In a public announcement from the Governor’s office in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, $46 million is being spent on summer jobs for youth workers.
FRANKFORT, Ky. (June 4, 2010) – Gov. Steve Beshear today announced Kentucky will put nearly 10,000 disadvantaged youth and adults with children to work this summer through WorkNow Kentucky. Funded with nearly $46 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program dollars through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the program aims to jump-start job creation by subsidizing the wages and benefits of eligible participants who are hired through the program.
My question is first, how do summer jobs for youth workers jump-start job creation? Second, what happens when the summer is over, where is the benefit? Third, how much can a youth worker learn in twelve weeks? Forth, who, in a company where a youth worker is hired for a summer job, is going to invest time in any type of training for that youth worker?
The Small Business Association (SBA) has allocated billions of dollars to banks that are scared to lend those dollars because of the Obama crack down on the banks themselves, therefore, small businesses can't get loans due to very tight and regulated underwriting guidelines.
I would pose this question: Why not just take 460 legitimate small businesses in Kentucky and give/lend them each $100,000, which totals $46 million, for the sole purpose of hiring real, fulltime employees who will/might build a career with these new jobs over time?
A $46 million summer youth program is a give away with no ROI.
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3 comments:
Our government could have GIVEN a new car to every family who has a retired or disabled member, who has earned a monthly check from the Social Security Assn., which would have kept car makers going without sending them billions of dollars.
Instead, they had a program to give you a gift, if you were wealthy enough to buy a new car.
Those of us less fortunate, who possibly could have purchased one of those 'late model' cars which were turned into clunkers on purpose were not considered in any way, not even for a moment.
Think a moment about that. Then, if you can, tell me where I'm wrong. Thank you.
Pat, Your comment interested me as I am supporting RAMP (http://rampamerica.org) because it was started by one individual moved to do something about the poverty in Appalachian Kentucky. I might have to agree that the short nature of how the funds might be a stimulus is questionable, but I wonder if it is partially a preventative measure to keep youth out of trouble, drugs,(so prevalent in rural Kentucky)because of the high incident of unemployment even in better economic times.
Hard to know. What really frustrates me is that we spend billions to offer hope to other countries but fail to see we have areas of our own country living like a third world nation. If you have some time, visit the rampamerica sight.
I would agree with you; this is a very temporary short-term fix from what I can see. As Kathy pointed out, the intent may be to keep kids out of trouble but again, that seems a temporary fix. What happens when the jobs are done? The kids just have money to get into more trouble...I don't know how well thought out the program really is?
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