Provide Education and Training Programs Leading to Gainful Employment with Adequate Benefits
Summary
Funds for education and training programs have increasingly been diverted to reduce budget deficits over the past several years. The resulting reductions in these programs threaten New York’s historic commitment to an educated workforce. For the New York families struggling to make ends meet, education and training for skilled jobs may be their best path out of poverty. This is especially true for people leaving welfare for work who, on average, earn salaries at or below the federal poverty level.
Conference Position
Adequately fund education and training programs, particularly for people leaving welfare for work, that lead to jobs paying a decent wage that would allow workers to live with dignity and to be self sufficient. These programs include: basic adult education and literacy; post-secondary vocational education and training as well as higher education.
Rationale
Work is more than a way to make a living; it is an expression of our dignity and a form of continuing participation in God’s creation. People have the right to decent and productive work, to decent and fair wages, to private property and economic initiative. In Catholic teaching, the economy exists to serve people, not the other way around. (A Century of Social Teaching, 1990).
The link between education and economic self sufficiency has been repeatedly demonstrated. For example, 80% of welfare recipients who attain a college degree do not return to the system. Over a lifetime, people who have college degrees earn close to a million dollars more than those without degrees. Education and training for skilled employment are especially important in New York’s high tech, information-based economy.
The lack of education and training is a major barrier to self sufficiency and a cause of persistent poverty. Statistically, 35.5% of New York’s low income families include a parent who failed to finish high school and 50% of New Yorkers age 16 and over have low literacy. While New York offers a wide range of educational programs and has a well-educated workforce, these programs tend to favor affluent people and do not generally reach low-income people.
The New York State Catholic Conference supports the funding of education and training programs that lead to gainful employment and provide an opportunity for participants to maximize their potential. Our profound respect for the dignity of each individual demands that we support programs that will allow them to grow and develop, as well as earn a living that allows for self sufficiency and provides benefits necessary for the security of the family. God has given each of us a set of talents that we must develop to their fullest and each person deserves a realistic opportunity to do so.
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