Quick Takes(v27): When Ivanka Came to Town

Quick Takes

The president's daughter made a stop in Syracuse yesterday, participating in a closed roundtable discussion with our congressman John Katko (NY-24), school district officials, educators and students who participated in the Syracuse City School District's P-Tech program at the Institute of Technology.

For those who are not familiar with P-Tech, students who complete the five-to-six year program end up with a high school diploma, a college degree and job training. Here's some info from the SCSD's website.

Students engage in a wide variety of real-world work experience including visits from industry experts, internships, shadow days, coaching and mentoring, part-time employment...

Students complete a rigorous curriculum in science, technology and math that enables them to meet all the requirements of a high school Regent's diploma... beyond this, accredited college instructions deliver... a course of study that empower students to earn an AAS degree in mechanical engineering...

Ivanka had a chance to credit her father's administration for driving a need for a well-trained workforce.

Now that tax reform has passed and we have deregulated so many industries, the biggest concern is the lack of a skilled workforce.

She also noted her passion for workforce development, and that

There are so many job opportunities, and many of those job opportunities don't require a four year degree. 

In addition to the tax cuts and deregulation, she pointed out her father's efforts in calling for increased spending for and access to STEM, including a presidential memorandum he issued.

...Trump recognizes the importance of expanding high-quality STEM and computer science education, especially for those in historically underserved groups, to better prepare the American workforce for jobs of the future. This Presidential Memorandum directs Secretary of Education DeVos to place high quality STEM education, particularly computer science, at the forefront of the Department of Education's priorities, and in doing so, establish a goal of devoting at least $200 million per year in grant funds towards this priority and explore administrative actions that will add or increase focus on computer science in existing K-12 schools as well as post-secondary education.

The head of the Manufacturers Association of Central New York (MACNY), Randy Wolken, noted that local businesses are struggling finding people to fill available positions.

We have a crisis right now. We don't have enough workers. 

He referenced a five to ten percent vacancy rate at MACNY member companies, on average, and points to that as why employers need to invest in programs like P-Tech. (MACNY is one of the partners in the SCSD program, along with OCC.)

Funding is a key issue for these programs; at ITC, for example, tuition totals $102,000, with additional costs for books ($28K) and transportation ($18K), much of it coming from competitive grants. And that's to cover one year of the program.

Pushing a $200M in grant funding at the federal level falls way short of what's needed to truly build the 'workforce of the future' - which is why Wolken's statement about employers investing in these programs is critical. It's also worth noting that MACNY has lobbied in the past for state government support to create an apprenticeship program, which I talked about in this post from back in 2016.

With the $500,000, if it's added to the state budget, MACNY could run a central apprenticeship program that would reduce costs and administrative red tape for all local manufacturers. Much of the state money would pay for administrative costs involved in running the program.

At that time, I suggested that MACNY member companies, and of course the local labor unions, need to cough up their own money to fund these programs, as they would be the direct beneficiaries of developing the specifically skilled workforce they lament we're missing.

MACNY got the money for the program, and the group is actively encouraging their members to get moving on apprenticeships, which is a very good thing (even though I still think they should have funded it on their own).

But back to today.

We can surely disagree about Ivanka and what value she might bring to the Administration or the country, and we can surely argue about how we should define  "the biggest concern" resulting from the very generous corporate tax code changes and the massive deregulation we've seen during the Trump administration.

But I don't think there's a ton of disagreement that companies have benefited significantly, as was intended, as was promised. And as so many business owners have been so eager to tell us.

So, now more than ever, the same companies that have benefited so greatly from the permanent changes to the corporate tax code should be heavily investing not just in equipment and such, but in ensuring the viability and availability of our workforce.

Competitive grants are fine -- but $200M is not going to go very far given what employers across the country, their lobbyists, and folks like Ivanka Trump are telling us we're up against. And even if there is other federal and/or state money available for these types of programs, we can't afford to ignore a key source of funds.  Now is the time for the folks who got those great (and can I say again, permanent) tax cuts to step up.

Ivanka thanked everyone who attended the discussion, noting

I've learned a lot. I'll take your suggestions back to Washington with me.

I hope she takes away Randy Wolken's message - that employers need to be on the forefront of these efforts, and that she hears my message - that they need to be there with wide open wallets.