Preparing for the Workplace Charting A Course for Federal Postsecondary Training Policy (1994) / Chapter Skim
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7 IMPROVING FEDERAL PROGRAMS
7 IMPROVING FEDERAL PROGRAMS
Pages 144-168
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From page 144... ...
In Chapter 5 we argued that there is no "one size fits all" approach to matching federal policy instruments and program designs to the needs of postsecondary training's clientele. This chapter explores the reasons behind that conclusion more fully and analyzes the kinds of changes that might make existing programs work better.
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From page 145... ...
Two kinds of vouchers play an important role in postsecondary education and training. Pell grants subsidize education and training expenses up to the full face value of the grant.
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From page 146... ...
The federal government has in the past provided a major form of support for skills improvement training by not including employer reimbursements for employee training expenses in the taxable income of the employees. CHOOSING AMONG POLICY INSTRUMENTS Deciding whether student aid should continue to play such an important role in federal policy on postsecondary training depends in part on how
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From page 147... ...
In comparing the advantages of various policy instruments, it is again useful to recognize that distinctions among them are not hard and fast and that the differences may be more in degree than in kind.3 Our discussion will focus on the two most prominent mechanisms for federal subsidy of postsecondary training, vouchers and contracts. Both the voucher model and the contracting model work best if certain underlying assumptions are satisfied.
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From page 148... ...
The unfortunate but indisputable fact is that not much postsecondary training for the workplace falls clearly into either of the ideal areas for using contracts or vouchers. Thus, much of the vocational training that is currently supported by grant and loan vouchers is relatively short term, serves a population that is probably not well informed about training alternatives and does not face large opportunity costs for making poor choices about training alternatives, and is provided by institutions whose product is
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From page 149... ...
QUALIFYING TRAINING As discussed in Chapter 2, the student financial aid programs authorized by Title IV of the Higher Education Act represent the largest source of federal funds for postsecondary training. We examine them first and then ask what else the federal government ought to do in support of qualifying training.5 Student Financial Aid Through Pell grants and guaranteed student loans, the federal government provides roughly $20 billion annually to students in postsecondary training.
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From page 150... ...
Constraints on awards due to funding limits have also created tensions when administrators of other programs (such as JTPA) are perceived as utilizing student-aid-eligible training programs as a way of conserving their own resources.6 Our own judgment is that opposition to such cost-shifting is misplaced, so long as federal law makes postsecondary training programs eligible for student assistance (see below)
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From page 151... ...
The student aid programs at their inception relied principally on an existing accrediting system for academic institutions that had a long history and considerable independence from the whole student aid process. The rapid growth of a largely new sector of profit-oriented institutions that lacked this history and were much more dependent on student aid funds has changed this picture markedly; it has also led to serious regulatory difficulties for the student aid programs.
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From page 152... ...
The institution experiences year-to-year fluctuations of more than 25 percent in the amount of Pell grant or student loans received by its students. · The institution fails to meet certain financial responsibility standards specified in the Higher Education Act.
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From page 153... ...
· The appropriateness of the number of credit or clock hours required for the completion of programs or of the length of 600-hour courses. Assessing the actions of owners, shareholders, or persons exercising control over the educational institution that may adversely affect eligibility for student aid programs.
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From page 154... ...
In fact, initiatives of the last few years are already having some of this effect. Given the demonstrated political barriers to more radical solutions that have sometimes been proposed (such as dropping proprietary schools from student aid programs entirely or developing a separate set of programs for them)
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From page 155... ...
As we have found before, such uncertainty suggests that experimentation is needed. We recommend, therefore, that the "institutional integrity" provisions established by the recent Higher Education Act amendments be modified to link the student loan eligibility of all students in postsecondary training programs (not just those in schools who trip the triggers for state review or who are enrolled in very short programs)
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From page 156... ...
Given the panel's charge, we did not focus on programs that involve only the transition from high school to the job market. However, it is not possible to separate the worlds of secondary and postsecondary education entirely, especially since several new programs, including youth apprenticeship models, provide more structured pathways from school to careers explicitly linking high schools and postsecondary training institutions.
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From page 157... ...
Youth apprenticeship must involve a significant part of a local community before most employers, students, parents, and teachers learn about the system and how it can affect their futures. A city in which a large segment of a cohort (perhaps 20-25 percent' enters youth apprenticeships might well experience improvements not only for the apprentices but for others as well.
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From page 158... ...
An important part of the task is learning how to meld youth apprenticeship, Tech-Prep, career academies, cooperative education, and other strategies into a coherent set of options that will give young people a clear map of structured pathways to follow in moving from school to the workplace. SKILLS IMPROVEMENT TRAINING AND WORKER RETRAINING Despite widespread agreement that skills improvement training in the United States is available to too few workers, especially front-line workers, we do not find consensus among the experts on whether this calls for major federal intervention.
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From page 159... ...
To the extent that underlying labor market institutions and policies affect firm calculations about the benefits of training, there are likely to be complex tradeoffs inherent in any proposals for change. Osterman goes on to point out the absence of good models that indicate how government can best influence private decisions about employment practices, a major shortcoming in designing public policy, even if there was an agreement that such policy is warranted.
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From page 160... ...
The federal government should develop a strategic plan for implementing such a program and exploiting to full advantage related federal activities scattered around the various agencies.~° We propose a mechanism for doing this in Chapter 8. The federal government should also sponsor experiments and demonstration projects with new labor-market structures that might help overcome the sluggishness of American firms in adopting a transformed or high-performance model of workplace organization.
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From page 161... ...
We did not have enough evidence available to make a comprehensive set of recommendations about federal policy on worker retraining. There are complex issues involved, including the relative effectiveness of job placement versus retraining efforts, the interaction of dislocated worker programs and provisions, and how relatively new federal legislation requiring early warning of plant closings affects the implementation of strategies to help the workers who will be displaced.
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From page 162... ...
This has been particularly striking in welfare employment programs, where lessons from studies of state initiatives in the 1980s were actively used in the development of state and federal legislation (e.g., in California's Greater Avenues for Independence, or GAIN, program and in Congressional debate preceding the passage of the Family Support Act of 1988, containing the JOBS program) (Baum, 1991; Haskins, 19913.
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From page 163... ...
~ . ~ 1 _ _ _ 1 ~ amendments to JlFA, we Should ctetermlne whether Ine Design elements contained in the new JTPA youth program are more effective than the program designs that were in effect in 1987-1989 and were evaluated by the National JTPA Study.
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From page 164... ...
In addition to providing academic remediation and job training, such programs would focus heavily on providing youth with opportunities to engage in community service, develop one-on-one relationships with responsible adults, and participate in regular, positive, structured, and supervised, peer-centered activities. Ideally, such programs would be part of a continuum of services starting in the early school years.
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From page 165... ...
Both reports place a high priority on increased allocation of resources for research and evaluation of adult basic education, and both call on the federal government to take the lead in providing these resources (Grubb et al., 1991:102-103; Chisman, 1989:24~. In 1991, Congress created the National Institute for Literacy to provide a national focal point for research, technical assistance and research dissemination, policy analysis and program evaluation across the various programs and research efforts concerned with adult literacy.
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From page 166... ...
(1991:55-56) discovered that individuals frequently are referred from job training and vocational education programs to the adult education system, with little cohesiveness between the programs, a general disregard for the quality of program to which an individual may be referred, and little or no tracking of individuals.
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From page 167... ...
5. We chose not to examine the Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act in depth, because the funds it provides to postsecondary training are small compared to the student aid programs and to the funds provided from other sources (e.g., states)
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From page 168... ...
Because of the focus of the JOBS program on improving the basic education of welfare recipients, the evaluation of the JOBS and California's Greater Avenues for Independence programs will also provide relevant information.
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