Testimony on Jobs and Training
TESTIMONY IN SUPPORT OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND JOBS FOR DISTRICT RESIDENTS
September 17, 2005
I am Renee Bowser and I live at 5322 2nd Street, NW in the Petworth neighborhood of Ward 4. I am a second term
Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for ANC Single Member District 4D02.
I am here today to briefly speak in favor of ways to bring more
vocational education and jobs to District of Columbia residents.
First,
I propose that the District of Columbia Council pass a law, with real
monitoring and enforcement measures, requiring businesses which receive
any kind of taxpayer subsidy (including tax increment financing,
revenue bonds, etc.) based, in whole or part, on the promise of
bringing jobs to District residents to reimburse the City for such
subsidies in proportion to their failure to deliver the promised jobs.
In other words, let’s make it the law in the District that businesses
who profit by our taxpayer money deliver the quid pro quo– jobs– that
they promise as part of their contract obligation. This type of law is
not without precedent.
Secondly,
I propose that the Department of Employment Services institute a
consistent method of marketing the vocational opportunities which
currently exist. For example, the District’s Fire and Emergency Medical
Services has a Fire Cadet Program. As of March, 2004, full time
firefighters in the District made an average yearly salary of $62,580
per year. The cadet program is a year long program for youth who are at
least age 18 with a high school diploma or GED. However, as an ANC
Commissioner for three years now, I have never seen this program
advertised in the Metro, on Metro buses, radio, or TV stations.
Equally, problematic, I have never received notice of the program from
the Department of Employment Services (DOES). The result is many
firefighters are non-District residents, with substantial numbers
coming from volunteer fire departments in the suburbs where they have
obtained training.
Thirdly,
I suggest that the Department of Employment Services work more closely
with the craft unions to encourage them to broaden the notice and
application periods for their apprenticeship programs. For example,
earlier this year, I received a notice from DOES that Elevator
Constructors Local 10 was accepting apprenticeship applications. I sent
the announcement for airing on WPFW. The application period was for one
day only and then for only 3 hours that day from 7:00 am. to 10:00 am.
in Lanham, Maryland. This was not a realistic window of opportunity for
a graduating or soon to be graduating senior to apply for training as
an elevator constructor. District agencies need to work with the craft
unions to get them to make these opportunities known and accessible to
District youth in a practical way.
Lastly,
I propose that the Council pass a law that requires the District to
rehabilitate empty public schools and other public buildings for use
for vocational training rather than selling them at windfall prices to
developers. For example, in 1999, the District sold the Giddings
School at 3rd and G Streets, SE for $1.8 million to a
business for a commercial gym (Results the Gym) even though other
organizations offered the City a higher price. Thereafter, following
$450,000 in upgrades by the new owner, the building appraised at $6.5
million.
If the District can give a commercial business which serves
principally high end clients such a subsidy, why did it not restore the
building and put it to use promote job opportunities for District
residents?
Clearly, Results the Gym brought only a few jobs to the
District and these jobs are not primarily career expanding jobs. We
must do better.
One last critically important
point, the 1999 Harvard Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and
Social Policy Study showed that employers exhibit strong racial
preferences in their hiring: White men and women are preferred over any
other racial group; Hispanics are preferred over Blacks and Black women
are preferred over Black men. We have to keep a practical eye on this
problem and develop ways to neutralize it in District hiring programs.
Renee L. BowserANC 4D02 CommissionerSecretary, ANC 4D
