Cuts to Job Training Funds will Devastate Thousands of Rhode Islanders
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Even with unemployment in Rhode Island reaching 11.1 percent, the state could lose federal job training funds under the budget resolution passed in the U.S. House, President Obama has warned.
Speaking at Lorain Community College in Elyria, Ohio, this week, Obama said the budget resolution, written by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), would cut discretionary spending, including the Workforce Investment Act, by more than 5 percent in the fiscal 2013 budget and 19 percent in the 2014 budget to pay for a trillion-dollar tax cut.
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In Rhode Island, those figures translate to 1,000 adults losing training and employment services in 2013, along with 50 youths and 200 dislocated workers, while 5,000 people would lose job search assistance through cuts in WIA programs and the Wagner-Peyser job search assistance program.
In 2014, those figures would rise to 4,000 adults, 200 youths and 1,000 dislocated workers losing training and employment services, while 13,000 people would lose job search assistance.
Nationally, according to the White House figures, services would be eliminated for 425,000 workers in FY13 and 1.1 million in 2014. Across the two-year period, services would be cut to 60,000 youth nationwide, with job search assistance cut for 4.9 million.
U.S. Rep. James Langevin, D-R.I. (2nd District), said the vote counteracts the interests of business community members who have expressed concern about their future workforce’s training.
"Business owners across my district have repeatedly told me they have trouble finding workers able to fit their needs, particularly in expanding industries," said Langevin, who co-chairs the Congressional Career and Technical Education Caucus and is leading a bipartisan effort to support Perkins Act funding for career training in our secondary and post-secondary schools.
“We cannot create quality jobs and grow Rhode Island’s economy unless we support programs that collaborate with businesses to better prepare our workforce. The proposed evisceration of these investments epitomizes the reckless approach driven by an extreme element in the Republican Party that wants to cut for the sake of cutting without considering the impact on jobs and long-term damage to our economic competitiveness,” Langevin said.
U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., expressed hope the Senate’s budget deliberations would foiled the planned cuts,
"These numbers show that in addition to ending Medicare as we know it and clobbering Rhode Island seniors, the House Republican budget would take away job training opportunities for people in Rhode Island,” he said. “With so many Rhode Islanders still struggling to find jobs, taking away job training is a terrible idea. I’ll continue fighting to make sure the reckless House budget is stopped in the Senate.”
Congressman David Cicilline agreed. He said that the Republican budget was off base.
“Especially here in Rhode Island, where we are struggling to get a foot hold for further economic recovery, if we are going to help create an economy based on opportunity that rewards meaningful work, then we must maintain investments in education and workforce training,” said Cicilline. “We all agree that we need to rein in spending, but I strongly disagree with the Republican budget plan’s unbalanced approach to cutting the federal deficit by reducing the smart, targeted investments that support job growth."