Young New Yorkers seeking public assistance are being directed away from GED programs by city workers, youth advocates claimed in a report released Wednesday, while the city agency responsible for public aid said its work-first approach is “the key to self-sufficiency.”
People under the age of 21 who are getting public cash assistance can satisfy their work requirement by enrolling in a GED program. But the Community Service Society advocacy group said in its report that some young people who want to pursue their degrees are instead pushed into workforce training programs. One-in-five city residents between the ages of 17 and 24 are not attending school and have no job, the report said.
The group conducted interviews with 100 young people who had previously applied for cash assistance or were in the process of applying.
Matthew Brune, executive deputy commissioner for the Human Resources Administration, said young people without high school degrees who aren’t already in a GED program are required to attend workforce training during the 30 days or so in which their aid applications are being processed. After that, he said, if they choose to do so they can enroll in a GED program — a choice the agency hopes they’ll make.
HRA spokeswoman Connie Ress argued that the report’s authors were seeking a return to old strategies that prior to the welfare overhaul of the 1990s had drawn some 1.2 million people onto the city’s rolls.
“A mandated education-first approach is not the most effective method to increase the income of low-income people with minimal work histories,” she said in a statement. “New York City has shown that a strong work-first approach, combined with education and training as needed, is the key to self-sufficiency.”
Still City Council Speaker Christine Quinn called on the agency to improve its system connecting youth to educational services.
“This report reveals the ways in which our system is failing to prepare our youth for whatever they choose to do,” she said in a statement.