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State Representative Joe Mullery
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4262
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E-Update
PRESIDENT OBAMA AND REP. MULLERY ON JOBS
GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE: OBAMA AND MULLERY ON JOBS
(Just being facetious on the second name)
MY MEETING WITH U.S. DEPUTY SECRETARY OF LABOR
Because of my leadership at the legislature on expanding technical education, on Tuesday, I was very honored and fortunate to be seated next to Deputy Secretary Seth Harris from the U.S. Department of Labor for an hour and a half lunch. We were able to discuss a lot of issues regarding jobs and employment. On his other side was a manufacturer who has managed to reverse the off-shoring of jobs by having employees who do excellent work.
As you probably know, ever since I went to the legislature I have been pushing for more technical education. That is the way many of our people can get better jobs. I learned that the Obama administration did extensive studies and came to the same conclusion I came to long ago, namely that a better trained workforce through community and technical colleges is at the center of workforce development and recapturing good jobs. They say it's the best way to get people back to work, and at good jobs.
Obama just put in $8 billion for technical job training. The money can go towards up-to-date equipment for training students and other "hard" costs. It can't be used for tuition. I told him they need to develop some initiative to lessen the difference in cost to community colleges between regular courses and technical courses. For instance a liberal art type course may have 50 or more students per teacher, whereas a machining or carpentry class may have 8 students per teacher. He was not aware of the disparity in cost to the schools and said he'd look for ways to solve that.
I also suggested various types of tax credit to businesses for helping with such training, such as letting non-employees come into their workplace for training on the latest equipment, contributing to industry-wide training (for example, printers contributing to training cost for students who would go into the printing industry in general even though not for a specific employer), government aided initial training while working, and various other ideas. He indicated that their research had confirmed my views that such technical college job training would greatly reduce the unemployment and low-paying jobs among inner city residents, and that if we would train prisoners in practical technical jobs it would greatly reduce the rate of recidivism among ex-felons (the cost of such training would be minute compared to the cost to society of them returning to crime).
He also talked about getting low-and-middle income students into certification programs so that they can learn an employable skill and get a job in a short time, and then they can go back at night and get more certifications or degrees so they can move up the job ladder. That's something I've been fighting for at the legislature for years.
Since I've been one of a handful of legislators fighting for these initiatives, it was great to hear that the Obama administration research had shown that we have the right ideas. Hopefully the other legislators and public will catch on.
News Items
- Reminder: Primary - August 14; Some Voting Locations May Have Changed - (Posted: 2012-07-08 00:00:00)
- Passing of Dr. John Williams - (Posted: 2012-07-09 00:00:00)
- Rep. Mullery: 2012 Legislative Report - (Posted: 2012-07-10 00:00:00)
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