CBC asks Bush to restore Urban Youth Program, summer jobs also scarce

CBC asks Bush to restore Urban Youth Program, summer jobs also scarce
 WASHINGTON (NNPA) - The Congressional Black Caucus has appealed to President George W. Bush on behalf of the National Urban League's Urban Youth Empowerment Program, which is set to be slashed from the budget of the Department of Labor next week.
"It is our understanding that the funding, which enables the program to provide much-needed services to young people to reduce recidivism, to complete their high school education, and to find jobs is to be terminated on June 30, 2008. We urge you not to end this vital program," states a letter to Bush, signed by 37 members of the CBC and released exclusively to the NNPA News Service. "Now is not the time for the Department of Labor to turn its back on young people who are trying to turn their lives around. These young people will be kicked out of the program unless you intervene."
The letter asks that the federal government at least allocate $4 million to allow 800 youth enrollees to complete the training that they have already begun through 2008.
"At a time when incarceration rates are at an all-time high in the nation and unemployment among young people is steadily increasing, the program serves as a valuable resource to underserved communities around the country," the letter states. "The program has a demonstrated record of effectiveness in assisting at-risk youth in educational opportunities, job training and placement, and the support needed to make a successful transition into the workplace."
As of June 16, the Caucus had not yet gotten a White House response to the letter.
NUL President/CEO Marc Morial also laments that the cutting of the Urban Youth Empowerment Program comes at a time when no substantial federal funding exists for general summer jobs for youth across the nation.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for Black teens ages 16 to 19 is 32.3 percent, twice the rate of the 16.4 percent of White teens in the same age group; and nearly twice the rate of Latino teens, 17.5 percent.
"You have a lot of idle teenagers who are out of school and who want to work, who want opportunities, careers, and a chance to earn a living," says Morial. "It's a tragedy that Congress has not moved on summer jobs because the teen unemployment rate is as high as it's been in 50 years."
             —Hazel Trice Edney