| Check off yet another campaign promise fulfilled by Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell. This week, the Mayor--along with City Manager Marc Ott, Austin Independent School District Superintendent Meria Carstarphen, and AISD Board of Trustees President Mark Williams--formally launched AustinCorps, a civic education and leadership development program for local high school students. AustinCorps was a solid part of the Mayor's campaign platform to focus on the fundamentals and help the City thrive in the short and long term. It's great to see it come to fruition so quickly.
From The Office of The Mayor (emphasis mine):
 AustinCorps will combine classroom curriculum focused on local government with a hands-on experience at City Hall. In the fall, students will meet twice weekly with city policymakers and administrators to become familiar with the functions of city government. In the spring, students will complete a mentored internship with the city, and work in small groups to plan and execute community projects.
Altogether, participants in the inaugural AustinCorps class will spend a total of 10,000 hours over nine months working at City Hall and in the community.
Mayor Lee Leffingwell, who proposed creating AustinCorps during his mayoral campaign last year, said the main objective is to promote community engagement among Austin students. "Our most valuable resource as a city is our young people," said Leffingwell. "If we can do more now to educate and engage Austin's students in local government and civic life, the entire community will ultimately reap the reward."
This program has the potential to be a huge boon for Austin's long-term economic recovery, by investing in the future of our community. Much solid analysis of the ongoing recession has focused on the brutal unemployment rate for teenagers, and the long-term consequences of failing to prepare our youths for successful careers. The New York Times reported on record-high unemployment amongst teens last summer:
This August, the teenage unemployment rate - that is, the percentage of teenagers who wanted a job who could not find one - was 25.5 percent, its highest level since the government began keeping track of such statistics in 1948. Likewise, the percentage of teenagers over all who were working was at its lowest level in recorded history.
When teens don't work, they can't save money for college, gain valuable professional experience to help them earn better jobs later on, and explore potential career paths. While unemployment has hurt everyone, it's worth pointing out that an unemployed 22-year-old with zero work experience will be kicking around much longer than a 55-year-old who has been let go only 10 years before his or her planned retirement. The fact is, the recession is hurting America's ability to train and develop the workers we need for the next 50 years.
Unemployment has hit urban minority populations the hardest. From The Atlantic's must-read article How A New Jobless Era Will Transform America:
Late last year, unemployment among black teens ages 16 to 19 was nearly 50 percent, and the unemployment rate for black men age 20 or older was almost 17 percent.
The two high schools which will participate in the pilot year of the program, Akins and Crockett, have significant minority populations. Given that Texas is now a minority-majority state, it is especially important that we make sure to create programs to help address the needs of our diverse population, especially those members who will suffer the most adverse effects of the recession.
What I like best about the program is its focus on service, inspiring and empowering our youths to pursue careers in the public interest that help all of Austin succeed together. AustinCorps is a great bulwark against stifling unemployment for teenagers and long-term economic perils of unprepared post-recession workforce. It's exciting for these kids to have this great opportunity now. I can't wait to see what they make of it--and do for the benefit of Austin--5, 10 years down the line! |
