New College=New Green Jobs

[irishbobcat]

New Community College/Green Jobs Can Pull People out of Poverty

The news today that a new Community College could be coming to Youngstown by 2010 could be another important resource in bringing green collar jobs to the valley as well as green collar technical training to youth who cannot afford to attend YSU. This new community college could help raise students and adults out of poverty.

A recent New York Times Article from March 26, 2008 may be able to illustrate how Green Collar jobs can help pull people out of poverty and crime.

Steven Greenhouse's article reports on how such green collar jobs could save inner cities like Youngstown and the 60th district. Greenhouse writes:

"Mr. Jones, the head of Green for All, joined the green economy after graduating from Yale Law School. He became executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, using that position to start a program that trains low-income workers in how to weatherize homes and install solar panels.

Mr. Jones calls such jobs green pathways out of poverty. "The green economy needs Ph.D.'s and Ph.-do's," he said. "We need people who are highly educated at the theoretical level, and we need people who are highly educated at the level of skilled labor."
He sees green jobs as providing a career ladder. Some workers might start at $10 an hour inspecting homes for energy-efficient light bulbs. Then they might become $18-an-hour workers installing solar panels and eventually $25-an-hour solar-team managers. Eventually they might become $40-an-hour electricians or carpenters who do energy-minded renovations.

"Right now we don't have the infrastructure to train a sufficient number of green-collar workers," Mr. Jones said.
By beginning to invest in green Collar Jobs, could we not prepare students from middle school onto high school and then onto a new community college and tell them that a green collar job with living wages awaits them so them have the chance to climb an economical ladder of success and not turn to crime as a last resort?

As the independent candidate for state representative for the 60th district, I would work with all organizations to bring Green jobs and factories back to the valley. Would you rather have jobs, wages, and paychecks back in the valley and less crime or continue to have no new hope for our low-income workers who turn to crime?

Sincerely,

Dennis Spisak-Independent Green Party Candidate for state representative-60th district

Campaign website Http://votespisak.tripod.com
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