{"id":8388,"date":"2015-05-24T18:06:35","date_gmt":"2015-05-24T22:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=8388"},"modified":"2015-05-27T09:58:57","modified_gmt":"2015-05-27T13:58:57","slug":"mp3-of-my-npr-debate-on-federal-job-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2015\/05\/24\/mp3-of-my-npr-debate-on-federal-job-training\/","title":{"rendered":"MP3 of my NPR Debate on Federal Job Training"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jobtrainingRed\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Marty Nemko<\/strong> had me on his NPR-San Francisco KALW program today to debate federal job training reform<\/a> with Stephen Baiter<\/a>, the executive directory of the Workforce Development Board of Contra Costa County, California.\u00a0 Marty wanted a civil debate, so we didn’t bust any chairs over each other’s heads.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Bovard-debate-5-24-2015-How-Helpful-Are-Job-Training-Programs-KALW-Part.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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I have been writing about federal job programs sporadically since the early 1980s.\u00a0 Marty mentioned this Wall Street Journal <\/a>piece I did in 2011.\u00a0 Here’s a page with links to my 1980s\/early 1990s job training critiques<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stephen has faith that the programs can run well.\u00a0 I have no faith that the feds can fix a program\u00a0they have bungled for more than half a century.<\/p>\n

Stephen and Marty both urged me to come up with constructive suggestions. But I’ve seen the feds try practically every reform in the book – and still shaft would-be trainees.\u00a0 Doing harm is worse than doing nothing. For generations, politicians have won applause by promising to give young people valuable skills and betrayed them year\u00a0after year.\u00a0 Federal job training is a prime example of the incorrigibility of a government intervention.<\/p>\n

I cited several evaluations of federal programs which showed that “training” actually reduced participants’ subsequent earnings. Marty suggested that rather than relying on past evaluations, we should\u00a0use logic to come up with a better program.\u00a0I laughed and said\u00a0it was a peculiar type of logic that begins by disposing of the evidence.<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/strong> Stephen Baiter, the government job trainer, sent me\u00a0a series of angry Twitter messages after the show.\u00a0 His comments during the debate often seemed to be an endless series of prefabricated phrases, presumably pre-approved by the U.S. Department of Labor.\u00a0 In his Twitter profile, he describes himself as a “Strategic Thinker.”\u00a0 You be the judge.\u00a0 Apparently government job trainers believe that there is a statute of limitation by which they have no obligation to learn from the mistakes of earlier decades and prior programs.<\/p>\n

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@baiter<\/a> JTPA was the ultimate bipartisanship on job training – and that left too many trainees up the creek without a paddle<\/p>\n

— James Bovard (@JimBovard) May 25, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n