The School District has mounted a wide array of programs designed to improve the acquisition of not only basic skills but skills in job seeking, job-getting and job holding. So far reaching have been the schools efforts and improvements, students, staff and parents have characterized the schools as being "reborn". But all concerned know that this "renaissance" does not go far enough. The numbers of lowachieving students are still too high. The youth unemployment rate is still alarmingly high. Moreover, despite our New Directions and Vocational Technical programs, students are unserved or underserved. For example, current CETA youth programs (YETP, YCCIP, YIEPP, ISYWEP) serve approximately 6,000 of the more than 24,000 students that could benefit from systematic training and preparation for the work world. Detroit area employers are begging for young people who have oral and written communication skills, a reliable work record, and are willing to work his/her way up in the labor force.

The School District, though financially strapped, has made the most of the limited resources that are becoming more scarce as time passes. The District is therefore looking to the President's new Education and Employment Initiative for assistance and support. The commitment to the youth Detroit schools serve is clear. An increased dollar commitment to be provided as a part of the new Basic Education and Skill Training Legislation will ensure that students most in need will continue to be served. Another one-third of Detroit Public School youth heretofore unserved or underserved stand to benefit the most from the increase in quality and quantity of basic education and employment-related opportunities.

An

For the most part, Detroit Public Schools is encouraged by the Proposed Youth Initiatives legislation presently emerging from the White House. One of the most important involvements is that of the local school district. A complementary role for the schools is essential if the youth employment crisis is to be mitigated. analysis of the legislative specifications of the Youth Initiative leads me to believe that the goal of the Administration's Youth Act of 1980 can best be met by incorporating into the legislation, the following provisions and conditions:

With respect to the funding formula:

•Detroit Public Schools is very much in favor of
a concentration-like formula similar to Title I-

ESEA. Funds should be forward-funded and granted
to the LEA on a non-competitive basis. The
District, however, is not in favor of local school
competition for planning and implementation grants.
Instead funds should be granted to all eligible
schools where significant needs exist subject to
the availability of funds. To have the local
schools compete against one another is devisive,
raises false hopes, and produces a political
climate that precludes making wise and fair funding
decisions. Detroit Public Schools is in favor of
the LEA making school selections up front based on
a prescribed eligibility criteria. Once the iden-
tified schools develop effective plans and per-
formance standards designed to meet the basic and
employment skill needs of low-achieving, limited-

English speaking handicapped or otherwise needy
students, they would receive funds commensurate
with the needs expressed.

•Most important is a provision that permits funds
to be awarded to districts as direct grants with
no matching funds required. In light of our own
poor fiscal outlook, matching fund requirements
from our general fund would impede if not elimi-
nate altogether full participation in the
education department's new Youth Initiatives.

With respect to allocation of formula funds, and State Administration of Vocational Education:

All dollars should flow from the federal govern-
ment to the LEA. The 75/25 split with set-aside
monies flowing through the State Vocational
Education System is not recommended. It has been
this school district's experience to have the
SEA serve only as an additional bureaucratic
layer with which the LEA would have to relate.
Geographical appropriations, matching fund re-
quirements and numerous administrative procedures
and reporting requirements are hindrances that
the School District faces when dealing with
State-administered programs. Detroit Public
Schools is the best judge of the basic and vo-
cational needs of its students and therefore is
the appropriate agent to administer 100% of the
funds to which we are entitled.

•The School District recognizes the need for an
advisory body in developing and implementing
the Administration's Youth Initiatives, however,

within the Detroit Public Schools there

Some

operates a plethora of advisory councils.
are voluntary; some are mandatory; some are even
court-ordered. To create yet another advisory

council could serve to duplicate and fragment
existing efforts. LEA's should be allowed to
utilize an existing advisory council especially
when goals and objectives are compatible and

are closely aligned with those of the Administra

tion's.

The Detroit Public Schools is willing to accept its responsi

bility for providing students with an educational foundation of attitudes, skills and knowledge upon which productive lives can be built. Alternative settings and a variety of strategies make it possible for many of our young people to learn successfully. However different settings and strategies are costly. Full implementation of the new Youth Initiative will provide the resources necessary to build upon and expand existing programs that have served to create "a renaissance" of learning in our schools.

Alliances with business and industry are a reality in the Detroit School System. The mechanisms for increased emphasis on basic education and skills training are already in place. We need only the full implementation of the education department's Youth Initiative legislation that guarantees school districts' flexibility in planning, increased financial support and assistance for as long as the needs exist.