What's At Stake With Workforce Investment Reauthorization Act

 

Did you know that:

•  One in six young people between ages 16 and 24 years old are unattached to work or school in America?    (Approximately 6.7 million“disconnected” youth)
• There are approximately 3.4 million young people who are “chronically disconnected,” having no attachment to school or the labor market since the age of 16.

And yet...

 

In June, the House Education and Workforce Committee passed a WIA Reauthorization Bill that would eliminate youth jobs and training.

 The Workforce Investment Improvement Act of 2012 (HR 4297) would cut employment and training services for approximately 250,000 young people across the nation. 

Quoting from CLASP, "This is the wrong direction for our country at a time when the youth unemployment rate is 16.1% - twice the rate of the general population."

Creating Multiple Pathways to Success for Transitional Youth

Source: Comments to U.S. Department of Education
Docket ID: ED-2012–OVAE–0014
Linda Harris and Kisha Bird, CLASP, July 2012

Led by the Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Department of Education, the Interagency Work Group on Disconnected Youth was established by the Obama Administration to advance national policy solutions for youth ages 16 to 24 who are disconnected from education, the workforce, and opportunity.   

As a part of this work, the Administration is advancing Performance Partnership Pilots designed to incentivize cross-systems approaches to serving the nation's 6.7 million disconnected youth. 

The Department of Education issued a Request for Information this summer to solicit input into development of the Performance Partnership Pilots as well as federal cross-agency policy development and funding decisions. 

This is what courage looks like...

A Shared Vision for Youth: Common Outcomes and Indicators

Interesting Reading: A Shared Vision for Youth: Common Outcomes and Indicators