Welcome Reform on Jobs

Once again Congress seems mired in fiercely partisan confrontations over hot-button issues like illegal campaign contributions and affirmative action. Not all, however, is gridlock. Today the Senate is expected to pass a bill overhauling and streamlining the government’s 163 job training, adult education and vocational programs. Not only does the bill provide overdue reform, it has broad bipartisan support. Its authors are Republicans Mike DeWine of Ohio and James M. Jeffords of Vermont and staunchly liberal Democrats Paul Wellstone of Minnesota and Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Reform can’t come soon enough. Employers have grown increasingly frustrated over a national shortage of skilled workers--the number of unfilled jobs in the high-technology sector alone is estimated at 346,000. Meanwhile, downsized workers are getting lost in Washington’s dizzying maze of programs supervised by a dozen different agencies that rarely coordinate their efforts.

The key reform in the Senate bill, as in a similar House bill, loosens federal rules that prevent states from creating one-stop shopping centers that consolidate related services like job training and child care. States would be given new responsibilities along with their freedom. To receive federal funding, they will have to ensure that unemployment insurance recipients are promptly directed toward appropriate job training or career counseling programs. States will also be required to implement measures to assess the number of people placed, their wages and length of employment.

If the Senate bill passes today, a conference committee will be formed to integrate it with the House counterpart. The committee should ensure that streamlining the bill is not used as an excuse to cut back on the federal government’s current $8-billion job training and vocational education spending. Instead, Congress should consider additional steps to improve job training, like giving tax write-offs to potential workers who pay for their own training.

Improved accountability, efficiency and coordination are key to enabling the United States to respond to the ever-shifting needs of the information economy. And for workers who show up in government offices in a genuine attempt to cope with this economy, there should be no wrong door.