Federal Policy

More on the Republican House WIA Bills Introduced today

/ The Old Crank

(updated below)

As we were told yesterday, two Workforce Investment Act bills were introduced in the House of Representatives today.

There are fact sheets on both bills here:

The bills focus is really on consolidating Title I job training programs and not on Title II adult education programs. However, the purpose of H.R. 3610, which is to consolidate what the bill’s author considers duplicative programs, is a start down a thematic path that adult education advocates are likely to be concerned about.

(h/t to the National Coalition for Literacy for the links.)

There’s also a press release from the Committee on Education and the Workforce that is worth a look. I thought the key quote here was from Chairman Kline, because it lays out the Republican’s WIA reauthorization stategy:

“The proposals brought forward by Reps. Buck McKeon, Virginia Foxx, and Joe Heck will serve as the foundation for the committee’s work to reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act in the months ahead,” continued Chairman Kline. “I want to thank my colleagues for their efforts on behalf of the nation’s workers, job seekers, and employers.”

The Democrats’ initial response to the bills can be found in this press release (spoiler alert!—they don’t like it): Bill Would Dismantle National Commitment to Job Training and Educational Assistance, Say Top House Democrats

Key quote in the Democrats press release, I think, is Congressman Tierney’s pledge to introduce a Democratic WIA reauthorization bill soon:

“It is unfortunate, though not surprising, that the Republican leadership of the House Education and the Workforce Committee introduced legislation so narrowly focused on the consolidation of workforce programs. I believe the Workforce Investment Act must be modernized and strengthened in ways that better align services, increase access to training, support innovation, enable workers to obtain the skills they need to compete for jobs, and ensure employers have the workforce they need to grow and thrive. Ranking Member Miller, Congressman Hinojosa and I will soon introduce WIA reauthorization legislation that reflects these principles and presents a far better and more thoughtful approach than the Republican bill introduced today.” (my emphasis)

UPDATE: Here are URLs for the full text of the bills:

H.R. 3610, the Streamlining Workforce Development Programs Act
H.R. 3611, the Local Job Opportunities and Business Success (JOBS) Act

The National Skills Coalition is not pulling any punches in their critique of these bills, characterizing them as “calls for elimination of training programs“

Two WIA Bills to Be Introduced in the House on This Week

/ The Old Crank

I was pleased to have the opportunity to join my fellow National Coalition for Literacy (NCL) board members up on the Hill this morning for meetings with Congressional staff. I was particularly pleased we had a chance to meet with staff members of the House Committee on Education and Workforce responsible for Workforce Investment Act (WIA) reauthorization. As luck would have it, we were among the first to learn that two WIA bills are going to be introduced in the House tomorrow: one from Rep. Virginia Foxx to that they said was designed to remove duplication and consolidate federal workforce programs under WIA; and one from Rep. Joe Heck concerned with tying job training more closely with the needs of the local business community.

They don’t expect markup on either of these anytime soon. So it’s not huge news—and these two bills will not have much concerning adult literacy in them—but it’s nice to hear that there is any kind of movement on WIA in the House. (Title II of WIA is the primary piece of federal legislation concerning adult literacy, and thus advocates feel that any movement on WIA is a good sign for us.) NCL is also asking House members to consider holding a hearing on adult literacy sometime next year, and we got some positive feedback on that today as well.

The Skills Mismatch: What Employers Say vs. What They Do

/ The Old Crank

Speaking of Jared Bernstein, (who I quoted in my previous post), yesterday he weighed in on the skills mismatch debate. In short, he thinks employers are full of it:

[T]he consensus among economists tends to be that there’s a large skills mismatch between employers’ demands and the skills of the workforce.  I don’t buy it.  The data from the BLS on occupational skill demands now and in the future actually matches up pretty cleanly with the supply of skill, at least at the level of educational attainment.  Yes, employers constantly say they can’t find skilled workers, but that’s kind of the point… they constantly say it. If it were true, you’d see it in a more quickly rising compensation premium to workers with higher levels of education.  And you don’t really see that type of acceleration.  (Note: the emphasis on “acceleration” is important here—the fact that college workers are paid more than high workers isn’t the issue—unmet skill demands imply an increasingly rising premium, and the college premium has actually decelerated in recent years, as this slide from EPI reveals–it shows the regression-adjusted college premium as flat since the latter 90s for women and rising more slowly for men.)

He does think that increasing higher levels of educational attainment is good for the economy in general — in that smarter people are better workers in whatever job they are doing — but that’s not the same argument the skills mismatch folks are making.

Adult Education in the American Jobs Act

/ The Old Crank

Earlier tonight, the White House posted the full text of the American Jobs Act, a section-by-section analysis, and a message from from the President to Congress about this proposed bill.

This may already be clear to some, and will probably be clear to everyone now that we can look at the bill, (which I have not looked at yet), but earlier today I spoke with a policy person at the Dept. of Education about the inclusion of adult education in the $5 billion Investing in Low-Income Youth and Adults provision — specifically, how adult basic education mentioned in the fact sheet money would be distributed.

I was told that activities under this provision will be competitive grant awards to localities. In other words, there will be no specifically dedicated adult ed funding in the bill and will not be distributed via current WIA-funded state adult education systems. Adult education will be one of several carefully specified groupings of potential uses for these funds.

The decision was made to NOT to send through existing formula funding. The administration wants local areas to duplicate what has been succesful. “The idea was not to fill up existing discretionary coffers.”