More Training Means More Jobs

Americans should continue training people for good jobs to help people achieve the skills they need to compete in this economy.  The biggest concern is about the nation lessening its commitment to job training in the middle of a recession.  Urban League is one of the last free service providers whose mission is to serve people.   They serve many people who are not prepared for college.  They need a GED, they want an occupational skill, and they want something less than college to get in the workforce.  I believe that job training is a worthy public investment.  It is more productive than continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to invest in training people here for the jobs for tomorrow.

We have to embrace on one level globalization, that we are in a global economy and there’s nothing we can do that is going to stop the globalization of the economy.  I do think that there is a growing awareness that we have allowed a lot of good paying jobs to migrate abroad.  Those manufacturing and productive capacities that have migrated abroad would not survive without American consumer.  We have to learn about the power with our dollar and our power in how we spend and whom we spend money with.  I truly believe that we need awareness about how we spend our dollars in ways that are going to multiply for the American economy.

Summer jobs program is an excellent idea we’ve been literally pounding our fists on the table for the last two years saying we’ve got to put young people to work.  It’s going to help the economy but also it’s a vote of confidence at a time when demoralization and disenchantment and alienation are on the rise.  So I think that it’s a good plan. 

Though the plight of our unemployed is truly dire, it is essential that we overhaul our existing web of overlapping and inefficient job training undertakings before we initiate yet another questionable program.  At the best, our country’s job training programs appear wasteful and extremely questionable value.  At the worst, they provide cover for the failings of our public schools.  Though Republicans and Democrats are at loggerheads over whether to spend less or spend more, surely we can agree on the need to spend smarter.  Job training would be an excellent place to start.

The Trouble of Education Funding

The battle towards Education funding has been going on for years.  In Texas, school finance lawsuits date back to 1960s.  Since that time, districts have sued the state over for its school finance system a few times for various reasons.  According to the editorial article posted in American Statesman on Oct. 12th, a coalition of Texas school districts that included Pflugerville, Hutto and Taylor, sued the state, arguing that the school finance system is unfair, inefficient and unconstitutional.  Lawmakers slashed $4 billion from public education, the first decrease in per-student funding in Texas since World War II.  Additionally, the Legislature cut $1.3 billion from schools by eliminating state education grants, including programs that helped struggling students succeed on high-stakes tests and that backed full-day prekindergarten.  They said the cuts were necessary to balance the budget with $23 billion shortfall.  As we all know, there was plenty of money left in the state's rainy day fund, about $7 billion, which should have been sued to pay for public education.

I agree with the editor regarding the issue for low funding in public education.  Education should be a priority especially in today's economy.  Without proper funding for education, it will be very difficult to provide the exemplary education that students need to be able to succeed in this society.  Teachers need adequate resources to be able to teach properly.  From what I understand, we have the rainy day fund that allows states to set aside excess revenue for use in times of unexpected revenue shortfall or budget deficit.  The Texas Constitution says money from the fund can be spent to prevent or eliminate a temporary cash deficiency in general revenue.  With the state facing a budget shortfall estimated somewhere between $15 billion and $27 billion, some say if it isn't going to rain now, it isn't ever going to.

The only downfall I can see from using this fund is that nobody knows for sure how long this economic downturn will last.  If the fund is sucked dry, there will be nothing left if things get worse or if the economy doesn't recover quickly enough.  Bottom line, we seem to have sufficient funds to help the Education funding deficit, however, the money we have doesn't seem to be spent wisely and evenly.  Some school districts are funded more compare to others, which is really unfair.  Someone needs to re-evaluate the amount of expenses we have towards education and divide it evenly depending on each school district's necessity.