Direct from Washington

Direct from Washington
By Anne C. Lewis

May 2007 Online Article

Career Advancement Accounts

Proposed budgets from presidents that go to a Congress controlled by another party rarely cause much of a ripple in appropriation hearings, other than as a reference point for what will not be approved.

So it was with the fiscal year 2008 budget request from President Bush to create career advancement accounts for postsecondary education. Actually, this has been proposed and rejected before, but reviewing the proposal and others is helpful to watching the policy debates in Congress. The proposal of the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) of the U.S. Department of Labor would change the Workforce Investment Act, Adult, Dislocated Worker and Youth Employment programs into a single funding stream to states. The states could then use the funds to provide Career Advancement Accounts, which would be self-directed accounts that current and future workers could use to obtain skills training.

"By eliminating the maze of separate programs that constitute the workforce system, by more clearly defining its administrative costs and by targeting more resources to actual education and training," ETA claimed, "the number of individuals receiving accounts would be triple the number of people receiving job training in the workforce system today." (It doesn’t mention that block grants, which this proposal resembles, have been vulnerable to overall funding reductions when used in other areas such as education and health).

The $9.29 billion request for ETA also would continue other initiatives of the Bush Administration, including the High Growth Job Training Initiative; the Community-Based Job Training Grants program, which builds training capacities at community and technical colleges; and the Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development initiative. The last program currently funds 26 regions across the country to develop their regional economies and improve education systems that support regional economic development.

The ETA requests are attempting to respond, according to the budget statement, to "a clarion call from business, government, research institutions and investment leaders for a workforce with the talent, education and skills needed for the 21st century economy, which requires that the American workforce develop new skills, rejuvenate its expertise and dedicate itself to lifelong learning."