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Young, Jobless, Hopeless
New York Times ^ | February 6, 2003 | BOB HERBERT

Posted on 02/08/2003 2:07:43 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife

CHICAGO - You see them in many parts of the city, hanging out on frigid street corners, skylarking at the malls or bowling alleys, hustling for money wherever they can, drifting in some cases into the devastating clutches of drug-selling, gang membership, prostitution and worse.

In Chicago there are nearly 100,000 young people, ages 16 to 24, who are out of work, out of school and all but out of hope. In New York City there are more than 200,000. Nationwide, according to a new study by a team from Northeastern University in Boston, the figure is a staggering 5.5 million and growing.

This army of undereducated, jobless young people, disconnected in most instances from society's mainstream, is restless and unhappy, and poses a severe long-term threat to the nation's well-being on many fronts.

Audrey Roberts, a 17-year-old who just recently landed a job at a fast-food restaurant on Chicago's West Side, talked to me about some of the experiences she and her out-of-work friends have had to endure.

"The stuff you hear about on the news," she said, "that's our everyday life. I've seen girls get raped, beaten up. I saw a boy get his head blown away. That happened right in front of me. I said, 'Oh my God!' I just stood there."

The shooting was over a dice game that was being played one afternoon by boys who had nothing better to do with their time, she said.

It's an article of faith among politicians and members of the media that the recession we continue to experience is a mild one. But it has hit broad sections of the nation's young people with a ferocity that has left many of them stunned.

"I don't think I can take it much longer," said Angjell Brackins, a 19-year-old South Side resident. "I get up in the morning. I take a bath. I put on my clothes. I go outside."

She has tried for months to find a job, she said, filling out application after application, to no avail. "I'll do any kind of work if they'll just hire me. It doesn't matter, as long as it's a job."

The report from Northeastern, titled "Left Behind in the Labor Market," found that joblessness among out-of-school youths between 16 and 24 had surged by 12 percent since the year 2000. Washington's mindless response to this burgeoning crisis has been to slash - and in some cases eliminate - the few struggling programs aimed at bolstering youth employment and training.

Education and career decisions made during the late teens and early 20's are crucial to the lifetime employment and earnings prospects of an individual. Those who do not do well during this period seldom catch up to the rest of the population.

"Our ability to generate family stability and safe communities is strongly influenced by this," said Dr. Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern and the lead author of the study.

When you have 5 1/2 million young people wandering around without diplomas, without jobs and without prospects, you might as well hand them T-shirts to wear that say "We're Trouble."

Without help, they will not become part of a skilled work force. And they will become a drain on the nation's resources. One way or another, the rest of us will end up supporting them.

"It's just heartbreaking," said Jack Wuest, who runs the Alternative Schools Network in Chicago, which commissioned the study. "These kids need a fair shake and they're not getting it."

The Bush administration, committed to a war with Iraq and obsessed with tax cuts for the wealthy, has no interest in these youngsters. And very few others in a position to help are willing to go to bat for them.

In a long series of conversations with young unemployed and undereducated Chicagoans, I did not hear much of anything in the way of aspirations. Whether boys or girls, men or women, those who were interviewed seemed for the most part already defeated. They did not talk about finding the perfect job. They did not talk about being in love and eventually marrying and raising a family. They did not express a desire to someday own their own home.

There was, to tell the truth, a remarkable absence of positive comments and emotions of any kind. There was a widespread sense of frustration, and some anger. But mostly there was just sadness.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: education; slackers
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It's sad all right and totally unnecessary. Public schools, along with parents that don't feel parenting is their job, have nurtured this sickening loss of human potential.

Court upholds English-only instruction in California*** A federal appeals court has ruled that California voters acted constitutionally when they scrapped bilingual education and ordered that children be "taught English by being taught in English."

"The record contains no evidence that Proposition 227 was motivated by racial animus," the three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said Monday.

The appeals court ruled that the 1998 voter initiative was an educational issue intended to change "a pedagogically flawed educational system" - the 30-year practice of bilingual instruction - and was not an effort to discriminate against Hispanics, who make up 41 percent of California's student body and 82 percent of its "limited English proficient students."

"We are overjoyed that the court has recognized Proposition 227 as the lawful, nondiscriminatory solution to a broken-down system that provided nothing more than a disservice to California's English-learning students," said Sharon Browne, attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation whose nominal client was Sarina Frias, a parent of a student.***

__________________________________________________________________

September 4, 2000 - Report Card On English-Only Schooling -Students Test Scores Going Up In California -

***OCEANSIDE, CALIF., SEPT. 3, 2000 (CBS News) - As the new school year begins, educators around the country are debating whether bilingual education is necessary.

Voters in Arizona this year may follow those in California, who virtually outlawed bilingual education under proposition 227 two years ago, reports CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes.

According to California standardized test scores, over the past two years reading test scores for English-learners have increased nine percent, and math scores 14 percent.

Last year, Christian Dominguez could not speak a word of English. In just a few months, he mastered his new language - in an English-only class.

Now starting the secondgrade, Christian says, "My friend Jonathan said, 'Wow! You can talk a lot of English!'"

For 30 years Oceanside, Calif., school superintendent Ken Noonan believed in bilingual education. But after the English-only law passed he watched in amazement as students test scores soared.***

We have no leaders to save our black men*** In his column, "Off the Vine," which appears on the front page, Clayborne has taken on the journalism fight of his life:

"Young black men have . . . bought into what apparently is a universal "dumbing down' syndrome where it's in style to be stupid -- with rap lyrics like "Where are my niggas at?' more memorable than their ABCs. Now, give or take a few token whites, our prison system is filled to capacity with young black men -- young men who will leave behind a trail of fatherless babies, single mothers and the untold carnage from the crimes they've committed.

"I was astonished recently when I read a study about a city's school system where out of nearly 6,000 African-American males in its high school, only 135 earned a B average or higher. Yet, we black people seem paralyzed to act, to mobilize -- to be outraged! We have failed miserably in addressing, for lack of a better description, "self-destruction of the black man.' Today . . . women head 70 percent of black households! Now you tell me, how are young black boys going to learn how to be men? Folks, what we have . . . is a national crisis -- demanding the highest attention of civic, business and government leaders. I am proposing that communities across the country initiate and start a "Save the Black Man Project.'

1 posted on 02/08/2003 2:07:43 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
"The Bush administration, committed to a war with Iraq and obsessed with tax cuts for the wealthy, has no interest in these youngsters."

...and then he had to throw in this class-warfare bilge cheap shot at the President. Hey, Bob, socialism doesn't work ! Did your boy Clinton do a damn thing about solving any problems, either ?

2 posted on 02/08/2003 2:47:36 AM PST by fieldmarshaldj (~All our ZOT are belong to us~)
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To: fieldmarshaldj
The Democratic leadership will tell these 5.5 million uneducated Americans, that it is the fault of the wealthy and conservatives that they are where they are.
3 posted on 02/08/2003 2:52:54 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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Last week down at Ocean Beach in San Diego I went down to this bar that me and some friends frequent on the weekends. Walking down I had 6 people who were my age or younger (26) and ask me for money. Not wanting to be hustled for money, I told them no. As I kept walking towards the Bullfrog bar I passed a couple of fast food restaurants that had "hiring" on the window. Need I go on?
4 posted on 02/08/2003 3:01:50 AM PST by GOPyouth
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Yeah, nevermind that it is largely their policies and strangleholds on cities/public education, etc., that is the reason for this predicament. The 'Rats need to look straight in the mirror and point the finger of blame where it really belongs.
5 posted on 02/08/2003 3:02:22 AM PST by fieldmarshaldj (~All our ZOT are belong to us~)
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To: GOPyouth
Bump!
6 posted on 02/08/2003 3:03:18 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: fieldmarshaldj
The 'Rats need to look straight in the mirror and point the finger of blame where it really belongs.

Bump!

7 posted on 02/08/2003 3:03:54 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: All
Desegregation debate moving to the suburbs***Pat Latimore, a member of Citizens for a Diverse Milton, pointed to the plight of the black students in the three largely white elementary schools. ''I, like many black parents, would not send my child to a school where they are one out of 10 students,'' she said. ''I would ask white parents if they'd send their kids to a school where they are one out of 10.''

Designed as a blunt legal instrument to force urban districts to integrate decades ago, the Racial Imbalance Law has in recent years come into play in more affluent communities that have seen dramatic demographic changes.

Today, Milton is about 85 percent white, 10 percent black, and 5 percent other minority. Over the past 10 years, demographers have noted a trend that some call black flight, in which minority families move to the suburbs to seek better educational opportunities for their children.

Among these black families, the clustering in one neighborhood or one side of town can be a matter of choice, said University of Massachusetts demographer Bob Gaudet. He calls Milton's 119 percent increase in the number of blacks over the past decade ''the Blue Hill Ave. syndrome,'' referring to the street that cuts through Mattapan, a predominantly black Boston neighborhood, and then into Milton and, eventually, Randolph, which has also seen a huge influx of minorities over the past decade.

''These patterns follow the roadways,'' Gaudet said. ''And people perceive these suburban schools as good and safe.''

But while some town officials explain the concentration of minority families in one part of town as a housing pattern, some Milton residents wonder if a history of housing discrimination could also be a factor.

In 1984, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination charged eight Milton real estate agencies with steering prospective black buyers to specific neighborhoods, some near the Tucker school. A settlement required the realtors to promote housing opportunities for minority groups.***

________________________________________________________

The Left never quits. They promote race and class hatred. It is their life's blood.

8 posted on 02/08/2003 3:08:08 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
If you tune into C-SPAN at 8:00AM Eastern today, I can almost guarantee that you will see a full day of the kind of drivel that Herbert is spewing.

Role of the Church in Black America

9 posted on 02/08/2003 3:31:08 AM PST by leadpenny
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To: leadpenny
Bump!
10 posted on 02/08/2003 3:33:04 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
The numbers sound similar to the false "homeless" numbers the left promoted during the Reagan years. This is just NYT propaganda.
11 posted on 02/08/2003 3:33:26 AM PST by KeyWest
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To: KeyWest
Numbers and solutions don't matter it's that you care.
12 posted on 02/08/2003 3:35:04 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: fieldmarshaldj
Yeah, nevermind that it is largely their policies and strangleholds on cities/public education, etc., that is the reason for this predicament. The 'Rats need to look straight in the mirror and point the finger of blame where it really belongs.

You can say that again. The great society programs created incentives to not work, have babies out of wedlock, and keep the father out of the home. Liberal teachers were going to change the world by showing how "wrong" America's capitalistic system was. In the meantime they forgot what school was for. To provide the tools for learning and tools for building productive lives.

13 posted on 02/08/2003 3:50:44 AM PST by listenhillary (Axis of Weasels indeed!, Is weasel fur good for anything?)
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To: fieldmarshaldj
Looking at this article, it seems like the problems of the black men started two years ago as soon as GWB stepped into the White House - since it says that the recession caused their downward spiral. Never mind about the past few decades and all the Dems' "help".
14 posted on 02/08/2003 4:29:50 AM PST by Moonmad27 ("I am not a number...")
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
This army of undereducated, jobless young people, disconnected in most instances from society's mainstream, is restless and unhappy,

oh no their unhappy boo F##king hoo so I need to fork over tax dollars and put off a war with iraq who may be giving bio weapons to terrorist because they made poor decisions in life and are now unhappy.

I knew I should have stopped right after I saw the authors name
15 posted on 02/08/2003 4:31:00 AM PST by TheRedSoxWinThePennant
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
OCEANSIDE, CALIF., SEPT. 3, 2000 (CBS News) - As the new school year begins, educators around the country are debating whether bilingual education is necessary.

Good for them! Speaking and writing English is an important life-skill for all of us who live here in the US. I also hear there is a war on. The military is always looking for able people and they even offer training that might be applicable to future employment.

16 posted on 02/08/2003 4:38:46 AM PST by Woodstock
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To: fieldmarshaldj
"Education and career decisions made during the late teens and early 20's are crucial to the lifetime employment and earnings prospects of an individual. Those who do not do well during this period seldom catch up to the rest of the population."

This is a result of the service economy where fewer and fewer can earn a decent living in their early years. You can't pay for a college education flipping hamburgers when the cost of tutition is more than your annual salary. Today students take out education loans and due not begin to see a profit on their sacrifices and efforts for a decade or better. The elites in their infinte wisdom have taken away the incentive for millions of Americans to drive for success, with globalization, the service economy, taxes, and other nonsense.

I never took out an eduction loan because I could sock away $20 grand at a summer manufacturing job. These kinds of opportunities do not exist today. The inner cities have become cesspools of, "Dope for Hope."

17 posted on 02/08/2003 4:42:59 AM PST by SSN558
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
"In New York City there are more than 200,000. Nationwide, according to a new study by a team from Northeastern University in Boston, the figure is a staggering 5.5 million and growing."

Sure. Right. Gotcha.

"Lies, damned lies, and statistics........."

18 posted on 02/08/2003 4:52:59 AM PST by RightOnline
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
57,000 new legal immigrants come in each week, and they all find jobs. Plus, another million illegal aliens come in each year, and they all find jobs.

How can so many arabs, asians, and latins find so many jobs and americans cannot find jobs?

I know that businesses owned by arabs(gas stations, dollar stores, etc.) generally do not hire americans, but those are the minority of businesses.

19 posted on 02/08/2003 4:54:05 AM PST by waterstraat
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To: fieldmarshaldj
Plus, the H1-B visa program is expanding, not contracting.

Even more foreigners are brought in each week under the H1-B visa program because there is such a shortage of americans people wanting a job.

20 posted on 02/08/2003 4:56:10 AM PST by waterstraat
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