Phelps Vocational High School is a good start, but every high school should have an apprenticeship program that guarantees employment upon graduation and strongly encourages and supports college education. Priority should be on creating Green Collar Jobs in our community, with a focus on urban agriculture, energy conservation and solar energy technologies. The District should partner with non-profits, businesses and unions. Then our District's Green Collar Job Initiative will fulfill its promise, to provide 21st century employment for our youth, while improving the quality of life for all residents.
In DC the unemployment rate in June was 6.4%
(http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/state_unemployment/).
In Ward 8 the unemployment rate is 22% and a poverty rate of 36% (Washington Post, August 25, 2008, B4).
For more on Green Collar Jobs go to: http://www.ellabakercenter.org/page.php?pageid=5
(Van Jones, Ella Baker Institute)
“Green-Collar Jobs Campaign
The "green wave" is coming.
A new, multi-billion dollar economic sector is emerging, bringing new opportunities in green construction, clean technology, urban agriculture and energy. Our goal: ensure that this green economy is strong enough to lift people out of poverty.
Green-Collar Jobs Campaign creates opportunities in the green economy for poor people and people of color through policy advocacy, public outreach, and an employment pipeline - the Green Jobs Corps.”
The following is a plan produced by Paul Pumphrey about a decade ago. Green Collar Jobs have emerged since then as the jobs of the 21st Century. This approach is practical and should be implemented asap by our elected government.
EDUCATION FOR OUR FUTURE
Purpose
The purpose of this project is to make public education more responsive to the community it serves by establishing a school-based training program that links acquired skills to specific jobs in the Washington metropolitan area. The program consists of three major components, which include:
• Apprenticeship
• Public Service Training Academy (PSTA)
• Service Industry Training Academy (SITA)
Starting in the ninth grade, students would have the option to enroll in one of the three programs. Each division offers a comprehensive training program including counseling, job specific courses, and certification.
The program is designed to fill a void in the public educational system. Many of today’s high school graduates are unprepared to compete in the job market. The increasing requirement for technological proficiency as technology advances across occupational groups magnifies this disparity. Some of these skills were taught in the vocational technical program of the District of Columbia Public School (DCPS) system, but not in the context of what the job market is demanding. Consequently, in order to be competitive in the metropolitan area labor market, many of our graduating students have to pay for supplemental private school education. This additional financial burden is a strain on limited family resources for some, an unattainable dream for others. Meanwhile, unemployment rates continue to rise in the District of Columbia.
The unemployment rate of District residents is increasing at an alarming pace. Statistics released by the D.C. Department of Employment Services, indicate that the unemployment rate for District residents in June 1989 was 6.1 %, this rate increased to 7.2 % in June 1990 the highest rate in more than three years. In contrast, the suburban unemployment rate for the same period, June 1989 was only 2.6 %, which remained constant in June 1990.
The significant question, why must we continue a pattern in which non-District residents fill numerous well-paying vacancies in the District government, the construction or services industry, while District residents are swelling the unemployment, welfare and prison rolls? This program offers a positive alternative, a decent job, with benefits, at a decent wage.
Objectives
The program focus is specific, providing potential graduates of the DCPS with employable skills. The objectives, however, are widespread and intended to impact the community at large. We envision the project as having a domino effect. Benefits should accrue to students, their peers, family members, and to the citizens throughout the community. In order of decreasing importance, the objectives of the project are to:
1. Increase job skill readiness of public school graduates
2. Raise student self-esteem levels
3. Increase the number of employed District residents
4. Decrease the drop-out rate of public school students
5. Decrease the District unemployment rate
6. Increase the tax base
7. Increase the median family income of students
8. Help strengthen family life
9. Decrease the rate of teen pregnancy
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The African American community has been systematically excluded from the skilled trades due, in large part, to institutional racism in the industry, government, and trade unions. While members of other ethnic groups have successfully used the skilled trades to advance their position on the economic ladder, African Americans have been consistently denied this option. More recently, many blue-collar industrial jobs are being transferred from the United States to cheaper wage areas in underdeveloped countries such as China, Korea, Mexico, Taiwan, Poland and the Philippines further eroding employment base/opportunities.
Twenty to thirty years ago, graduates form public schools such as McKinley Tech were considered highly trained and talented job applicants. These graduates were sought after by employers in the Washington metropolitan area because they possessed the highly developed skills required in the business field. The standard of excellence set by McKinley Tech graduates is the standard this proposal hopes to recreate and expand.
Much of the devastation facing the African American community today can be traced directly to overt racism and economic exclusion. An economically depressed community is a community of despair. Low self-esteem, low aspirations and low morale standards are ancillary characteristics. Our public schools are losing too many youth to the streets. There they lead a short life frequently ending up in jail or the city morgue. This trend must stop. We have the opportunity to economically revitalize our communities, by providing our youth with specific job skills, economic options, and self esteem.
PROGRAM STRUCTURE
The program consists of three divisions: Apprenticeships, Public Service Training Corps and Service Industry
Apprenticeships
Skilled craftsmen jobs pay from $17 to $26 per hour, enough o support a family of four in the District of Columbia. Some of these include:
• Stationary Engineers: operators of heating and cooling plants of large buildings such as hospitals, school offices, and power plants
• Operating Engineers: operators of heavy equipment such as cranes, bulldozers, back hoe and earth remover
• Construction tradesmen who work as carpenters, electricians, plumbers, drywall mechanics and roofers
• Pipe fitters are trade persons who install and repair sprinkler systems, commercial boilers and air conditioners
• Sheet metal workers install air vents and ducts in commercial buildings in addition to installing tin roofs
• Journey printers which includes dark room, stripper and layout jobs
Public Service Training Academy (PSTA)
One of the biggest problems that the fire department, the police department, and the public health agencies are having is that they cannot find enough people to be trained for the jobs such as the following:
• Criminal Justice Academy will offer a variety of elective classes which will build a good foundation a student pursuing a career in criminal justice along with other required classes
• Fire Safety Academy will offer a variety of elective classes which will build a good foundation a student pursuing a career in the fire department
• Public Health Academy will offer a variety of elective classes which will build a good foundation for student pursuing a career in paramedics, nursing, nursing assistants, medical and dental assistants, mental health aids, laboratory technicians, dental hygienists, occupational and physical therapists etc. These positions are presently in high and ever increasing demand, with no major decrease expected in the near future.
• Public Education Academy will offer a variety of elective classes that will build a good foundation for student pursuing a career in education along with other required classes.
Students in the Public Service Training Academy with a 3.0 grade point average are qualified for partial or full college scholarships (based on need) the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) or George Washington University (GW) in the field they have studied.
Service Industry
One of the largest group of employers in the Washington metropolitan area are such companies offering services such as; communications, public utilities, public transportation, informational systems, medical and legal advocacies. Many of these businesses engage in business with the D.C. government and should have a responsibility in helping in developing a curriculum that will be taught in the public schools as will as UDC. Job opportunities within these companies include: cable installers, computer technicians, mechanics, legal secretaries, paralegal, operators, and electronic technicians (i.e. copy machines, computers, etc.)
After enrolling in one of the divisions, each student will be assigned an advisor who will provide guidance through the program, counseling and other special services needed. The Apprentice who successfully completed training will receive a certificate representing year I, II or III of Apprenticeship Training. Students who successfully complete the courses of training in one of the other divisions will receive certification of the appropriated completed Year I, II, or III requirements of that specific curriculum.
IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS
Role of the Mayor
The mayor should use the prestige and power of his/her office to develop the partnerships between private industry and the city’s educational system in developing educational programs that will prepare our youth for the demands of today’s job market. The Mayor should also solicit support from the Board of Education to facilitate these goals.
Role of the Board of Education
The Board will take all necessary steps to implement the program, including (1) development of curriculum on the various apprenticeships, government agency (police, fire and public health),
and service industry (cable installers, legal secretaries, electronics, etc) examined to determine the course content and sequence of each division;(2) setting up a career center that will be responsible for coordinating student counseling, training, information services, and potential employers; (3) incorporation of industry standards into the academic curriculums, and (4) working with the labor and employment agencies, and other organizations deemed necessary for successful implementation of the program.
Role of the Apprenticeship Council
The Council will work with the Board in developing the curriculum for each of the skills needed in the different trades. The Council will also work with the Board of Education during the operation of the program, ensuring that the courses are current and the objectives identified are those skills, which are required for proper performance of the jobs duties and descriptions.
Role of the Government Agencies
Police department, fire department, and the public health services will work with the Board in developing the curriculum for each of the skills needed in the specific cadet corps.
Role of the Service Industries
Companies such as IBM, Xerox, C and P Telephone, and Pepco would be responsible for working with the Mayor and Superintendent to help earmark job skills that can be taught in the public schools that will be needed in today’s labor market. Each Spring, these companies would participate with the public school’s annual summer job fair where they will interview potential candidates for summer and permanent employment.
PERSONNEL AND FACILITIES
TIMETABLE
Peace is not the absence of war, but the presence of justice.
(African adage)
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children...under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
--President Dwight D. Eisenhower--
April 16, 1953 Before the American Society of Newspaper Editors
Brothers And Sisters International, Inc.
Paul A. Pumphrey
International Liaison
broandsisinterna@aol.com
202/232-8936
