Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Laura Berman

Obama brings some hope with funds

Warren
Even on a glorious July day, with a brass band playing and the president of the United States comparing his ball-handling skills and jump shot to Detroit Mayor Dave Bing's, Michigan's gloomy reality kept seeping in.
The minister's benediction spoke of the state's economic hardship, the fear "of what tomorrow will bring."
In this sort of moment, the president as pragmatic cheerleader has a role to play: He's bringing what he hopes will be a better, smarter bureaucracy to town: aid to community colleges, retraining for displaced steel workers, hope and a few million dollars to an area starved for both.
To those who say that training is poppycock, there is the Joe Iezzi example: a ClintonTownship resident, Joe the Plumber lookalike (shaved head, burly physique), dad to a Marine. At 52, Iezzi braved the discomfort of going back to school. In December, he earned a two-year associate degree from MacombCountyCommunity College and immediately got a job as a maintenance mechanic at the ritzy new HenryFordWestBloomfieldHospital.
He was an example of hope and retraining that works. And Obama was clear on the idea that community colleges need help, and that the 6.2 million people who lost their jobs over the last 20 months, or the 750,000 people who have lost Michigan jobs since 2000, need help acquiring skills for jobs that exist or will in the future.
Most of those jobs lost are not coming back.
How can you argue with that?
Stephanie Bergeron, the president of WalshCollege, noted: "While the prospect of additional funding appears positive, we remain curious about its source."
If you talked to the people in the crowd -- a friendly and sweaty mob of Democrats -- a few words were repeated. "We need." As in, "we need jobs." Or "we need education."
Donna Caumartin, a Warren city councilwoman, said both, and added that "a training program like this is vitally important for these older employees who lose their jobs."
Real estate is her day job: "I'm working twice as hard for one-third the money," she said.
Obama didn't sugarcoat this story. He gets it. He's not pretending that $10 billion to renovate classrooms, or a Cisco Systems partnership to train 5,000 Michigan workers for real jobs in broadband and health care technology will feed the state's job hunger.
He knows that Goldman Sachs got $10 billion last year, just for being an investment bank with a squishy bottom line.
Sara Agonafer, a representative of San Diego's Miramar College, flew in at 2 a.m. to witness what she insisted is "an historic commitment" to community college education.
We need jobs. We need education. We need hope. On Tuesday, the president flew in, dispensed what he could, noting that his "job is to solve problems, not to carp and gripe," and flew off to St. Louis, leaving a jet trail of modestly revived hope.
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