Job Payoff for Teens
Boston’s business leaders made an intriguing offer several years ago. If the public schools improved, high school graduates would be given the first shot at jobs. The Boston Compact has paid off with a dramatic success in teen-age employment.
Boston is the only city in the nation where white and minority employment is nearly equal for recent high school graduates. The near parity dates back to 1985, three years after the compact began, a time when all high school graduates faced a 19.5% unemployment rate, and minorities faced a 50% unemployment rate. But in Boston, 61% of white high school graduates were working and 60% of minority graduates also had jobs. There has been no letup: 90% of recent graduates are working or going to college.
Boston’s success has led to many spinoff programs. The National Alliance of Business is directing projects in 12 other cities with the same goals--better schools and a better-trained work force--although the approaches differ. In Detroit, according to the NAB, a sense of crisis motivated the business community to get organized and back school reform. In Cincinnati, Procter & Gamble took the lead and top executives personally spent 15 hours a week to launch an educational program that embraces preschool through high school.
In Los Angeles, the United Neighborhoods Organization and South-Central Organizing Committee persuaded business, government and school leaders to sign a similar compact for graduates of six public high schools. But the results have been disappointing. The original criteria--a 2.5 grade-point average and a 95% attendance record--focused on students who were more likely to go to college rather than seek a job after graduation.
It is encouraging to note that the Los Angeles business community is taking the lead with a new partnership, dubbed Work Force LA. The task force includes the mayor, the state and Los Angeles superintendents of schools, the chancellor of the community colleges and business leaders, including members of the California Business Roundtable. Work Force LA will concentrate on Mayor Tom Bradley’s new program to place 1,000 at-risk youngsters in city jobs and solicit commitments for additional jobs from major corporations. It is an effort that deserves the community’s full and long-term support.
