Feature Story

July 24, 2007

Testimony Before the House Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support Hearing on Disconnected and Disadvantaged Youth

From Center for Law and Social Policy:

The Campaign for Youth (CFY), a coalition of national organizations in the youth field, was established in 2002 in an effort to build a united voice for vulnerable and disconnected youth in this nation.

CFY has been working collectively to bring visibility to the magnitude and challenges surrounding these young people and to advance strategic solutions for addressing this issue at the national level and on the ground in the communities that are most heavily impacted by the loss of this potential talent.

As national attention focuses on reforming our education infrastructure such that "no child is left behind," we must concurrently focus national attention on prioritizing and investing in those who have been and will continue to be left behind until these reform efforts take hold.

One in three youth who start high school will not graduate four years later.1 More than half of youth of color in low-income communities will drop out.2 In 2004, two-thirds of large school districts had four-year graduation rates of less than 60 percent.3 However, this is not just an issue of race; nor is it simply an urban issue.

The unfortunate history of youth programming in communities is that programs grow and fold with the vagaries of federal funding.

This belief should guide our priorities, our policies, and our actions as individuals in a caring community and as a nation.

There must be a commitment to actualize that vision by making the investments at the scale needed until we eliminate the education and labor market disparities for poor and minority youth.

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