It is puzzling that during the past two presidential debates neither candidate has offered specifics about what he will do to help Americans get through these hard economic times.
Consider for example one of our most critical challenges -- how do we move Americans into jobs that pay family-supporting wages and provide health care.
The reality is the United States lacks a national workforce development policy to meet the needs of the 21st century. The presidential candidates must tell us during the next and final debate what they will do to ensure that America's workforce is poised to compete in the global economy.
Historically, our workforce development system has focused on getting people a job, usually at the entry level, with little regard for career advancement. This approach was appropriate for an industrial economy where jobs paid family sustaining wages and were accessible to those with limited education and credentials.
In today's global economy, however, the stakes are higher and the need for a highly-skilled workforce is greater. In fact, the story behind the recent announcement of record job losses is that there are jobs going unfilled because employers cannot find workers with the advanced skills to fill them.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that in just four years there will be a shortage of more than 10 million skilled workers. By the year 2014, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of jobs requiring some form of post-secondary training or education will grow 60 percent faster than the job market as a whole.
Yet policymakers and elected officials at the federal level have failed to recognize that while job training may have worked in the industrial economy, the knowledge economy requires a different approach that focuses on workforce development.
The last time Congress addressed this issue was a decade ago, when it passed the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) that merged a myriad of existing job training programs to create one-stop training centers to help adults, youths and dislocated workers find jobs.
The Act expired in 2003 and has yet to be reauthorized, though Congress has funded its programs on a year to year catch-as-catch-can basis, without authorization. (In FY07, the funding level for WIA programs was approximately $3 billion.)
The federal government's lack of attention to this issue shows just how little Washington is focused on helping Americans re-tool their career skills that lead to careers that pay a family-supporting wage with the opportunity of advancement.
According to a report by The Workforce Alliance, Training Policy in Brief: An Overview of Federal Workforce Development Policies 2007, the federal government spent slightly over $50 billion in FY06 on programs categorized as workforce development. This money is spread out over six federal agencies and includes funding for Pell Grants at $13 billion and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) at $16.5 billion.
Given the budget challenges facing the next president, the federal government will need to make do with current resources by finding more efficient and creative ways to re-tool existing funding.
While both presidential candidates recognize that our current policies with regard to workforce development are broken, there has been little talk on the campaign trail about how exactly they plan to fix the current system.
A glimpse into how Senator McCain would tackle this challenge can be found in his Jobs for America briefing paper. Senator McCain advocates reforming the unemployment insurance system to focus on retraining workers; foresees a bigger role for community colleges in re-training workers; and the need to help older workers stay in the workforce.
Senator Obama advocates making the research and development tax credit permanent to help create high-paying, secure jobs that will result in long-term investments in education, training, and workforce development. Recognizing that developing new clean technologies will require a highly-skilled manufacturing workforce, Senator Obama supports job training initiatives that will train Americans to fill these high-paying jobs. Finally, Senator Obama proposes investing $1 billion over five years in transitional jobs and career pathway programs that will help low-income Americans succeed in the workforce. More information about Senator Obama's plan can be found here.
What's missing is what both candidates would do to re-align current federal programs that focus on "job training" and re-program those funds into initiatives that focus on "workforce development."
This country needs a 21st century jobs program. One that recognizes we have moved from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy and that our federal policies need to reflect that change. In the next and final debate, the candidates should tell us how they plan to get us there.