An interesting report on unemployment was released last week on the same day Democratic mayoral nominee Vincent C. Gray pushed out Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. It underscored the importance of aggressive, unimpeded education reform in the nation’s capital.
The D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute’s “Packing a Punch” examined the effect of the recession on District residents; it found those hit hardest — mostly African-Americans and Latinos — lacked college degrees. Only 21 percent of black D.C. residents over 25 years old have college degrees, while 80 percent of whites in that age group have them.
“Employment among D.C. residents with high school education is at the lowest level in 30 years,” said the report’s authors, Ed Lazere, the institute’s executive director, and Max Brauer, a 2010 summer intern.
It’s not surprising “the Great Recession” would more severely affect people without adequate educational cushions. Even during the best economic periods, that group has been consistently at the bottom rung of the economic ladder.
Certainly, there are some historical antecedents that explain the employment and education gap between whites and blacks. It wasn’t until 1954 that the Supreme Court stepped in to desegregate schools, ending — at least in theory — separate but equal education systems. During subsequent decades — even as the city came under African-American control — many residents continued to receive substandard education. Generations of children graduated high school as functional illiterates without the requisite foundation to enter college or with minimal other tools to succeed.
The parents of many of those children probably lacked necessary skills and education, Lazere told me earlier this week. Now the children are adults and they also don’t have the training or skills.
“There has to be a much greater focus on the parents,” he continued. “I don’t think we can save the children if we’re not helping the parents.”
But the local job market, like much of the city, has changed dramatically. Once upon a time, a high school diploma was sufficient for entry-level positions in the private and public sector. Then, computers weren’t at the center of service delivery; “outsourcing” wasn’t a household word; and China wasn’t purchasing America’s debt.
Today, jobs in the District often are specialized, high-tech and professional, requiring, in some instances, educational and skills mastery beyond a bachelor’s degree. Still, the report argues for more vocational and technical training.
“I’m not suggesting we are going to overnight get everybody into a living-wage job,” Lazere said. “But it’s worth a try.”
Democratic mayoral nominee Gray has made a similar argument. But many of the city’s unemployed are considered chronically unemployed. They have other issues — substance abuse, mental illness or other medical problems. Getting them ready for work is an expensive proposition for a city facing a severe budget crisis.
As a practical matter, elected officials and good liberals, like Lazere, may have to accept it’s far better and less costly to save the children — before they become a new generation of unemployable adults.
Jonetta Rose Barras’s column appears on Monday and Wednesday. She can be reached at [email protected].
