Save-the-CCC
Save-the-CCC
Christian Science Monitor
US economic crisis puts youth corps at risk
While Obama urges expanding conservation corps, cash-strapped states such
as California mull cutbacks.
by Ben Arnoldy January 20, 2009
It’s a tough job market, especially for a young man living on the streets. But 23-year-old Cory O’
Malley found work five months ago with the California Conservation Corps (CCC). It’s put a roof
over his head, the sweat of hard labor on his back, and a certain twinkle in his eyes.
The twinkle comes from Desiree, his fiancée whom he met in the corps, and plans for a brighter
future through job training and college. He credits the CCC with turning his life around.
“Even my parents noticed when I went down to see them at Christmas. They were like, ‘You are
so helpful…. You are changed, changed for the good,’ ” says Mr. O’Malley, covered with sweat
and dirt from building forest trails north of San Francisco.
O’Malley epitomizes what the CCC was designed to do – turn around at-risk youth through work
and training. But the CCC and similar programs in other cash-strapped states are now facing
massive cuts. California’s budget situation is so dire that the governor has proposed
terminating the state program entirely.
The story is reversed at the federal level, where the incoming administration of Barack Obama
has expressed interest in expanding job corps. Some of the debates over the CCC might soon
echo in Washington – namely the desire to provide jobs and training in an economic crisis,
versus questions of program efficiency and effectiveness.
Combining work and service
The timing couldn’t be worse for eliminating the CCC, says Barbara O’Connor, a member of its
board and a communications professor at California State University (CSU) in Sacramento. “At
CSU, young males are dropping out like flies. It’s a national disaster and we better find places to
train these young people for green jobs or something.”
Some 26,000 young people are involved nationwide under the umbrella of The Corps Network.
The group represents 136 corps operating in 42 states and the District of Columbia.
Many, like the CCC, are geared toward environmental projects and disaster response; others do
community projects in education and human services. The programs have their roots in the
Depression-era efforts to put the nation back to work, while adding a modern component of
apprenticeship and continuing education.
“Virtually all the corps we represent are being challenged financially at this point in time,” says
Sally Prouty, president and CEO of the The Corps Network. Funding comes from foundations and
corporations, federal sources like AmeriCorps, and state and local grants. “Every one of those
areas of funding is being cut back,” Ms. Prouty says, “So we are advocating federal funding for
the purpose of supporting corps nationwide.”
Her group is also tapping into the public works zeitgeist, calling for the creation of a clean-
energy service corps, a transportation corps, and a native American corps. A white paper by
several influential groups puts the cost at $1.25 billion over five years to hire and train 125,000
young people to do energy efficiency retrofitting.
The recommendations seem to resonate with the new administration’s thinking. Mr. Obama’s
transition website outlines plans to expand AmeriCorps from 75,000 slots to 250,000, a
doubling of the Peace Corps, and the creation of an “energy-focused youth jobs program.”
Efficiency questions
Critics point out such programs have proven inefficient in the past. “This is the type of thing that
is driven by trying to make work and having the appearance of people doing good things,” says
James Bovard, who has written critical assessments of AmeriCorps. “The history of
AmeriCorps shows that it just results in a lot of photo ops and not achieving very much.”
Neither was the General Accounting Office glowing in its assessments in the 1990s of the
Department of Labor’s Job Corps program. It spent a lot on youth who didn’t stay long enough to
complete training, and upon exit, often wound up working low-skilled jobs, the GAO found.
More recent data from Job Corps suggests that roughly half get a GED while enrolled, and three-
quarters go on to jobs or higher education.
Other research points to successes. After participating, black males were one-third less likely
to be arrested and 50 percent more likely to be employed, according to a 1997 study by Abt
Associates, Inc.
In California, the governor’s representatives don’t dispute that the CCC does good work,
including repairing back-country trails, working fire lines, and cleaning up after disasters. But
they argue that the state can’t afford to spend $34 million on the program when it has a $42
billion deficit.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget would phase out the CCC over three years. Some new
money would be put into local California corps instead, with greater emphasis on training. “The
corps, when it first started, was a balance between training, education, and work experience.
What it’s evolved into is work experience and not enough training and education,” says Sandy
Cooney, spokesman for the state Natural Resources Agency.
CCC officials deny that: Every participant without a high school diploma must do schooling after
work, and the program has connected youth to jobs with unions, fire agencies, and the state
parks.
Mr. Cooney also notes the CCC spends about $40,000 of state funds per participant – enough,
he says, to hire a fire crewman or a park ranger.
That cost, counters CCC’s O’Connor, includes room and board, and overhead costs. “We train
kids to get jobs who we would have to support on welfare and in prisons. You can’t compare the
two.”
US economic crisis puts youth corps at risk
While Obama urges expanding conservation corps, cash-strapped states such
as California mull cutbacks.
by Ben Arnoldy January 20, 2009
It’s a tough job market, especially for a young man living on the streets. But 23-year-old Cory O’
Malley found work five months ago with the California Conservation Corps (CCC). It’s put a roof
over his head, the sweat of hard labor on his back, and a certain twinkle in his eyes.
The twinkle comes from Desiree, his fiancée whom he met in the corps, and plans for a brighter
future through job training and college. He credits the CCC with turning his life around.
“Even my parents noticed when I went down to see them at Christmas. They were like, ‘You are
so helpful…. You are changed, changed for the good,’ ” says Mr. O’Malley, covered with sweat
and dirt from building forest trails north of San Francisco.
O’Malley epitomizes what the CCC was designed to do – turn around at-risk youth through work
and training. But the CCC and similar programs in other cash-strapped states are now facing
massive cuts. California’s budget situation is so dire that the governor has proposed
terminating the state program entirely.
The story is reversed at the federal level, where the incoming administration of Barack Obama
has expressed interest in expanding job corps. Some of the debates over the CCC might soon
echo in Washington – namely the desire to provide jobs and training in an economic crisis,
versus questions of program efficiency and effectiveness.
Combining work and service
The timing couldn’t be worse for eliminating the CCC, says Barbara O’Connor, a member of its
board and a communications professor at California State University (CSU) in Sacramento. “At
CSU, young males are dropping out like flies. It’s a national disaster and we better find places to
train these young people for green jobs or something.”
Some 26,000 young people are involved nationwide under the umbrella of The Corps Network.
The group represents 136 corps operating in 42 states and the District of Columbia.
Many, like the CCC, are geared toward environmental projects and disaster response; others do
community projects in education and human services. The programs have their roots in the
Depression-era efforts to put the nation back to work, while adding a modern component of
apprenticeship and continuing education.
“Virtually all the corps we represent are being challenged financially at this point in time,” says
Sally Prouty, president and CEO of the The Corps Network. Funding comes from foundations and
corporations, federal sources like AmeriCorps, and state and local grants. “Every one of those
areas of funding is being cut back,” Ms. Prouty says, “So we are advocating federal funding for
the purpose of supporting corps nationwide.”
Her group is also tapping into the public works zeitgeist, calling for the creation of a clean-
energy service corps, a transportation corps, and a native American corps. A white paper by
several influential groups puts the cost at $1.25 billion over five years to hire and train 125,000
young people to do energy efficiency retrofitting.
The recommendations seem to resonate with the new administration’s thinking. Mr. Obama’s
transition website outlines plans to expand AmeriCorps from 75,000 slots to 250,000, a
doubling of the Peace Corps, and the creation of an “energy-focused youth jobs program.”
Efficiency questions
Critics point out such programs have proven inefficient in the past. “This is the type of thing that
is driven by trying to make work and having the appearance of people doing good things,” says
James Bovard, who has written critical assessments of AmeriCorps. “The history of
AmeriCorps shows that it just results in a lot of photo ops and not achieving very much.”
Neither was the General Accounting Office glowing in its assessments in the 1990s of the
Department of Labor’s Job Corps program. It spent a lot on youth who didn’t stay long enough to
complete training, and upon exit, often wound up working low-skilled jobs, the GAO found.
More recent data from Job Corps suggests that roughly half get a GED while enrolled, and three-
quarters go on to jobs or higher education.
Other research points to successes. After participating, black males were one-third less likely
to be arrested and 50 percent more likely to be employed, according to a 1997 study by Abt
Associates, Inc.
In California, the governor’s representatives don’t dispute that the CCC does good work,
including repairing back-country trails, working fire lines, and cleaning up after disasters. But
they argue that the state can’t afford to spend $34 million on the program when it has a $42
billion deficit.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget would phase out the CCC over three years. Some new
money would be put into local California corps instead, with greater emphasis on training. “The
corps, when it first started, was a balance between training, education, and work experience.
What it’s evolved into is work experience and not enough training and education,” says Sandy
Cooney, spokesman for the state Natural Resources Agency.
CCC officials deny that: Every participant without a high school diploma must do schooling after
work, and the program has connected youth to jobs with unions, fire agencies, and the state
parks.
Mr. Cooney also notes the CCC spends about $40,000 of state funds per participant – enough,
he says, to hire a fire crewman or a park ranger.
That cost, counters CCC’s O’Connor, includes room and board, and overhead costs. “We train
kids to get jobs who we would have to support on welfare and in prisons. You can’t compare the
two.”
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Friends of the
Save-the-CCC
Campaign
-- Partial List --
Save-the-CCC
Campaign
-- Partial List --
- Paul Carrillo - Chair, Friends of
CCC - John Van de Kamp, Former
Attorney General, State of CA - Herb Perry -Professor Emeritus
Economics,CSUS & member of
Civilian Conservation Corps - Bruce Saito -Executive Director
Los Angeles Conservation Corps
& President o California
Association of Local Corps - Ian Kim, Director Green Collar
Campaign of Ella Baker Center
for Human Rights - Brian Stark - Director, Land
Conservancy of San Luis Obispo - Barbara O'connor, Ph.D., Dir. of
Institute of Study of Politics &
Media, CSUS - Bud Sheble - Former Director of
the California Conservation
Corps Gov. Dukemejian - Tom Mertens, Board of Directors,
League to Save Lake Tahoe - Susie Lange, Deputy
Superintendent Department of
Education - Rick Hawley, Executive Director
– Green Space Cambria Land
Trust - Bill Wilson, Former Chairman of
the Board, Tahoe-Baikal Institute - Robert L. (Griff) Griffiths, Co-
Founder, National Association of
Civilian Conservation Corps
Alumni - Robert Burkhardt - Head of
School, Eagle Rock School &
former Chief Deputy CCC