March 17, 2000

The Hon. Senator Paul Wellstone
136 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Wellstone:

As an organization dedicated to promoting the well being and positive development of our state's youth, we want to express to you our deep concern about the drastic reductions in the number of youth who will benefit this year from youth employment and training services.

Those service reductions are attributable to both the lack of sufficient funding for youth programs and the current transition to the Workforce Investment Act. An immediate concern for us is the resulting sharp reduction in the number of employment opportunities that will be available for youth across the nation this coming summer.

To address these urgent needs, Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota urges you to include a $500 million Emergency Supplemental Appropriation in FFY 2000 funding for the Workforce Investment Act's Youth Formula Program.

In 1998, Congress enacted the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) to re-engineer the labor market exchange and to promote a new vision for youth employment. WIA required longer-term and more comprehensive youth services informed by the latest research about effective practices. We support this move towards more comprehensive and long-term programs. Yet, while comprehensive programming is more effective, it is also more costly.

However, despite the approach advanced by WIA, the federal formula funding level for youth employment and training has remained constant since Congress enacted major cuts in the Job Training Partnership (JPTA) year-round youth program in 1995. Due to the changes and the transition from JTPA to WIA, drastic reductions in the number of youth who can be served are imminent. Now is the time for Congress to restore the federal funding level for youth employment and training to the pre-1995 level.

Unless Congress acts, disadvantaged youth, families and communities in Minnesota and across the nation will feel the impact beginning this summer.

According to the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, early work experience is a very powerful predictor of success and earnings in the labor market. Early work experience raises earnings over a lifetime by 10-12 percent. In addition, many businesses, facing severe labor shortages and skills gaps, are seeking help finding and preparing qualified workers. Many young people, even those who may be employed, are not equipped to share in the nation's current prosperity, as they do not possess the academic, work-readiness, or vocational competencies sought by employers. This persistent gap between the needs of businesses and the skills of the young threatens to stifle our nation's economic growth and relegate a large segment of our youth population to margins of the economy and society.

Just to be clear about it, LSS is neither a contractor nor a service provider under any of the Workforce Investment Act's Youth Formula Programs. We can see the good these programs have done in our community past years, however, and see a growing and deepening need for more of these services in Minnesota. It is only out of our broader concerns for community investment in the well-being and development of our children that we urge you to respond to this crisis by supporting a request of $500 million in the upcoming FFY 2000 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill for the youth formula program of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998.

Thank you for your support of our nation's youth.

Sincerely,


John T. Clawson, Director
Office of Public Policy and Advocacy

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