HEARINGS ON THE PRESIDENT'S YOUTH EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT INITIATIVE

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1980

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON ELEMENTARY, SECONDARY,

AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION,

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR,

Washington, D.C. The_subcommittee met at 9:25 a.m., pursuant to call, in room 2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Carl D. Perkins (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Members present: Representatives Perkins, Ford, Miller, Corrada, Kildee, Hawkins, Kogovsek, Goodling, Buchanan, Erdahl, and Hinson.

Also present: Representative Petri.

Staff present: John F. Jennings, counsel; Nancy Kober, staff assistant; Richard DiEugenio, minority legislative associate; and Jennifer Vance, minority senior legislative associate.

Chairman PERKINS. This morning the Subcommittee on Elementary, Secondary, and Vocational Education is commencing hearings on the President's youth education and employment initiative. We have also invited the members of the Subcommittee on Employment Opportunities to sit with us today since that subcommittee will handle the CETA portion of this legislation.

Today's hearing is a momentous occasion indeed. President Carter has reaffirmed his commitment to education by proposing this major new domestic program and by backing it up with substantial funding in his budget. I highly commend the President for recognizing the importance of well-educated and employable youth to the strength of our country in this decade.

I know that this iniative is a top priority for the President this year. I am pleased that the President has seen fit to focus on education in this way and will look forward to our subcommittee working with the administration on this proposal.

Today's hearing is noteworthy for another reason. Since the President first announced this legislation on January 10, we have all been eagerly awaiting this opportunity to discuss its provisions with a representative of the administration.

I could not be more delighted that Secretary Hufstedler is that representative. This will mark her first appearance before this subcommittee. Her qualifications speak well for the administration, and I hope to have a long and fruitful association with her as our new Secretary of Education.

The committee has given this issue of youth unemployment very thorough study. Last year this subcommittee conducted 2 days of

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joint hearings on the issue with the Subcommittee on Employment Opportunities. That subcommittee also conducted 8 days of its own hearings. Additional hearings were held in January and February of this year by the Subcommittee on Elementary, Secondary, and Vocational Education on the problems of secondary schools.

I would also like to point out that Chairman Gus Hawkins and I asked a number of distinguished experts to write papers on youth unemployment for our subcommittee. These papers have been printed as a resource document and are now available to the members and to the public.

Mr. HAWKINS. It is a pleasure to welcome you here this morning, Madam Secretary, before the subcommittee to hear perhaps in more detail about the education portion of the adminstration's youth initiative. You must bear with us, however, for although we have read accounts of this initiative in the press and had some discussions with members of your staff as to general concepts, we have only recently examined specifications made available to us and have yet to see any legislative language. Without a bill before us we may ask some questions that indicate that we simply are not familiar with what you are proposing, and we will, of course, appreciate any clarity that you can provide on these issues.

If some of the questions seem critical, it obviously is not because we do not share your concern with the massive problem we are attempting to confront, but because we may not agree on the best method to solve the problem. For example, from the document made available to us, the purpose of this whole initiative seems to be to improve basic skills and the "future employability of disadvantaged youth." I feel that I am more concerned, perhaps, with the immediate employment prospects for many young people.

It is our assumption that both titles of this initiative were developed in a collaborative manner and, therefore, I may address some questions to you about the employment portion, especially how the two portions complement each other and will be coordinated at the local level.

Some of my concerns include what impact will be made to change the education institutions, what different services will be provided, why has this not been done before, and why can it not be done through existing programs?

With that brief explanation of my concerns, I want to again welcome you before us and trust that we will be able to accommodate each other's views and through the committee process reach an accord on legislation that can move through the Congress and assist our young people in finding jobs.

It is a great pleasure for me to introduce you, Judge Hufstedler, for your first appearance before the House Committee on Education and Labor. I hope I have that opportunity many more times in the future.

You may proceed in any way your prefer. You have prepared remarks that you want inserted in the record, and without objection they will be inserted in the record. You may proceed at this time in any manner that you prefer.

[The prepared statement of Secretary Hufstedler follows:]

Prepared Statement of Shirley M. Hufstedler, SecretarY OF EDUCATION

Chairman Perkins, Members of the Committee, it is a great personal privilege to present to you today the President's proposed Youth Act of 1980. This program, the culmination of more than a year's thought and work, addresses a wide range of issues that concern our nation's young people as they seek to make the transition from school to work. President Carter has repeatedly expressed his interest in this area, as have the members of this Committee. Now that the time for action is at hand, Secretary Marshall and I are both pleased and proud that our Departments have been given joint responsibility for developing and overseeing this important legislation.

Secretary Marshall will be appearing shortly before the Congress to present the Labor title of the Youth Act, but I thought it would be helpful for me to say a few words about Labor's program today so that you can understand the relationship between the two titles. Before doing so, I want to comment on the extraordinary process of collaboration that has led to the introduction of this joint bill.

That process really began with the passage of the Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act of 1977. In that legislation, Congress set aside 22 percent of the funds in the largest of the demonstration titles for programs to be jointly designed by prime sponsors and local educational agencies. Not only did the 22 percent set-aside evoke an unprecedented dialogue between the two systems at the local level, it also prompted a noteworthy spirit of interagency collaboration in Washington. That spirit was strengthened over the past year as our two agencies, along with many others, participated in the work of the Vice President's Task Force on Youth Employment. Through its careful analysis of the problem, its review of past and present Federal programs, and its search for promising solutions, the Task Force helped us all to understand the need for a fully coordinated education, training, and employment strategy. Only through such a strategy can we make significant progress in overcoming unemployment among young people.

Because of this long and fruitful process of collaboration, the two programs being discussed today are not separate in any real sense. There is a basic division of responsibility between them, with the Education title focusing primarily on those youth who are still in school, while the Labor title focuses primarily on those who are not. But they have several points of intersection such as the continuing provision of Labor funds to pay the wages of in-school youth participating in work experience programs. The programs also have a set of shared principles. Both emphasize the importance of strong private sector participation. Both establish clear performance standards for program participants as well as for service providers. Both adopt funding strategies designed to concentrate resources on those urban and rural

communities where the need is greatest. Finally, both include linkage mechanisms

which will promote cooperative planning and implementation between the two systems at local, State and Federal levels.

II. An Overview of the Youth Employment Problem

As Members of Congress, problems facing American society are brought forcibly and repeatedly to your attention. Yet I would venture to say that few, if any, of the problems before you are as far-reaching or as fundamental as the one that we are concerned with today. Simply put, much of a whole generation of disadvantaged young people are not prepared for, and therefore cannot find, work. Unless we improve their skills now, their prospects for the future are bleak.

If we do not act to assist them, huge numbers of these youngsters will never successfully enter the labor force. They will begin the long, slow slide into chronic joblessness, poverty and despair. Every year of delay in attacking this problem sends another wave of young people down that dismal path. And with each succeeding wave, long-term solutions become more difficult, and long-term costs much greater.

The loss in human terms is, of course, incalculable. How can we measure the hopelessness felt by hundreds of thousands of young people who want work but can't find jobs, who want jobs but aren't prepared? What price can be set on the waste of their potential, the destruction of their self-esteem?