NEWS - Education & Colleges

JULY 5 - Barrow Introduces Bills to Subsidize Tech School Training, Army Corps Preservation

SBJ Staff Report

July 5, 2010 - Congressman John Barrow (GA-12) has introduced two pieces of legislation recently that will help make technical school education more affordable for people who are out of work due to the economic downturn; and will help the Army Corps of Engineers with historic preservation efforts.

H.R. 5594 is an amendment to the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998, and would authorize the Department of Labor to create a pilot program that will provide a subsidy of up to $2,000 for technical school training. Funding for the “Technical School Subsidy Program” would be given to local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) that would make funding available to prospective students through local One-Stop delivery systems as an education subsidy, according to Barrow. The amendment has been referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor, and has no co-sponsors to date.

“Getting folks back to work is my highest priority,” said Barrow. “Over the last few months I’ve toured businesses large and small all across the 12^th District, and I’ve had the opportunity to visit a number of technical schools and training facilities. After talking to folks, it’s clear that we need to make sure that folks who are out of work right now have access to the training they need to get and keep good paying jobs in the future.”

“Many out of work Americans are using the economic downturn to go back to school and increase their ability to get a new job. The skills acquired through career and technical training are often the difference between getting a job or promotion, and missing out on it entirely. Career and technical schools also allow students to get new skills in high-demand fields without spending a lot of money.  It also gives local businesses the opportunity to hire qualified workers from local communities, rather than having to look elsewhere to build up the workforce,” he added.

The Association for Career and Technical Education, the nation’s largest not-for-profit education association dedicated to the advancement of education that prepares youth and adults for successful careers, has endorsed Barrow’s legislation, saying:

“This bill recognizes the value that career and technical education programs can provide in helping unemployed Americans get the education and training needed to re-enter the workforce in high-wage, high-skill and high-demand occupations.

“One of the biggest concerns our members have expressed related to the Workforce Investment Act, which your bill seeks to amend, is the difficulty many individuals have in accessing training under the current law… A greater focus must be placed throughout the workforce system on increasing skills training to ensure individuals are prepared to succeed in the workforce on a long-term basis,” according to the Congressman.

H.R. 5272 Army Corps of Engineers

Barrow has also written a bill to provide funds to the Army Corps of Engineers to hire veterans and members of the Armed Forces to assist the Corps with curation and historic preservation activities, and “for other purposes.”  The bill is co-sponsored by Rep Brown-Waite,(FL-5) and Rep. William Clay (MO-1).

According to Barrow, the Army Corps of Engineers and other Federal agencies are required to preserve and catalogue artifacts and other items of national historical significance that are uncovered during the course of their work. Uncatalogued artifacts within the care of Federal agencies are stored in hundreds of repositories and museums across the country.

In October of 2009, the Army Corps of Engineers, Center of Expertise for Curation and Management of Archeological Collections, used $3,500,000 in temporary funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to begin the Veterans' Curation Program to employ and train Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in archaeological processing.

The Veterans' Curation Program employs veterans and members of the Armed Forces in the sorting, cleaning, and cataloguing of artifacts managed by the Army Corps of Engineers. Employees of the Veterans' Curation Program gain valuable work skills, including computer database management, records management, photographic and scanning techniques, computer software proficiency, vocabulary and writing skills, and interpersonal communication skills, as well as knowledge and training in archaeology and history, the bill states.

Experience in archaeological curation gained through the Veterans' Curation Program is valuable training and experience for the museum, forensics, administrative, records management, and other fields. And, Veterans' Curation Program participants may assist the Army Corps of Engineers to develop a more efficient and comprehensive collections management program and also may provide the workforce to meet the records management needs at other agencies and departments, including the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The bill would require the Chief of the Army Corps of Engineers to develop a Veterans' Curation Program to hire veterans and members of the Armed Forces to assist the Corps with its curation and historic preservation activities. Beginning in fiscal year 2010, there is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act $10,000,000 for each fiscal year.