EdAction
Maple River Education Coalition PAC
105 Peavey Rd, St 116
Chaska, MN
55318
952-361-4931
http://www.EdAction.org
E-mail
December 2, 2001
St.
Paul Pioneer Press
By Jean Swenson, Community Columnist
"Few bills which we consider will have a greater impact on more Americans than the Workforce Investment Act we pass today" (U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, Congressional Record, July 30, 1998).
Say what? I'll bet most people have never even heard of the Workforce Investment Act . Yet, if this legislation will impact our lives as much as Kennedy asserts, it's worth examining.
Perhaps so few know about the WIA because it was passed by voice vote after most legislators had left Washington, D.C., for the weekend. Barely a week later, Aug. 7, 1998, President Clinton signed it into law.
And maybe so few understand the WIA because it contains hundreds of pages of legalese - not exactly recreational reading. (But if you're game, you can find the full version online at http://usworkforce.org/asp/siteindex.asp, as well as a shorter, "plain English" overview.)
The WIA transforms a system of occupational assistance for people with special needs (such as dislocated workers and persons with disabilities) into one that, when fully implemented, will oversee the training, certification and placement of all workers.
The WIA and other laws work together to combine business, government and education into a centrally planned type of government/economic system. Students and jobseekers will be directed toward careers in targeted industries that are determined by central planners. Tax dollars will fund employee training programs, establishing a corporate welfare system. In essence, the WIA will form a "public/private partnership" that critics fear will foster corruption and favoritism among business and government associates.
The system set up by the WIA is controlled through national, state and local boards. These boards have authority to distribute federal tax dollars for managing the system. Accepting federal money means accepting federal regulatory rules, and more red-tape for participating businesses.
The WIA states that each board must have "appointed representatives." But non-elected appointees may not always "represent" the interests of taxpayers who have no power to vote them in or out of office.
Under the WIA, the governor appoints a state board that helps him develop a state plan. This plan must comply with federal guidelines and be approved by the U.S. Secretary of Labor. (See Minnesota's State Unified Plan at http://www.mnwork forcecenter.org/wia). All states are currently in this process.
The governor approves local workforce boards of "appointed representatives" from business, education and government who develop local plans consistent with the state plan. These boards will also control a system of "One-Stop Centers." Presently everything is voluntary, but the goal is a "one-stop" system through which all jobs will be filled and all jobseekers will obtain board-approved training. Minnesota currently has 53 "Workforce Centers." (See http://www.mnworkforcecenter.org).
The federal government has organized geographical areas into specific industry and occupational clusters. Minnesota, for example, lists such career clusters as manufacturing and hospitality/tourism. (See http://www.ed.gov/pubs/Standards /attach_d.html) When the WIA is fully implemented, students and jobseekers will be guided toward jobs in these areas. Entrepreneurs and businesses who are not among the "selected" occupational clusters may have to hire workers trained in other occupational areas.
Perhaps Ted Kennedy was right. The WIA will indeed impact every employer, worker, and student as it expands government control over job training and job placement of all Americans. Whether or not state legislators and business leaders realize it, this federal intrusion will transform our free market economy and representative government into the same type of centrally-planned system that has failed in other parts of the world, including the former Soviet Union.
Good people with good intentions are involved in implementing this system. But we must look down the road and see where it will ultimately lead us. I appeal especially to government and business leaders to consider policies that will allow America to continue as a land of true freedom and economic opportunity.
Swenson (e-mail: jswenson @minn.net) of St. Paul is one of nine Pioneer Press Community Columnists for 2001. A quadriplegic because of a 1980 car accident, she is assistant director of the Spinal Cord Society, Twin Cities chapter. She has degrees in elementary education and counseling psychology.