Greetings!
For the past two weeks, the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC) has shared leading Mayoral and City Council President candidate positions on key
policy priorities
as part of our election education outreach campaign, "In Their Words."
Each week from now until the June 2nd election, we highlight leading candidates’ responses to policy priorities outlined in the GBC’s
candidate questionnaires
.
As we have stressed in previous editions of “In Their Words”, the GBC does not endorse candidates for public office. However, we strongly believe that it is our role to communicate policy priorities and to educate residents, businesses, and employees in the city on where candidates stand on key issues that directly impact where they work and live.
In this week’s edition, we highlight candidate responses to the critical but often overlooked policy priority of workforce development in Baltimore City. As we now find ourselves in the midst of an economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, connecting skilled workers with jobs will be essential to the economic recovery of the Greater Baltimore Region. Workforce development is economic development and is imperative to the success of Baltimore area businesses and the community as a whole.
Earlier this week, we shared positions of the leading Mayoral candidates on workforce development. Today’s edition of “In Their Words” reflects the leading City Council President candidates’ position on this critically important issue.
The primary election in Baltimore takes place on June 2, 2020. The GBC urges all residents to be active in the election and to vote.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at
donaldf@gbc.org
.
Be safe, stay healthy and positive.
Sincerely,
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Donald C. Fry
President & CEO
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Policy Priority
Support education and workforce development programs that prepare Baltimore residents for family-supporting jobs in high-growth industries and create programs or initiatives to attract talent to Baltimore City.
Question: Currently, 0.2% of the City’s budget is dedicated to workforce development. What is your position on increased funding for workforce training and adult education programs to reduce unemployment and adequately prepare City residents for jobs in high-demand industries?
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"Workforce training and augmentation of adult educational programing creates huge opportunities for public private partnerships. We must attract new business to Baltimore, while providing competitive advantages to our residents to fill the jobs that come with new business. Beyond attracting regional and national employers, we must invest in the small businesses and homegrown entrepreneurs that bring vitality to our local markets and have rooted commitments to our collective success. In this way, we develop a diverse economy with the pool of talent it needs to thrive. The barometer of success should not be solely tied to a four year college degree, there are amazing associate degrees, certificate programs, and vocational apprenticeships that we must expose to our citizenry. We must create pipelines to employment by training residents for growing job sectors, facilitating apprenticeship programs with area employers, and providing employer incentives for hiring Baltimore residents.
This means:
• Developing apprenticeship programs that connect Baltimore residents with area businesses.
• Increasing the competitive advantage of Baltimore apprentices by providing a subsidy to their employers.
• Creating a Baltimore Neighborhood Corps that employs Baltimore residents between (18) and (24) to clean and green Baltimore’s neighborhoods.
• Training City residents for in-demand jobs in healthcare, logistics, and IT at Baltimore City Community College."
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"Our investment in talent/workforce development is directly connected to the city’s economic success. When companies are choosing a new city/region to locate their business, one of their main questions is around talent and access to the full continuum of talent - entry/mid/senior level skills. If residents aren’t trained for the growing and emerging jobs in our highest growth industries then companies will leave and our city will suffer. The city has a responsibility to provide adequate funding for talent/workforce development services above and beyond its historical commitments thus far. We can’t say that we prioritize residents if we don’t invest in them. And that investment cannot simply be the traditional reliance on federal or philanthropic dollars alone. It takes an aligned and concerted effort to leverage all available funding, with increases when able to truly train and prepare residents. I would have to do further analysis to determine what level of funding would be appropriate to meet the workforce development needs of the city. This issue pertaining to workforce development is not solely relegated to post high school but as seeped into our public education system. We are doing an inferior job of preparing our young people for either college or career. Presently based upon State and local standards less than 25% of our high school graduates are considered to be college or career ready. That figure doesn’t even include the 25% of all students that never graduate. The reality is that it’s an economic imperative for any region to invest in their residents. If we don’t it will negatively impact the economic growth of the city. It will negatively impact public safety. It will negatively impact the efficacy of our public education system. If 64% of a city’s residents are in low-wage positions with no way to move up, it suffocates the tax base of the city and leaves few options for new high growth industries to come to the city...it creates a vicious cycle."
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"I am in favor of increased funding; under the assumption our crime is under control and our schools are funded at the level Kirwan recommends. Once we tackle the above, the city needs one coordinated system by which citizens can access employment services, training, and programs. I think it would be helpful if EARN funds went through one central governmental entity before being distributed to non-profits. The Office of Employment Development (MOED) should be providing assistance with barriers to employment. Citizens needs better communication of the services, opportunities, and options available to them for employment assistance."
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"We need to increase workforce development funding, but it has to be done with job creators and entrepreneurs leading the conversation. Jobs and opportunities about in the city and region, but as we all know there’s a skills mismatch between the available jobs and the people who need them. I want to see more community schools open long after the school day ends – and before it begins – so they can be hubs of adult education programs. I have adopted the Job Opportunities Task Force report, “The Criminalization of Poverty: How to Break the Cycle Through Policy Reform in Maryland,” as one of my guidebooks on this topic, and will champion the policies it calls for."
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"The budget is obviously not unlimited. Rather than create a false narrative of spending unforeseen monies, let’s leverage what we have and reorder what we currently do in our vocational schools and have part of the programs run by third party operations I.e. unions and trades and private construction and tech industries. Baltimore public schools must reopen night adult education classes specific to the needs of specific employment skills."
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