Monday, June 17, 2013

Filling the Unemployment Quagmire



NYS Dept. of Labor’s Preliminary Area Unemployment Rates monthly report for April 2013 puts the state’s rate at 7.8%, which is the state’s lowest level since March 2009.  NYC’s rate (all 5 boroughs) for April was 7.7%.  This is down from 8.5% since the preceding month.  These figures strongly suggest that the local economy is bouncing back from the “Great Recession”.
Digging deeper reveals where high unemployment persists.  The Bronx County’s rate is 10.5% and Kings County’s is 8.4%, followed by Queens, Richmond County, and New York County at 6.9%, 6.7%, and 6.5%, respectively.
Census 2010 and historic residential patterns show that the Bronx is the home of most Hispanics and Brooklyn having the highest number of blacks in the City.  Could it be that NYC blacks and Hispanics experience higher unemployment than other New Yorkers?  Unfortunately, this is the case.
April 2013 figures for NYC Human Resources Administration’s three cash assistance programs count 363,991 recipients where most reside in Brooklyn (36.8%) and the Bronx (32.5%).  The case heads, regardless of residence, are primarily black (46%) and Hispanic (42.3%) for these programs.  White and Other are cumulatively a distant 11.67%.
What accounts for the high unemployment?  “Lack of education makes them unemployable”, asserts Michelle George, Brooklyn Community District 8 Manager.  This district covers Prospect Heights, northern Crown Heights, and Weeksville.  “Their high school dropout rates are higher than whites and the types of jobs that ‘lack of education’ affords—fast food and retail—[this population] doesn’t want”.  Workforce One Centers are dealing with this aversion by preparing Workforce One members for such employment.  Their clients include Home Depot, Lowe’s, Victoria’s Secret, Hale & Hearty Soups, and Burger Shack.
Glen Ettienne, owner of Delux Gallery Natural Hair Salon, in Clinton Hill, contends media exposure shapes young blacks' and Hispanics' life decisions.  “The people who own the press understand that we’re followers.  50% can’t think for themselves.  In owning the press, they can sway the public”.  Ettienne believes the music industry is another influencer.  “The original rap music was conscious rap that lifted us”, Ettienne opines. “So the record executives had the musicians change their lyrics.  Now nobody raps about going to college, respecting your brother, or raising your child.  'It’s drive a nice car', 'get, the money', 'get the bitches'”.
Others observe that neither public schools nor parents are adequately presenting the breadth of career and occupation options that youth could consider.  There are black businesses that admirably weather the current economic climate.  Black Enterprise’s Industry Leaders lists include many local enterprises.  Kristal Auto Mall, Uniworld Group, Inc., the Brooklyn-based advertising agency, Carver Federal, with branches in three boroughs, Valentine Mfg, in Hauppauge, and Prime Access, a marketing company need mentioning.
Where there is no apparent work people must make work.  One recession-proof industry is food and beverages.  Lowell Hawthorne turned one Caribbean cuisine restaurant into a franchise called Golden Crust Caribbean Bakery & Grill.  Franchising resulted in not only a business for Hawthorne and his co-founder but businesses and employment for 120 franchises.
Franchising can be an expensive proposition.  Golden Crust franchisees invest between $173,000 and $564,000 to operate the moneymakers.  There are franchises that require much lower cash outlays.  Janitorial franchises are within reach of moderate income households.  The investment ranges between $1,500 and $55,000.  JAN-Pro Cleaning Systems with 10,414 franchises in the US counts 2,675 franchises owned by black executives.  Investment is from $3,145 to $50,130.  Returning to attitudes, blacks and Hispanics must rethink what is worthy work and how to build wealth, if the community is determined to solve the unemployment quagmire.

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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

There are No Dancing Lemons

The other evening I was invited to watch Waiting for Superman with Long Island University Education Department admin and a few students. Because all in the room had viewed the movie previously, we could ask the person controlling the DVD player to forward to a particular scene.

In short, the group was displeased with stated and implicit messages. For example, the national teachers unions were so strong that observably incompetent teachers can't be fired; rather, principals within a district or another one would trade their so-called "lemon" to another school. This trade was in the hopes the "new lemon" would be a bit better than who they had before. Can you believe that after two or three switches, no principal realized that an incompetent teacher would not improve under his watch? This film wants you to believe that hope springs eternal; that an experienced principal would know anyone worth having would be kept.

More interestingly, someone in our small crowd explained that you can't stop someone from his working profession (teaching), so a principal may reassign someone out of the classroom into a clerical or administrative duty, in the hopes the person looks for another school. An alternative is to have the poor performing teacher to agree to find another teaching post rather than go through disciplinary procedures.

Another segment described tracking children for different roles and occupations. First track students were headed for executive-leader positions; second track students were headed for clerical jobs or small business; and third track were prepared for factory or farm work. The US economy made a significant shift into the information age and office environment in the 1970s. If tracking still exists or neighborhoods are designated to produce low academically perform students but most factories have moved out of the US and family farms have been taken over by agribusiness, what is the rationale for the type of education given to American children in the 21st century?

The production explains the need for charter schools as a counter to the strong teachers unions. If bad performing teachers can't be fired then the US will allocate public dollars to schools that aren't controlled by these unions. On the US east coast, we find charter schools' with total pupil seats anywhere from 100 to 350. How do these small schools meet the needs of large and medium-sized cities? It becomes even more intense when a charter school is placed in a low income neighborhood. 500 or more applications may be submitted to a charter school with 150 seats. The solution is school lotteries. Waiting for Superman allocated ten minutes to watching five young children in different parts of the nation go through the anxiety of participating in a lottery. The five weren't the lucky ones the day of their respective lottery dates. Both parents and children were so crestfallen. One little boy was later selected for a seat at a sleep away school.

It was a great experience listening to these sharp minds analyze and synthesize the statements and images of Waiting for Superman. I took away the need to understand what motivates the positions anyone may energetically advance to the public. Is it money? Is it a vision? Is that vision in line with values of a society as a whole?

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