California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 2615

Introduced by Assembly Member Muratsuchi

February 21, 2014

An act to add Section 14212 to the Unemployment Insurance Code, relating to unemployment, and making an appropriation therefor.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 2615, as introduced, Muratsuchi. Unemployment: workforce development.

The federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998 provides for workforce investment activities, including activities in which states may participate. Existing law contains various programs for job training and employment investment, including work incentive programs, as specified. Existing law requires the local chief elected officials in a local workforce development area, to form, pursuant to specified guidelines, a local workforce investment board to plan and oversee the workforce investment system.

This bill would transfer $25,000,000 from the General Fund to the Work-Based Learning Fund, which the bill would create in the State Treasury, for the purpose of funding work-based learning programs for out-of-school youth and young adults. This bill would appropriate the moneys in the Work-Based Learning Fund to the California Workforce Investment Board, which would develop a competitive grant program to allocate those moneys to local workforce investment boards and community-based organizations that administer Workforce Investment Act youth programs. This bill would require the local workforce investment boards and the community-based organizations to report specified information to the California Workforce Investment Board, and would require the California Workforce Investment Board to report specified information to the Legislature and the Governor, as provided.

Vote: ²⁄₃. Appropriation: yes. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:

(a) According to the State Department of Education, in 2012,
California’s high school graduation rate was 78.5 percent and the
high school dropout rate was 13.2 percent. The dropout rates were
higher for students of color, English learners, migrants, special
education students, and socioeconomically disadvantaged students.
The dropout rates for the following student groups was as follows:

(1) 16.2 percent for Hispanic students.

(2) 22.2 percent for African American students.

(3) 23.7 percent for English learners.

(4) 16.4 percent for migrant students.

(5) 17.2 percent for special education students.

(6) 16.4 percent for socioeconomically disadvantaged students.

(b) While California’s unemployment rate is 8.3 percent as of
December 2013, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most
recent data, the unemployment rate of California youth and young
adults, 16 to 24 years of age is 20.2 percent, which is the 4th
highest in the nation and much higher than the adult unemployment
rate. Young people have been especially hard hit by the Great
Recession and are often not able to compete with older, more
experienced workers for low-wage jobs.

(c) Investment is needed to connect young people to the work
force and provide them with the skills, experience, and training to
have successful careers and become productive members of society.
Work-based learning opportunities for youth who are no longer
in school and who are either unemployed or underemployed, can
help reconnect these youth back to school, and ultimately lead to
full-time jobs. This can lead to a reduction in crime rates and gang
violence among young people.

(d) By working, youth get far more than a paycheck. They make
connections that can set them on a course to success. Young people
who are engaged in work-based learning discover careers that they
never knew existed, meet adults with life experience to share, and
gain new inspiration to do well academically. Studies show that
early work experience leads to higher high school graduation rates,
higher life-long earnings, and a greater likelihood of further
education.

(e) Investments in work-based learning opportunities for young
people have been drastically cut or eliminated over the last two
decades. In the 1998-99 fiscal year, the summer youth employment
program was cut from the federal budget resulting in a loss of
$150.6 million to California. The Youth Opportunity Grant was
also eliminated and Title II-C funding for economically
disadvantaged youth was reduced to the 1995 level of $130 million.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funded several
youth job training programs, but this funding has been exhausted.
California needs to act now to invest in our youth.

SEC. 2.  

Section 14212 is added to the Unemployment Insurance
Code, to read:

14212.  

(a) For the purposes of this section:

(1) “Community-based organization” means an organization
exempt from federal income taxes as an organization described in
Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code that performs work
on behalf of a Local Workforce Investment Board (LWIB).

(2) “Work-based learning” means paid employment
opportunities in the public or private sector that reinforces
academics and deepens career and workplace-related knowledge.

(b) Twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000) shall be
transferred from the General Fund to the Work-Based Learning
Fund, which is hereby created in the State Treasury, on January
1, 2015, for the purpose of funding work-based learning programs
for out-of-school youth and young adults who are 16 to 24 years
of age, inclusive, and the administrative costs relating to allocating
those moneys.

(c) The moneys in the Work-Based Learning Fund shall be
appropriated to the California Workforce Investment Board
(CWIB) on January 1, 2015, which shall develop a competitive
grant program to allocate the moneys in the Work-Based Learning
Fund. CWIB may allocate those moneys to LWIBs and
community-based organizations that administer Workforce
Investment Act youth programs (CBOs) if the LWIB or CBO
demonstrates that it will receive money from another public or
private entity or nonmonetary donations. CWIB shall use the
following criteria to choose which LWIBs and CBOs shall receive
the moneys:

(1) Previous success in offering work-based learning to youth
and young adults. Success shall be based on the level of full-time
employment, obtainment of high school diplomas or passage of
general educational development tests, and completion of
community colleges courses, any vocational certificate or degrees
receive, and entrance into the military, by youth and young adults
participating in the program.

(2) Partnerships with government entities, businesses, and
community-based organization that will provide work-based
learning.

(3) Unemployment rate and poverty rate in the area that is served
by the LWIBs and the CBO.

(d) A LWIB or CBO shall obtain the following information and
report it to the CWIB:

(1) Type of employment placement (public, private, or
nonprofit).

(2) Employer demographics, including the name and address
of the firm.

(3) Industry sector.

(4) Position or job title.

(5) Wage.

(e) (1) CWIB shall submit a report to the Legislature and the
Governor, on or before January 1, 2018, detailing the following
issues related to the programs of the LWIBs and CBOs that are
receiving the moneys from the Work-Place Learning Fund:

(A) Effectiveness of the work-based learning programs of the
LWIBs and CBOs for out-of-school youth and young adults.

(B) The amount and source of the required moneys or
nonmonetary donations that the LWIBs and CBOs received.

(C) Listing of areas in the state where moneys were successfully
utilized.

(D) Employment and age information of participants in each
area that an LWIB or CBO that received moneys services.

(E) The involvement of employers in the design and
implementation of work-based learning.

(F) The number of high school diplomas and general educational
development tests passed, and vocational certificates or degrees.

(2) (A) The requirement for submitting a report imposed under
paragraph (1) is inoperative on January 1, 2022, pursuant to Section
10231.5 of the Government Code.

(B) A report to be submitted pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be
submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government
Code.