Marc H. Morial
President and CEO
National Urban League
With the end of the school year a few months away, the prospects of putting America's
youth to work to keep them off the streets this summer are pretty meager, especially
for those living in urban areas, given the lack of federal support and competition for
these jobs from other sectors of society.
In 1974, near the end of his administration, President Richard M. Nixon injected nearly
$400 million into Uncle Sam's so-called Summer Jobs Program, which has been
around in some form or another since the 1960s. In 1999, the program was funded at
$871 million and served 500,000 at-risk youth. Since then, the federal government has
pretty much taken itself out of the summer youth employment business.
In 1998, the U.S. Congress took steps to replace the Job Training Partnership Act,
which had funded the Summer Jobs Program in the past, with the Workforce
Investment Act (WIA). WIA, which went into full effect in 2000, brought systematic
change to workforce development in our nation and essentially ended the program as it
was known for decades.
It went from a standalone program
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