• Transportation Policy: An Opportunity to Put More Black Men into Good Jobs  
• The Federal Budget, Sequestration, and What You Should Know
• Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin
• White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans
• The Interagency Work Group on Disconnected Youth
  
• Workforce Investment Reauthorization Act (WIA): What is at stake for African American Youth and Young Adults?

back to top

Sequestration is a quintessential "inside the Beltway" term with huge potential to affect people who live far beyond the Beltway - and inside it, as well.  Here is a primer from CLASP describing what sequestration is and what it means.

What is sequestration? - Sequestration represents automatic, across-the-board spending cuts to the federal budget, totaling approximately $110 billion a year that will go into effect January 2013.  Sequestration was a part of the Budget, signed into law in August 2011 by the Obama Administration and negotiated by both sides of the aisle in Congress. The Budget Control Act calls for $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts over the next decade, divided equally between defense and "non-defense discretionary" programs -the term used to refer to spending on a wide range of domestic programs including education, health, human services, and labor. The deal was struck to end the 2011 debt ceiling showdown and included budget cuts so harsh that it would compel policy leaders to develop comprehensive approaches to address the nation's long-term fiscal health.

No deal in sight - With so much preoccupation with the upcoming elections and the failed efforts of the bi-partisan "supercommittee" - these cuts seem imminent.

What federal programs will be impacted?  - Discretionary programs that are subject to the annual Congressional appropriations process would experience automatic cuts under the sequester - impacting programs from education to justice, such as the community services block grant, job training programs, and federal work study.  Mandatory programs -- those entitlement programs not subject to annual appropriations, including Medicaid,  the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Social Security, TANF, SNAP (or food stamps), and the Child Nutrition programs -- are generally exempt from sequestration.

Who will feel these cuts if congress fails to take action?

• 1.6 million fewer adults, dislocated workers and at-risk youth would receive job training, education and employment services. In particular, 367,776 fewer low-income youth and adults will be served through the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). At a time when just 20% of African American and Latino youth are employed (with the balance of these youth being in school or having simply given up their pursuit of employment in a very challenging labor market) these cuts will have a grave effect.
• 80,000 fewer low-income children would receive child care subsidies through the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). CCDBG provides subsidies to low-income working families to help pay for child care and improve the quality of States' child care programs.
  
• 145,180 fewer students would be served by 21^stCentury Community Schools. The 21st Century Community Learning Centers program provides funding to local communities to establish expanded learning opportunities for students, through before- and after-school programs, summer school, and extended school year programs.
• 1.8 Million fewer students served through Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies. Title I is the cornerstone Federal program for helping all students, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, meet high academic standards. More than 90% of the nation's local educational agencies (LEAs) receive these funds, which are allocated by a formula based largely on LEA family income levels.
• 51,577 fewer students will receive aid through the Federal Work Study (FWS). These programs provide funding to colleges and universities to help low- and middle-income undergraduate and graduate students pay for postsecondary education through part-time employment at their college or university, public agency, private company, or nonprofit organization.

These are just some of the consequences if Congress doesn't act. For additional, state-specific information on how these cuts will impact children and families' access to programs, read Senator Harkin's report Under Threat.

Read More CLASP statements on sequestration:

So What Is "Sequestration"? And More Importantly, What Do These Spending Cuts Mean for Hard-Working and Low-Income Families?

 CLASP Statement on OMB Sequestration Report

At Risk: Early Care and Education Funding and Sequestration

back to top

Last week, the Supreme Court heard the high profile Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin  (UT) case that will have major implications not just on racial preferences in admissions to public colleges and universities but also on the legacy of affirmative action.  The challenge was brought by a white student, Fisher, who claims she was denied admission to UT due to an admissions policy that considers race.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights notes that this marks the first federal appellate challenge to the Supreme Court's 2003 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger, which affirmed the University of Michigan's law school's affirmative action program and held diversity is a compelling interest for public universities and that race can be used as a factor in admissions.  In August, more than 50 briefs were filed in support of diversity and the University of Texas at Austin's (UT) admissions policy.   This summer, CLASP joined the 2025 Network for Black Men and Boys and other black male achievement initiatives in urging the Supreme Court to uphold the admissions procedures of the University of Texas.   Led by the Kirwan Institute, a national coalition of black male achievement initiatives (BMI) filed an amicus brief advocating that the admissions procedures of the University of Texas at Austin be upheld.  UT's admission procedures allow officials to consider race along with other factors in ensuring the selection of a diverse class. 

In particular, the BMI brief notes that studies of college diversity seldom consider information about race and gender discretely and, therefore, urges the Supreme Court to examine the low numbers of African American males currently enrolled at selective colleges and universities.  The BMI coalition argues that black males are "especially vulnerable to exclusion from postsecondary educational opportunities without every available constitutional tool to include them".   The coalition states further that only "1.79% of the full-time students enrolled in UT's 2009 fall entering class were black males (129 out of 7,199)."  Read more>>>

back to top

The President recently issued an Executive Order to establish the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, consisting of a Presidential Advisory Commission and Federal Interagency Working Group to Enhance Educational Outcomes for African American Students. Housed within the U.S. Department of Education, the Initiative is charged with working across federal agencies to identify best practices that will improve educational outcomes for African Americans at all age levels, from early care and education to the successful completion of post-secondary credentials. To support this effort, the Department of Education will develop a national network of partners -- business and philanthropic leaders, practitioners and educators, and non-profits -- to share and implement best practices as well as to support the overall objective outlined in the order. This objective is to ensure African American students "receive an education that fully prepares them for high school graduation, college completion, and productive careers."

CLASP applauds the Administration for its continued commitment to strengthening education for all Americans and for its much-needed investments in a range of polices and strategies that prepare students for school, provide academic and social supports to keep students connected to school, and promote lifelong learning. In particular, CLASP is supportive of the Administration's recognition that many of the nation's children and youth, specifically African Americans, do not begin at the same starting point. African American students face a variety of hurdles throughout their educational career which place their achievement at risk:

• In U.S. public schools that serve the most African American and Hispanic students, only 65% offer Algebra II, 40% offer Physics, and only 29% offer Calculus. Thus students are not offered the courses necessary to make them eligible for postsecondary education.(Toldson & Chance, 2012)
• They are disproportionately impacted by school and district discipline policies that serve to push students out of school. One in five African-American boys and more than one in ten African-American girls have received out-of-school suspension. Forty-two percent of students involved in school-related arrests or referred to law enforcement are African-American. (US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, 2012)
• They are far less likely than other ethnic groups to complete high school on time. Only 58.7% of African American students complete high school in four years. For African American males, this figure drops to 51.9%.(Diplomas Count, 2012)
• Just 33.4% of African American males entered post-secondary programs after graduating from high school (College Board, 2008). African American men account for only 4.3% of the total enrollment at four-year higher education institutions in the U.S., the same rate as it was in 1976. And more than two-thirds of African American males who start college will not have completed a degree six years later. (Palmer et. al, 2010)

CLASP has long advocated for comprehensive, community-wide, cross-system approaches to solve some of the nation's most pressing issues, and we support similar efforts that are also underway focused on Disconnected Youth. We support the role of federal policy to help local communities in developing a continuum of community support for its children and youth, and to facilitate the ability of communities to connect resources, expertise, and services of all state and local youth-serving systems. Strong and viable partnerships with state and local education agencies are paramount. Federal policy should be targeted to support this integration of service delivery in high-poverty communities while also being flexible enough to spur innovation in the implementation of education approaches. And of great significance, these efforts must be provided with funding that is commensurate to the needs of high poverty communities and of African American students.

There is a lot that we already know about what works to improve educational outcomes for African Americans. In 2010, CLASP in collaboration with the 2025 Network for Black Men and Boys released a document entitled We Dream A World that outlined many of the policy reforms at the federal, state, and local level that would foster African American male achievement. Similarly, the Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color has developed a set of research-informed standards and promising practices for successfully educating boys of color. The Open Society Foundation has been involved for several years in funding successful programs that impact black male achievement. In like manner, many other foundations such as the Kellogg Foundation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have made a commitment to targeted funding to benefit young people of color. These areas of work serve as a strong starting place for making significant positive changes for African Americans in the area of education.

As the work of the Department of Education and the newly established Commission begins, we encourage them to consider dropout recovery and reengagement as key area of work. There are an estimated 6.7 million "opportunity youth" ages 16-24 that are unattached from education and work. African-Americans are over-represented in this group and comprise 32% of all "opportunity youth", while they represent just 15% of this age population. By contrast, whites or other racial groups (excluding Hispanics) represent 67% of the age population and only 46% of "opportunity youth" (Belfield et. al, 2012). There is a clear need to focus on multiple education pathways that blend education, training, work experience, and support to help African Americans --especially those who lack high school diplomas and job skills -- achieve successful postsecondary and life outcomes.

Read more about CLASP's Youth Policy work and our focus on improving education and employment outcomes for black men and boys>>

back to top

Led by the Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Department of Education, the Interagency Work Group on Disconnected Youth was established by the Obama Administration to advance national policy solutions for youth ages 16 to 24 who are disconnected from education, the workforce, and opportunity.   As a part of this work, the Administration is advancing Performance Partnership Pilots designed to incentivize cross-systems approaches to serving disconnected youth.   Of the 6.7 million disconnected youth, 32% are African American. The Department of Education issued a Request for Information this summer to solicit input into development of the Performance Partnership Pilots as well as federal cross-agency policy development and funding decisions.  Read CLASP's Comments to U.S. Department of Education Request for Information on Strategies for Improving Outcomes for Disconnected Youth>>  Other national policy organization responses, including the Campaign for Youth, can be found here. 

back to top

In case you missed it! In June, the House Education and Workforce Committee passed a WIA Reauthorization Bill that would eliminate youth jobs and training. The Workforce Investment Improvement Act of 2012 (HR 4297) would cut employment and training services for approximately 250,000 young people across the nation. This is the wrong direction for our country at a time when the youth unemployment rate is 16.1% - twice the rate of the general population. For Latino youth ages 16 to 24, that figure jumps to 19.2%, and for African Americans it skyrockets to 25.8% - three times the national average.  CLASP has prepared analyses of H.R. 4297 to help advocates and stakeholders understand how this bill would move youth development back a decade.