PathWays PA Policy Blog

From our friends at NNSP Young people sometimes struggle to connect their education with the job market, especially in this economy. It can be hard to know which jobs will be hiring, what to study, and where to go to school. Meanwhile, NNSP hears more and more often from employers that young people need to get going as soon as possible on gaining the skills and credentials required for good jobs. We’re happy to say that there’s a new resource that can help. Our partner organization in the Campaign to Invest in America’s Workforce, Young Invincibles, has created the Skills That Work toolkit in order to help young people make smart choices. It provides labor market information for each state in a format designed to help them understand their options. The toolkit can help guide young people into successful careers. For example, it makes it possible to quickly find out what fields of study have the best employment prospects in a state, and what educational credentials the fastest g...

This Adult Education and Family Literacy Week, please take a moment to tell your legislators about the need for job training and educational opportunities for adults.  While nearly 2/3rds of jobs will require some form of postsecondary education by 2018, 90 million adults in the United States will not be ready to meet those needs . We need job-training opportunities as part of any job plan to ensure that all workers and employers can take advantage of the current job market and help prepare America for the future. Please take a moment to tell your legislators how important job-training is.

From our friends at the PA Fund for Workforce Solutions Pennsylvania's Industry Partnership Program became law yesterday along with 45 other bills recently passed by the General Assembly. Governor Corbett signed the Industry Partnership legislation making it officially state statute and completing what has been two years of legislative activity involving all four caucuses, two Governors, multiple state government agencies, and countless business and individual advocates and supporters. With passage of SB 552 and the line item funding of Industry Partnerships in the 2011-2012 General Fund Budget, Pennsylvania's nationally recognized workforce development program will continue for another year. For his part in this progress, Governor Corbett deserves congratulations for delivering quickly on his commitment to maintain the Industry Partnership program. Thank you to all who actively supported Industry Partnerships — this victory belongs to you! It is also a triumph for pragma...

From our friends at PA Partners . Thanks to your calls, letters and e-mails in support of Industry Partnerships, the Pennsylvania House Labor and Industry Committee unanimously approved SB 552, Senator Mike Brubaker's bill to establish the Industry Partnership program by statute! SB 552 must now be considered on three separate days by the full House of Representatives, and then the PA Senate must concur. Before the bill was voted on, the Committee unanimously adopted one amendment to the proposal . This amendment was sought by the state's Career and Technical Administrators to clarify language regarding high priority occupations. The PA Partners website will be updated with any additional information as the process unfolds. You may view those updates at www.papartners.org/take-action .

The Working Poor Families Project (WPFP) has recently provided updated data on the conditions of working families in the U.S. a whole, the fifty states, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. These data are the quantitative data generated for WPFP by the Population Reference Bureau from American Community Survey (ACS) 2009 and the Current Population Survey (CPS) 2010. The data give a comprehensive picture of the economic and demographic realities of Pennsylvania’s working poor families. Working poor families often earn too much to qualify for significant government benefits, but often they do not earn enough to make ends meet. The data below are a snapshot of the challenges faced by Pennsylvania’s working poor families and highlight the areas where these families are particularly vulnerable. The following data are for Pennsylvania: • 69.5% of families who earn less than 200% of the federal poverty line (FPL) are working families (334,650 families <200% that are working/ 4...

During this Recession we have heard many stories and statistics about workers losing their jobs and being unable to find a new one. According to a new study released by the Working Poor Families Project , the Recession has also meant that workers who have kept or found new jobs are also struggling to make ends meet. Below are some of the key findings from the study: There were more than 10 million low-income working families in the United States, an increase of nearly a quarter million from the previous year. According to the Working Poor Families Project, a “low-income” family is one earning below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, or $43, 512 for a family of four. Forty-five million people, including 22 million children, lived in low-income working families, an increase of 1.7 million people from 2008. The share of working families earning less than double the official poverty threshold increased from 28 to 30 percent between 2007 and 2009. Between 2007 and 2009, the share ...

Thanks to our friends at the Center for American Progress for putting this together.  If you have trouble viewing the video below, please go to their website .

A new joint study by the University of Michigan and the University of California Los Angeles recently did a statistical analysis of 2,350 children to learn some of the best predictors of their math and reading achievement. What they learned is that the best predictor is not family income, or the child's neighborhood, or even the mother's amount of schooling. The best predictor, according to the study, is the mother's reading level . This outcome is no surprise to educators and participants of adult literacy classes, who have long seen the value in providing educational opportunities to adults.  However, in Pennsylvania, that value is not always backed by funding.  Over the past two years, the budget allocation for adult literacy has decreased by 50%. Meanwhile, GED classes are filling more quickly than ever. Even though the fiscal year just began in July, many counties have run out of space in their programs and begun waiting lists. Eighty percent of jobs in tod...

As we mentioned a few weeks ago , nearly 43,000 adults in Pennsylvania may be losing their health insurance early next year when adultBasic, an affordable health care option for adults who have recently lost health coverage and meet certain income guidelines, runs out of money.  In addition to writing a letter to legislators in support of the program, there is also an opportunity to sign on to a letter asking the Governor-elect to take action on adultBasic.  People using the adultBasic system can also tell their stories to Athena Ford so that those stories can be shared with legislators and the news media. adultBasic is close to running out of money due to a cut in funding from the state Tobacco Settlement and lower-than-expected payment rates from insurance companies who fund the programs .  As The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports, most adultBasic funding comes from the state's Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies, who in past years have contributed between $81.9 mill...

As many of you already know, the Pennsylvania House has decided to come back into session on Monday to vote on legislation. While we support this decision, a one-day session will not be long enough to pass some important legislation, including the Industry Partnership bill (SB 1409). This bill, which has broad bipartisan support, needs additional session days so it can be reported out of the Labor Relations Committee and added to the House calendar. With your help, this important legislation can move forward. What can you do? Please call your legislator and House leadership to ask them to extend the session for a few more days. If you support Industry Partnerships, your message to them can be: "The Industry Partnership program has proven itself to be valuable to Pennsylvania's businesses and employees. Please extend the session for a few more days so that SB 1409 and other important legislation can be considered this year." In addition to calling your leg...

In our previous blog post, we looked at a recent study on the cost of college across the country, and how that cost is declining .  One group this study does not focus on, unfortunately, is nontraditional students.  Instead, it focuses on full-time enrollees, usually made up of recent high school graduates.  Nontraditional students, in comparison, often attend school part-time (or less than part-time), work part-time or full-time, and often juggle family responsibilities as well as work and school.  So, while the out-of-pocket costs for students has decreased for many full-time students, the same may not apply to nontraditional students.  Nontraditional students often do not qualify for Pell grants , for instance, which are seen as playing an important role in bringing down the cost of college. But the needs of nontraditional students are important, especially here in Pennsylvania, where half of all jobs (51 percent) require some postsecondary educ...

In the College Board's latest breakdown of tuition costs for students , researchers have found that while the cost of tuition is on the upswing for students, the combination of grants and loans they receive has actually brought their out-of-pocket costs down .  Total grant aid increased by about 22 percent in 2009-2010, with much of the increase due to Federal Pell grants and Veterans' Benefits . But when it comes to higher education as a whole, even when counting federal stimulus spending, Pennsylvania ranked 6th lowest in state tax appropriations for higher education per $1,000 in personal income.  In other words, only five other states used a smaller percentage of taxes based on income to pay for higher education.  On average in the United States, $6.60 is appropriated per $1,000 of personal income for higher education.  In Pennsylvania, that number is just a little over $4.00. To learn more about the report, you can find it at http://advocacy.collegeboard.o...

In our recent report, Pennsylvania's Workforce: The Role of Community Colleges , PathWays PA explored the position of community colleges in Pennsylvania in educating our adult workforce.  While we looked specifically at affordability, accessibility, and student readiness, we also included a special focus on distance learning as a potential solution to all three problems.  In it, we concluded that while distance learning may solve some of the issues adult students face, partnerships to create a traditional classroom background to distance learning (such as short-term or developmental classes held by local organizations and supervised computer labs) would be needed to overcome other barriers. A recent study featured in today's New York Times shows that other, less-anticipated barriers may also arise in the pursuit of distance learning.  For one semester, the University of Florida offered the same lecture class on microeconomics in a classroom setting and online.  W...

Last week, legislation putting the Industry Partnership program into statute passed out of the Senate with a vote of 40-9.  The last step for this important legislation is for it to be voted out of the House without amendment in the next few weeks.  Please take a moment to thank your Senator if he or she voted for the bill.  Below is a sample letter that you might want to use. Dear Senator, We just wanted to take a moment to thank you for voting for Senate Bill 1409, the Industry Partnership legislation. This program gives Pennsylvania the opportunity to increase productivity and competitiveness in our Commonwealth and is highly valued by employers statewide. As you know, Industry Partnerships consist of groups of businesses with similar product markets and skill needs that identify and address their common workforce education and training issues. These partnerships currently include more than 6,300 employers in Pennsylvania and have trained more than 73,000 indivi...

On Tuesday, October 12, PathWays PA and the Coalition for Healthy Families and Workplaces held a press conference to draw attention to a new report from the Drum Major Institute showing the effect earned sick days will likely have on Pennsylvania.  Below is a quote from an article in The Huffington Post : Yet Philly may be moving faster to address a problem that's pressing in both cities. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that a hearing on paid sick time is expected in Philadelphia this fall. Meanwhile, in New York, the City Council has held multiple hearings, but it's unclear when the bill will come to the floor for a vote. Councilman William Greenlee , co-sponsor of the Philadelphia bill, offered a sports analogy, insisting that Philadelphia would prove its policy leadership on paid sick time just as the Phillies would surely trounce the Yankees. To read the full article, visit The Huffington Post. Please also take a moment to read some of the other news from the DMI ...

From the Delaware County Daily Times: ...But elected officials in Harrisburg are sitting on an opportunity to put an extra $273 million in the unemployment compensation pot. HB 2400, whose prime sponsor is Marc J. Gergely, D-Allegheny, would give the commonwealth the opportunity to do that. By modernizing unemployment insurance, Pennsylvania can receive millions from the federal government while supporting unemployed workers and families. The amendment to an act formulated in 1936 would not only bring funding to Pennsylvania, it would ensure that more workers and families who paid into the unemployment insurance system earn their fair share of compensation upon being laid off from their jobs.... Please read the whole article, including a quote from Carol Goertzel, President/CEO of PathWays PA.

by Mark S. Schweiker, 44th governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania As the state Senate comes into the homestretch of a difficult legislative session , it has a chance to take a major step forward for Pennsylvania’s businesses and economy by passing Lancaster County Republican Sen. Mike Brubaker’s Industry Partnership legislation. Pennsylvania’s 70-plus Industry (training) Partnerships tied to key industry clusters in each region are the foundation of a 21st century human capital infrastructure that is becoming a key competitive advantage for the state. At their most basic, Industry Partnerships fix a long-standing flaw in government training programs: They bring businesses together to identify skill gaps and to ensure that training plugs those gaps.  This is a vast improvement on a tradition of training by providers without deep ties to employers. Many of the training needs that Industry Partnerships identify focus on mid-skill technical jobs critical to competitiveness...

Last week, PathWays PA held a series of presentations focused on community colleges at the national and state level.  Presenters included Vickie Choitz from CLASP and Brandon Roberts from the Working Poor Families Project as well as information from PathWays PA.  For those who are interested, the presentations are viewable below.  PathWays PA's newest report, " Pennsylvania's Workforce: The Role of Community Colleges" can be found on our website. CLASP Presentation Working Poor Families Project Presentation PathWays PA Presentation

Today, PathWays PA had the privilege of speaking at a meeting of the Delaware Valley Grantmakers to discuss the " perfect storm " of policy and economic issues that will be coming to a head by the end of this year.  Among those issues are the end of the Way to Work program , the lack of extensions for unemployment compensation , the need for adult literacy and Industry Partnerships , and the impact of domestic violence in Pennsylvania.  To learn more, please download our report !

Please take a moment to read this article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and then take action on Industry Partnerships! It seems like an easy thing to do -- businesses maintaining links with schools and training programs that provide the skills needed in prospective employees. But rapidly changing technology and shifting needs at the workplace can make it difficult for companies, many of them small and with few workers, to find the new hires qualified to do today's jobs. A Pennsylvania program, however, backed by business and labor called Industry Partnerships helps industries identify their training needs and communicate that to education partners. They, in turn, develop and deliver the training, creating job applicants who show up ready to work with the desired skills. The idea began under Gov. Richard Schweiker and came to fruition under Gov. Ed Rendell. Today almost 6,300 Pennsylvania employers in 20 industries participate in 74 partnerships that have trained more than 7...