Comments, Recomendations and Testimony
CFY actively submits comments, recommendations, and testimony to the Administration and Congress to advance a set of recommendations on policies and investments that would dramatically improve the education, economic, and life outcomes for vulnerable and disconnected youth.
March 31, 2010: Letter to House and Senate Budget Committee Members
As you continue to prepare the budget for fiscal year 2011, we ask that you to build on the ARRA investments in the Departments of Labor (DOL). In particular, we encourage you to increase opportunities for low-income and disconnected youth and young adults with limited labor market access to training, education supports, and good jobs that will help spur economic development in local communities across the nation. Specifically, we urge Congress to increase funding for the Department of Labor's youth training and employment programs by $3 Billion.
December 18, 2009: Letter to House Education and Labor Committee Leadership on Jobs Bill
The Campaign for Youth is quite concerned about the level of funding dedicated to disconnected youth and young adults in the in the "Jobs for Main Street" legislation and the exclusion of out-of-school youth and year-round employment and training activities. While the inclusion youth service corps strategies to spur job development and the $500 million for youth summer employment and training is encouraging, these investments are not nearly enough to address the dismal employment situation of youth and young adults.
The Investing in Innovation (I3) Fund offers local education agencies (LEAs) and nonprofit organizations an opportunity to rethink how they educate children and youth and to use school reform efforts as a foundational vehicle to work across sectors and explore new and innovative ways to support student learning from birth through postsecondary education. Our comments and recommendations relate specifically to ensuring the needs of struggling students and disconnected youth are adequately addressed.
Resources through School Improvement Grants offer our nation's most challenged school districts an opportunity to utilize best practices to rethink time and learning and provide our children and youth with a first-rate education experience. The rigorous interventions included in the School Improvement Grants Notice will not only raise the bar for the nation's lowest performing schools but it will provide state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) with the tools, strategies, and resources to effectively turn schools around and support our most disadvantaged students. Our comments and recommendations relate specifically to giving increased attention to struggling students and disconnected youth.
The Serve America Act also offers new and innovative ways to consider the idea of Service as a platform for making public and private investments in education, workforce, training and community development. From the vigorous expansion of service opportunities to the clear commitment and focus on youth, especially those in disadvantaged situations, Serve America can support redefining the use of service in establishing career pathways, promoting training and skills development, and spurring innovation in education.
Congress will soon reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act. This is an opportunity to focus on needs of youth who are undereducated and unskilled in a labor market that requires increased education, credentials and skills to access good jobs with decent wages. WIA reauthorization can set a vision for how the nation intends to respond to the challenges and define the role that WIA can play in tandem with other federal funding streams - such as ESEA, Perkins, IDEA, national service - that can help prepare youth to compete in today's economy.
The Race to The Top Fund will pave the way for sustainable reforms that transform the educational experience for American students. Our comments are centered around increasing the focus on students who have dropped out through targeting investments for dropout recovery and providing state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) with strategic direction to implement innovative models to reengage youth who have dropped out.
January 29, 2009: Letter to Congress on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
The Campaign for Youth urged Senate and House leadership to ensure young people were fully engaged as part of the recovery and rebuilding of the nation's economy and infrastructure and to target investments to connect disadvantaged and disconnected youth and young adults to good jobs that are created as a result of economic recovery and revitalization.
