Education Funding

Chicago Faces Potential Loss of 18,000 Summer Jobs for Youth

By Samuel Barnett, Catalyst Chicago — May 06, 2011 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

On the same day as the release of a bleak report on summer employment for teens, well over 100 students and community leaders gathered at the Chicago Urban League this week to plead for continued funding for youth jobs.

A panel of state and county politicians heard testimony from students on the benefits of summer jobs, including their effectiveness at keeping young people off the streets and away from illegal behavior.

“There is a direct connection between this and violence,” said Tevin Jackson, a student at West Town Academy. “If there’s no jobs, we’re going to find other ways to make money.”

Over the last two years, federal stimulus money helped bankroll many youth jobs in Chicago. Those funds have now dried up.

Jack Wuest, the executive director of the Alternative Schools Network and one of the event’s organizers, said that a total of 18,000 jobs would disappear from the city if money does not come from elsewhere.

The news comes just as researchers at Northeastern University in Boston released a report outlining the steady decline in youth jobs nationwide over the past decade, and predicting a further drop-off this summer.

“The past four-year trend, and record low projections of teen summer employment rates for 2011, reflect the nation’s continued weakened job market and the lack of political will to support our most precious asset – children,” said Chicago Urban League President Andrea Zopp in a statement. (Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel recently picked Zopp as a member of the incoming Chicago School Board.)

Wuest is looking to the state, currently beset by its own budget woes, to fill in the funding gap.

“The hope is to raise the issues, that some legislators will listen, and, as dire as the budget is, there will be some push to employ students with state money,” he said.

“Some call it the Great Recession,” Wuest later added. “For youth, you’d have to call it the Great Depression.”

Wuest says that Gov. Pat Quinn has expressed support for youth summer jobs, but that he doesn’t know where the money to pay for them would come from. For their part, the elected officials at the event said they did not want to see funding cuts.

“This gives us the ammunition to go back to our colleagues and say ‘enough’s enough,’” said state Sen. Maria Antonia Berrios, D-Chicago.

Politicians also urged those gathered to begin petitioning the governor and other politicians. Cook County Commissioner Earlean Collins said young people needed to be more of a priority in budget decisions, but that such change would only result from civic action on the part of young people themselves.

“Just as young people in this country came together for the Barack Obama campaign, you all need to come together around youth and student rights,” she said.

Republished with permission from Catalyst Chicago. Copyright © 2011 Community Renewal Society.
A version of this article appeared in the May 11, 2011 edition of Education Week as Chicago Faces Potential Loss of 18,000 Summer Jobs for Youth

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Student Well-Being Webinar
The Ripple Effect: Mental Health & Student Outcomes
Learn how student mental health impacts outcomes—and how to use that data to support your school’s IEP funding strategy.
Content provided by Huddle Up
Artificial Intelligence K-12 Essentials Forum How AI Use Is Expanding in K-12 Schools
Join this free virtual event to explore how AI technology is—and is not—improving K-12 teaching and learning.
Federal Webinar The Trump Budget and Schools: Subscriber Exclusive Quick Hit
EdWeek subscribers, join this 30-minute webinar to find out what the latest federal policy changes mean for K-12 education.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Funding Trump Asks Congress to Slash Billions in Education Funding—and 'Preserve' Title I
A White House budget proposal calls for consolidating grants, eliminating key funding streams, and ramping up charter school investments.
8 min read
Vector illustration of business persons tightening the purse/finances.
iStock/Getty
Education Funding Trump's Spending Plans Are Late—Raising Worries About K-12 Funds
The executive branch has three opportunities in the near future to detail its education funding priorities in writing—but it hasn't yet.
10 min read
Image of a dollar bill with the Capitol in the center.
DigitalVision Vectors
Education Funding Trump Wants to Gut Head Start. He's Already Begun
More than 800,000 students would lose access to early childhood education if Trump's draft budget proposal is enacted.
11 min read
Willow Palmer, 5, at right, comforts classmate River Yang, 3, as he sits in the safe place nook at the Meadow Lakes CCS Early Learning, a Head Start center, May 6, 2024, in Wasilla, Alaska.
Willow Palmer, 5, at right, comforts classmate River Yang, 3, as he sits in the safe place nook at the Meadow Lakes CCS Early Learning, a Head Start center, on May 6, 2024 in Wasilla, Alaska. Since the start of the Trump administration, Head Start programs have had difficulty accessing their funding and have lost many of the federal contacts they worked with due to layoffs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Now, they're anticipating a budget proposal from the White House that eliminates funding for the early childhood program.
Lindsey Wasson/AP
Education Funding Explainer Trump’s Push to Slash Federal K-12 School Funds, Explained
A rundown of the biggest threats to federal funds for schools, what's allowed and what's not, and how Congress might intervene—or not.
12 min read
Illustration of cutting dollar sign with scissors. Concept on the topic of devaluation of money.
iStock/Getty