Instead of paying unemployment why didn't we pay people to help tutor kids

[dkf]

Or do other jobs around the schools or other public resources.

When jobs are scarce and the job searches fruitless, does it not make more sense to have people actually perform a service to the community instead of making so many people spend all their time spinning their wheels looking for a job?

[Dappleganger]

1. Because that would be big guvmint paying people to work...

and we can't have that around here.

/s

[dkf]

5. Well I guess those against it for those reasons don't want to extend unemployment anyway.

[KansDem]

10. Yeah, and Tuesday told us we want to lessen government

...except when it concerns:
privacy
marriage
war
cannabis
choice
etc.etc.etc.

You get the message...

[Dappleganger]

17. Exactly...

the Party of Hypocrisy.

[KansDem]

22. That's the GOP!

Gang Of hyPocrites

[Brickbat]

2. When you say "other jobs around the schools," do you mean like janitorial? Maintenance? Special ed

help? You have to be careful, because well-meaning programs such as those can end up scabbing on established professions. See also "Teach for America."

[dkf]

13. It is sad that we believe the administrations would cheat the intent of this

Which is not to destroy jobs but simply to supplement help to the schools.

Funding should be in jeopardy if they are found to have abused this.

[Brickbat]

14. There's no "believe it would happen about it." This is how business works.

[dkf]

16. Schools aren't businesses.

[Brickbat]

19. Touche. They do, however, have to meet a budget, and the big push from Duncan's DOE has raised

"volunteer" teachers and unlicensed TFA workers to the same level of classroom teachers, and a bigger push to rely on them helps no one, IMO.

[county worker]

3. That was the idea behind the WPA

The Works Progress Administration (renamed during 1939 as the Work Projects Administration; WPA) was the largest New Deal agency, employing millions to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects. It fed children and redistributed food, clothing, and housing. Almost every community in the United States had a park, bridge or school constructed by the agency, which especially benefited rural and Western populations. Expenditures from 1936 to 1939 totaled nearly $7 billion.<1> By 1943, the total amount spent was over $11 billion.<2>

Created by order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the WPA was funded by Congress with passage of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 on April 8, 1935. The legislation had passed in the House of Representatives by a margin of 329 to 78, but was delayed by the Senate.<1>

The WPA continued and extended relief programs similar to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), which was established by Congress in 1932 during the administration of Roosevelt's predecessor Herbert Hoover. Headed by Harry Hopkins, the WPA provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States. Between 1935 and 1943, the WPA provided almost eight million jobs.<3>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration

[GoCubsGo]

20. Not quite.

WPA jobs were actual jobs. They were not tied to collecting unemployment compensation as the OP suggests, and something a lot or republicans have also been calling for.

[county worker]

23. The OP says "Instead of paying unemployment"

Instead of paying unemployment why didn't we pay people to help tutor kids
Or do other jobs around the schools or other public resources.

When jobs are scarce and the job searches fruitless, does it not make more sense to have people actually perform a service to the community instead of making so many people spend all their time spinning their wheels looking for a job?

[murielm99]

4. I thought we did that.

Wasn't that part of the Clinton welfare reform? Everyone here hates what he did to welfare.

And tutors need their jobs, too. There are unemployed teachers who earn a living by tutoring. As far as other school jobs go, people have to be screened. There are state laws about who can work in schools, and there should be. Not everyone should be around children.

Education is in enough of a mess without turning the unemployed loose in our schools.

We do need a better jobs program. But it needs some thought and care.

[exboyfil]

8. How about targeting imports?

Labor is free when you presuppose unemployment benefits.

[dkf]

9. Yet we could provide so many more tutors for individual kids in need this way.

In one fell swoop we could bring the younger disadvantaged kids up to speed.

Tutoring jobs will exist after our recovery but this is an emergency.

And of course people need to be screened for perversions, the same criteria that I'm sure exists for all school personnel.

[RZM]

6. I actually did that when I was collecting unemployment in 2004

But of course I wasn't paid to. But my retired mother was doing it and I felt I should do something while not working. They were 5th graders who had trouble reading/writing. It was pretty interesting stuff. I remember too the district gave us swag when the school year ended and I thought 'why are you spending money on this?'

[treestar]

7. Good idea. Call Congress right fucking now

And get someone to put a bill for that on the floor.

[zeemike]

11. Always look on the bright side of life.

If you are an employer of people things look pretty good....lots of people looking for anything.
And if your are an investor it means a lot more profit...
And if you are a politician it means a big payoff when you vote in a way that pleases the above.

[Ozymanithrax]

12. Because if people are busy doing work around schools..

then they are not looking for work, and unemployment is there to support them while looking for a job.

It would be better to provide more funds for schools and parks so we can hire some of the unemployed to perform work necessary for the betterment of society.

Your ideas sounds similar to the Welfare to Work programs that Clinton created with the help of Congress in the 90's. At the time the new all Republican Congress dreamed of ending welfare, and Clinton change that impetus to kick people into to the Streets to Welfare to Work programs.

[dkf]

15. Except this would cease when the unemployment rate and average duration falls.

It wouldn't be a permanent situation and it would be open to people who think the job market search is fruitless at this time. It would of course make sense to restart looking for a good paying job when the market picks up.

[Ozymanithrax]

18. So would you key that to the unemployment rate in the nation, the state,

or the city? Who would fund it? Does your right to that work end when your unemployment benefits run out? If so, it would need a separate source of funding.

[dkf]

21. I would use it in lieu of an unemployment extension. So the funds would come from the federal Govt

I would tie it to the national rate