how to (not) help teens get a job

Jaz Gray in the C-J on federal funding for a local jobs program to help teens find jobs...

A summer job program in western Louisville has had to turn away more than 500 younger teens because of a lack of government funding and a decrease in businesses that are hiring, the program's president said.

Charles King of Project One said the nonprofit has only been able to assist 300 of the 800 to 1,000 youths between 13 and 16 years old who have sought training and employment from it this year. He said the number of teens seeking aid from the program, which teaches job-seeking skills to disadvantaged teens and young adults and gives them job opportunities, represents a three-fold increase over last year....

The federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 allocated $1.2 billion for youth activities, including summer employment, but King said that out of the $1.4 million Louisville received, very little has gone to helping younger teens. "We took our stimulus money and invested it in (teens) 16 to 24..."

Four thoughts:

1.) Federal funding for what may be a fine local program is a great idea-- other than the fact that it is neither Constitutional, ethical (take money from you and the working poor to pay for this?), or practical (at least the funding piece doesn't work efficiently and there are far better ways to promote teen jobs).

2.) If you have federal funding of what should be local programs-- and the feds cut you off-- it puts you in a bad spot (that you should have never been in).

3.) We're getting ready to hike the minimum wage again. It's difficult to imagine how making it more expensive to hire teens is going to help them find jobs.

4.) Most politicians are outright hypocrites on this subject as well, supporting child labor laws that arbitrarily exclude under-age kids from many jobs.