California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Joint Resolution No. 13

Introduced by Assembly Member Hueso

(Principal coauthor: Senator Steinberg)

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Atkins, Brown, Lowenthal, and Pan)

(Coauthors: Senators Leno and Wright)

February 21, 2013

Assembly Joint Resolution No. 13—Relative to pupils.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AJR 13, as introduced, Hueso. Labor: Job Corps centers.

This measure would state that the Legislature supports the Congressional action to reverse the suspension of new student enrollments in Job Corps, to prevent any limits to student enrollment until other cost-saving measures have been exhausted, and to maintain the full range of educational and employment services provided by Job Corps.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, The State of California serves the largest proportion
of Job Corps students administered by the United States
Department of Labor. Currently, there are seven Job Corps centers
located in California in the Cities of San Francisco, San Jose,
Sacramento, Long Beach, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San
Diego; and

WHEREAS, These seven Job Corps centers provide a vital piece
of California’s workforce development system by serving 5,373
disadvantaged youth between 16 and 24 years of age, inclusive,
by providing high school diplomas and career technical education
to young men and women, all of whom come from very low
income households and are unemployed or underemployed; and

WHEREAS, In addition to academic and employment training,
these Job Corps centers provide social skills training and other
services to empower these young men and women to obtain and
hold a job, enroll in advanced training, attend college, or enter the
Armed Forces to defend the interests of the United States around
the world; and

WHEREAS, Over 8,000 former dropouts have received fully
accredited public high school diplomas at the Job Corps centers
and thousands more unemployed youth have received career
training and job placement assistance; and

WHEREAS, The young men and women who participate in Job
Corps gain job skills for well-paying careers in construction, health
care, culinary arts, security services, and other employment sectors
vital to the California economy; and

WHEREAS, Recent studies demonstrate a significant economic
gain from funds invested in dropout recovery by increasing
employment, raising individual earnings, improving home and
auto sales, increased job and economic growth, greater spending
and investments, and tax revenues, and significant reductions in
health care costs, crime prevention and corrections expenditures,
and other social services provided by California; and

WHEREAS, The National Job Corps Association reports that
the combined economic activity stimulated by the Job Corps
centers in California is $243,726,519, and that 2,971 local jobs are
created by the operation of the Job Corps centers in California;
and

WHEREAS, The United States Department of Labor is entrusted
to serve the disadvantaged youth in America. However, the United
States Department of Labor recently decided to suspend all new
student enrollments to Job Corps centers in California and
throughout the 125 Job Corps centers serving the nation, which
would prevent as many as 30,000 otherwise eligible young men
and women from receiving diplomas and job training; and

WHEREAS, The United States Department of Labor’s decision
appears to be inequitably balancing a budget shortfall on the backs
of the disadvantaged youth it is entrusted to serve when other
alternatives are available for closing the shortfall; and

WHEREAS, Seventy-one members of the United States House
of Representatives and seventeen members of the United States
Senate have sent a bipartisan letter asking Acting Secretary and
Deputy Secretary of Labor, Seth D. Harris, to reverse the
suspension of new student enrollments in order to protect the
opportunities provided to the nation’s most disadvantaged youth
and to prevent further economic damage to the communities served
by the Job Corps; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of
California, jointly, That the Legislature supports the United States
congressional action to reverse the suspension of new student
enrollments in the Job Corps, to prevent any limits to student
enrollment until other cost-saving measures have been exhausted,
and to maintain the full range of educational and employment
services provided by the Job Corps; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United
States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the
Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and
Representative from California in the Congress of the United
States.