Posted on 04/04/2004 7:36:06 PM PDT by knak
April 4 — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush, his reelection bid bolstered by robust job growth in March, will unveil a new jobs initiative on Monday aimed at doubling the number of Americans enrolled for skills training under a Clinton-era work-assistance measure, officials said.
During a speech at a Charlotte, North Carolina, community college, the Republican president will outline his plans to generate $300 million for new job training under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, or WIA, by reining in the costs and duplicate services of existing programs.
Bush's goal is to raise from 206,000 to 412,000 the number of Americans who receive full skills training each year as part of Labor Department programs established under the WIA.
He was also expected to address job training as it relates to high schools and colleges on Tuesday in a speech at a community college in Arkansas.
The initiatives are part of a White House counter-attack on critics including Democratic presidential contender John Kerry, who have blamed Bush policies for huge manufacturing job losses and sluggish job growth overall.
The economy is a major issue of the 2004 presidential election campaign.
Bush, whose top economic adviser caused an uproar this year by saying that outsourcing jobs abroad was good for U.S. companies and the economy, has countered by saying that job growth would result from his tax cuts, worker training and aggressive trade policies. The president got some good news on the employment issue last week, when the Labor Department said non-farm payrolls climbed an unexpectedly steep 308,000 jobs in March for the biggest gain in four years.
Senior administration officials, who spoke on condition on anonymity, told reporters on Sunday the new training initiative would provide workers with "innovation training accounts" and give state governors greater leeway in organizing training programs by reducing federal mandates.
The officials could not say how much new training was likely this year, however. Some l00,000 workers, or one-quarter of the president's target, would receive training from $250 million in new spending proposed in Bush's 2005 budget.
Under Bush's plan, workers would receive tax dollars through individual accounts to purchase job training services from corporations, "unions, faith-based providers, community colleges, other higher education institutions, trade and technical schools," one official said.
The programs would then be judged according to how long newly trained workers kept their new jobs and how well they were compensated.
The training programs earmarked for expansion are part of a $4 billion overall WIA employee assistance effort. All told, the government spends about $23 billion on more than 30 worker training programs run by nine departments and agencies.
Good plan, Mr. President. Double the number of people who have a convenient excuse not to go out and look for job.
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