Clinton Seeks $1 Billion for Job Retraining

Pledging to close “the skills gap,” President Clinton proposed nearly $1 billion in new and increased spending Thursday to retrain dislocated workers, teach illiterate adults to read and increase job opportunities for disadvantaged youth.

The president traveled to this Washington suburb to announce the details from his latest budget proposals at a training facility jointly run by AT&T;, Lucent Technologies, the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Clinton was enthusiastically received by the 1,300 workers at the facility, whose work involves customer relations, equipment maintenance and billing.

“What we have now is a situation in America where the income gap, that we all know widened over the previous 20 years or so, is largely a skills gap, and that it applies across all kinds of industries,” Clinton said. “We have to close that skills gap.”

The items highlighted by Clinton included $190 million in increased spending for adult education and family literacy programs, $368 million more for job retraining assistance and $405 million to increase youth employment.

For disadvantaged youth, the package calls for a new $100-million program promoting partnerships between schools and employers to reduce school dropout rates and a $33-million increase in YouthBuild, a program that puts at-risk young people to work rehabilitating housing for low-income and homeless families.