In its own way, California Steel would like to be a leader in the War on Poverty.
In her own way, Alma’s mom – an immigrant who worked in the fields – has spent her life being a foot solider in the battle.
Although California Steel and Alma’s mom are separated by 100 miles, their dilemmas illustrate the challenge Southern California faces in overcoming poverty.
This week, on Aug. 20, the Southern California Association of Governments will hold a summit in downtown Los Angeles commemorating the 50th anniversary of Congress passing the Economic Opportunity Act – the measures advocated by President Lyndon B. Johnson in his 1964 State of the Union speech.
Five decades down the road, the record in this war is mixed. For the elderly, there have been some improvements. But one in four children in the L.A. region is in a family that has income below the poverty level.
We are hosting this meeting along with the Southern California Leadership Council because we need to raise awareness of the prevalence of poverty and bring together the people who fight this battle on a daily basis. Though we can convene the discussion, community stakeholders are in the best position to develop specific actions that can move people from poverty into prosperity. Our goal is to assist those who come to this summit as they find ways to get involved in this struggle.
In preparation for the summit, we have been visiting with business, government and nongovernment leaders in communities throughout the SCAG region. Their boots on the ground viewpoint is helping create an accurate picture of poverty in our region.
Many leaders suggest that the answer to ending poverty is more spending on the programs that are working as well as more spending on the programs that serve as an emergency net.
But we learned from more than half of all the local stakeholders we convened in this war that: “You can’t spend your way out of poverty. We need good-paying jobs that will help people earn their way out of poverty.”
The challenge in Southern California is that we are creating jobs that do not pay well. Economist Steven Levy says that half of the jobs created since the end of the recession pay less than $14.35 an hour.
And that is how the stories of California Steel and Alma’s mom illustrate the problem.
California Steel, a flat-rolled steel manufacturer company in Fontana, has job openings for electronic technicians that pay up to $37 an hour. That’s an annual salary of more than $75,000 plus benefits.
But there’s a problem with the plan: California Steel can’t find trained workers to fill the jobs. After meager success recruiting nationally, they are spending time, money and effort to close the skills gap by training current employees as well as pursuing recruits from local community college technical programs.
That’s where Alma’s mom comes in. Alma joined our conversation in Ventura County. Her mother came to the United States from Mexico when she was in middle school. She worked in the agricultural fields and later in a factory. Alma is 16 and her older sister has graduated college and is working on a master’s. Alma will go to college. But her mom, 46, will never advance beyond the factory floor. “She cannot stop working to train to look for another, better-paying job and her current job does not have training for her to advance,” Alma said.
There should be an answer for Alma’s mom. California Steel would like to find that answer, too.
Job-seeking and job application has become so impersonal (it’s done mostly online) that what we need is a “connector” who knows what employers need and finds people (not IP addresses) to train and fill those jobs. This is being done in many communities by community colleges, the state’s Workforce Investment Board and local economic development agencies. But if we are going to increase spending to end the war, this is one area where our colleagues suggested government should consider a heavy investment.
The training could be short and specific. It could be segmented into training a worker on what is needed to get in the door. Year-later training could be tailored to the next step on the ladder. Training would not always have to be complex, but it must direct a trainee to learn a skill that can be used immediately in industries where there are jobs with good salaries.
This is just one idea that has emerged from our presummit meetings. We hope that by getting the stakeholders together, more ideas will emerge.
The war has taught us that we might never be able to afford all the bullets we need. But we can change our tactics, alter our strategy and make improvements. What we’ve done for 50 years has not worked very well. We need to change our approach. Join us as we help design that approach. Join us as we act to win the War on Poverty.
Hasan Ikhrata is executive director of the Southern California Association of Governments, headquartered in downtown Los Angeles.
