BILL NUMBER: AJR 13	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


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

   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.