Bernie Sanders asks Congress to spend $5.5 billion on 1 million jobs for youths

[peecoolyour]

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday called on Congress to immediately fund a million jobs for disadvantaged young Americans, adding to a pile of high-cost plans that might only become reality if he prevails in his longshot bid for the White House.

Sanders’s bill, which he introduced in a D.C. neighborhood with relatively high unemployment and crime rates, would send $5.5 billion to local and state governments to fund job-training programs. Much of the money would go to helping unemployed African Americans. Sanders suggested the investment could pay for itself if it keeps more young black men out of jail.

“If current trends continue, 1 in 3 black males born today can expect to spend time in prison during his lifetime. This is an unspeakable tragedy,” Sanders said. “But this crisis is not just a destruction of human life. It is also very, very costly to the taxpayers.” Sanders pegged the country’s annual prison tab at $70 billion.

“It makes a lot more sense to me to be investing in jobs, in job training . . . than to be building more and more jails and to be locking more and more people up,” Sanders said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/bernie-sanders-asks-congress-to-spend-55-billion-on-1-million-jobs-for-youths/2015/06/04/0354e9dc-0ae6-11e5-9e39-0db921c47b93_story.html

[arcane1]

1. Sadly, those 1 in 3 black males will have modern-day slave jobs in prison.

Making money off locking them up, and making more putting them to work

[bravenak]

3. So true

[kenfrequed]

5. We have to do something about that too.

Sanders is opposing 'for-profit' prisons as they have driven up everything else with their lobbying activity. Getting rid of them would be a boon for all.

[HassleCat]

2. Already got one

Sanders is right, but he doesn't need to start a whole new program. Job Corps is already there, and operates at a cost of about $40k a year for each student. The program is poorly run, and needs serious reform to be more effective, but it does result in decent, permanent jobs for some of its graduates. I worked for Job Corps, at a center where we had mostly young black men from large cities, and the success rate is low, but it's more effective than giving money to local officials and expecting them to know what to do. Right idea, on the target, but not quite a bullseye.

[bravenak]

4. Job corps is crap

I knew people at job corps. I use to visit the one in Downtown LA. Shitty depressing place.

[HassleCat]

6. In spite of that

They do succeed in some cases. The problem is, they are run by people who are into "metrics." I don't know if you're familiar with that, but it's the same kind of number-mumbo-jumbo they use to punish poor schools in No Child Left Behind. It needs some serious reform, but it represents the framework for a good program. The problem with Sanders' suggestion is that the government will dump a bunch of money on various city governments, charter schools, etc. and most of it will just evaporate.