For the first time in 20 years, my wife and I are taking this summer off. We aren’t the only ones. As we walk around our Capitol Hill neighborhood, one of the additional sights and sounds this summer is the “Mayors Conservation Corps” which appears to be in permanent retreat.
Whether it is mid-morning and corps are hanging out en masse in Lincoln Park, or mid-afternoon and they are down at Eastern High School playing basketball, the only conservation the corps appear to engage in is conservation of their energy and talents.
That’s too bad.
Giving kids bogus jobs results in instilling bad work habits. It’s an affront to D.C. taxpayers to see our hard earned cash spent carelessly. And the District is missing a fabulous opportunity to develop our kids’ talents and generate revenue in the process.
It only takes a little imagination, some planning, and some hard work to turn the rag-tag Conservation Corps into a training ground for entrepreneurs and societal leaders.
Each year over 20 million visitors come to the National Mall with cash in their pockets and time on their hands. Most come to D.C. without absorbing the cultural highlights of the city of Duke Ellington and Pearl Bailey.
Many of the District’s schools have music programs that are the envy of the nation. When Eastern High School’s marching band parades down East Capitol Street, for example, it is more than parade, it is a full-scale show, with flash, style and talent exploding all around.
This wealth of talent deserves a stage and an audience. And that is where the District’s summer jobs program could come in. If the District could find a formula to match the talents of the youth with the desire of the District’s 20 million visitors to be entertained, the result would be pure gold for everyone.
Numerous sites could serve as a stage for D.C.’s talented kids. Freedom Plaza, for example, could be converted to a summer amphitheater with afternoon and evening shows. The same high school teachers and church music coordinators that do such a splendid job during the year, could be hired to select youthful performers, choreograph the show and train young District residents in the art of staging complex events.
Some of the kids who need a summer job could be employed as entertainers. Hundreds of kids could be given licenses to sell tickets, and be paid by a percentage of the revenue. Other kids could be given the start-up capital and training necessary to set up their own concession stands around the event.
Local businesses would likely jump on the opportunity to sponsor an event that gainfully employs, trains and develops the talents of D.C.’s youth. If the kids put on the kind of show we know they are capable of, within a summer, the D.C. all-stars would be a Washington must-see – with the revenue stream to match the success.
While all labor has value, do we really want to train our kids to pull weeds and collect trash? Even when we could be giving them the opportunity to use their talents and develop their skills to be entrepreneurs?
The D.C. Council has slashed funding for the summer jobs program. That doesn’t solve the problem. By thinking a little bit out of the box, we can make a little magic for D.C.’s greatest resource – our kids and our tourism- and make the program largely self-sustaining in the process.
James D. Standish, the former executive director of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, lives in Capitol Hill.
