult to obtain government help with affordable housing, child care or energy assistance. They are also more likely to experience hunger, homelessness and chronic need.
Seven job training programs have been cut or eliminated. Among them were programs that provided high-tech training and other job skills for seniors as well as youths.
One program that the president proposed eliminating for the third year in a row with no success is job training for migrant and seasonal farm workers. The program, which serviced 36,000 farmhands in 2002, still hovers around $77 million annually.
A program to train former inmates to re-enter the work force has lost $25 million. And although the president had asked for no funds for the program in the past two years, he has proposed a funding increase for it next year.
Funding for dislocated workers has fallen 15 percent since 2000 when adjusted for inflation, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Workforce Alliance.
At the same time, the government has shifted its focus away from training people for skilled jobs, the kind of work likely to result in long-term job security.
In 2002, education and training services for welfare recipients was half its mid-1990s level when adjusted for inflation, the alliance reports.
Detroit funds vanish
The budget for six Detroit “one-stop centers,” a federal job training and employment service, has fallen from $24.9 million last year to $19.9 million this year, according to Cynthia Bell, deputy director of the Detroit Workforce Development Department.
In 2002, her agency ran out of training funds in five months. Last year it ran out in nine. In an effort to offer some type of training to as many people as possible, the agency has started offering training vouchers to customers, who typically use them in short-term community college classes, she said. This increased the number of people who received training, although that training is less intensive than in past years, Bell said.
Even with the vouchers, Bell said she has 200 low-income people on the waiting list for job training services.
The city’s youths were even harder hit.
A decade ago, Bell’s agency offered summer jobs to about 13,000 teens. After funding cuts, Bell helped about 2,500 this year.
The decline in job training funds frustrates Sharon Parry, who operates a one-stop jobs center in Canton, Ohio.
“If I spend a dollar training somebody, I’m going to get $3 back from it,” she said. That’s because the programs reduce dependency on long-term government assistance and can make taxpayers out of the new workers, she said.
Many programs that focus on job training have been successful.
In Boston, for example, those who complete training services at the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans find jobs 90 percent of the time, said Vincent Maloney, vice president of operations at the shelter. Their courses teach veterans a range of skills from culinary arts to Microsoft certified network training.
Still, the shelter has lost federal funds and cut staff in the past year. That is in addition to a loss of state funds two years ago, said Steve Spain, executive director for administration and development.
“We are so far past cutting fat. We are into cutting bone and have been for two years,” he said.
Beyond the existing programs that have been cut or failed to keep up with needs, there are the ones that never get started.
In January 2003, for example, Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., introduced a bill intended to give at least 1 million unemployed workers $3,000 loans to use for job training, child care and other costs, such as moving expenses. As an incentive, those who found a job within 13 weeks would be allowed to keep any unspent funds, under the bill.
But the Back to Work Incentive Act, as it is known, stalled.
This year, President Bush proposed $250 million in spending for a new program called the Community-Based Job Training Grants and $50 million for Personal Re-Employment Accounts. But the administration will pay in part for these programs by cutting existing job-training programs.
The federal government overhauled its job-training programs in 1998, when lawmakers scrapped the longstanding Job Training Partnership Act and replaced it with the Workforce Initiative Act.
The new law featured two prominent changes. First, it focused the government’s job training and employment services through one-stop centers to streamline the process for those seeking work. Second, it emphasized moving people into jobs quickly at the expense of longer-term training.
In the last years of the old law, the government trained about 150,000 people nationwide. Today, the replacement programs provide training for about half that number. The reduced training comes at a time when the nation’s unemployment rate is up.
So, too, is the overall working-age population. Economists estimate that about 150,000 new adult workers enter the work force each month.
The economy has added 604,000 jobs since the recession ended in November 2001, according to the Labor Department. These figures lag behind the job growth predicted by the White House, which expected to create at least 1.4 million jobs by the end of this year.
One-stop centers primarily cater to three types of people: adults, youths and displaced workers. The centers’ initial emphasis is on placing those seeking their services in jobs, not training.
Some will require additional assistance, which can include helping customers prepare resumes and other basic skills needed for job interviews. Only after completing both services can customers actually receive job-training skills.
The “work first” approach, as it is known, can force unskilled workers to move from one low-paying job to another, said Audrey Holmes, vice president of operations for Southeast Los Angeles Crenshaw Worksource Center.
“It really doesn’t help someone with kids to put them in a job that pays $6 an hour,” she said. “People are just on a treadmill running after the unattainable. The person says, ‘Why am I working?’ They quit and go back on (welfare). We see a lot of that.”
Staff researcher Zena Simmons contributed to this report. You can reach Ronald J. Hansen at (313) 222-2019 or rhansen@detnews. com. You can reach Melvin Claxton at (313) 222-2154 or mclaxton@detnews.com.
Gail Wilson visits a jobs center in Canton, Ohio, in hopes of finding a job in human resources. Funding for one-stop jobs centers has decreased in the past year.
Copyright © 2004
The Detroit News.
Use of this site indicates your agreement to the Terms of Service (updated 12/19/2002).