President
Continues to Tout Job Training Proposals in FY05 Budget
 The
President announced in his January 2004 State of the Union address a new community
college-focused grant program in the Department of Labor (DOL): “Community-Based
Job Training Grants”. The FY2005 budget provides $200 million for this
program, although the bulk of this funding would be re-allocated from existing
job training programs, many of which already benefit community colleges.
The Administration also has revised a previous proposal to inaugurate “personal
re-employment accounts” that allow individual access by workers to job
training funds. The new proposal, titled “Innovation Training Accounts” (ITAs),
has a similar focus, although the Administration has not spelled out how such
a program would work.
Despite the Administration’s frequent promotion of training as an important
response to unemployment and outsourcing American jobs overseas, the FY2005 budget
calls for cuts in existing employment and training programs at both the DOL and
the Department of Education (DoED):
• DOL: Overall spending on key training and employment programs
under the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) will decrease by $3 million
from FY04 appropriated levels—including an over $300 million reduction
in funding for existing DOL programs, which would be used to fund the President’s
community college and ITA initiatives.
• DoED : The Administration is seeking a $323
million reduction in Perkins Vocational and Technical Education
programs from FY04 appropriated levels, as well as a reallocation
of the remaining Perkins funds to exclusively high school-based
programs.
The Administration argues that up to $300 million in funds
for DOL training programs will be available in savings from
its proposals to restructure aspects of the job training
system governed by the Workforce Investment Act. One of the
Administration’s
goals in restructuring, including giving states additional authority over the
expenditure of federal training funds, is to double the number of workers training
under the WIA system.
For more information on any of these Administration initiatives, and how they
may affect your organization, please contact us at info@techvision21.com or
(202) 263-0168.
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