I'm going to try to be the voice of reason here because this was a topic my wife and I discussed at length yesterday.
I'll first start with the pro-side of this issue and speak to the broader point I believe Newt was trying to make which is on par with the argument DarkWizard12 was trying to make (post #8).
I remember when I was a child growing up in the 70's you could make money performing odd jobs for your neighbors mowing and racking yards, shoveling snow, setting up a lemonaid/kool-aid stand, babysitting, having a paper route, working a summer job or some rinky-dink low wage job at the local soda shop. But as times and the economy has changed, these such opportunities have either become severely limited or are gone.
Newspapers are all but exstint now as far as local door-to-door delivery is concerned especially with newspaper sales diminishing and with most major newspapers now available online. Besides that, now you see adults taking huge bundles of papers in their mini-vans and delivering them at night as a side-job. Home daycare has become big business; so teenage girls don't babysit much anymore unless it's for a close family friend. Selling koolaid in front of your home now requires a business license. So much for the 1st-grade entrepreneaur. And you can forget about the young lad pulling his father's lawnmower down the block going door-to-door to your neighbors to mow their lawn for $10-25. The lawncare/landscaping business is big small business now. So, the era of kids being able to make money on the side while they are...kids...and learning the lessons of "hard work pays" as folks like Ross Perot and Warren Buffet once did are pretty much gone. Now, if you aren't a critical thinker and you don't know how to look for the opportunities and you haven't embraced technology while you're young, chances are this generation growing up will be left behind. This is the message President Obama has been trying to convey in his push toward improving and providing educational opportunities for the 21st Century and beyond.
So, from the above perspective I do understand the greater point Newt is trying to make. However, I also see alittle bit of hypocricy, not to mention problems, with what he's suggesting.
Linked herein is a
study conducted by the Regents of the University of Wisconsin System on behalf of the Institute for Research on Poverty in 2006. The graph on page 2 tells us all we need to know as far as which youth demographic "should" benefit most from youth jobs in poor neighborhoods. However, my concerns with Newt's urban youth jobs initiative as he details it is that it would only lend itself to the most disadvantaged youths unknowingly being sent back to the days of under-appreciated custocial trades many of these children's parents and grandparents fought hard to get away from. My point here is simple, folks: If you
filter out the white noise of politics, you eventually get to the truth. So, what is it that Newt Gingrich is really trying to say here?
Poor minority children, you can help your single mom (whose likely on welfare) suppliment the household income by being a janitor working a few hours a week after school making minimum wage. Wouldn't that be great? You earn alittle pocket change while in the process help clean up the mess you make at your school. Imagine what pride you'd have coming home showing moms your little paycheck along with your C- report card. You'll be earning an income while also experiencing what it's like to be a good, hard worker. Now, who among you poor little nigglets and wetbacks wants to make some money cleaning up for somebody else just like your parents and grandfathers?
I'll probably get thread-banned for the above quote, but what Newt Gingrich is proposing is nothing more than a step backwards for poor minority children whose parents, grandparent and great-grandparents very likely performed such similar meanial labor task at some point in their lives going back to the 50's, 60's and 70's. Newt is attempting to usurp child labor laws and justify such as a call to action to provide impovished youths with a means to earn pocket change while also "taking pride in keeping their schools clean". I have no problem with students taking pride in their school. If they are being trashed and are in disrepair, volunteer students through efforts by the student body should advocate performing such repair jobs, i.e., paint over graffiti, help install new light figures by shop students, the jocks mow the football field or the baseball diamond.
But DON'T try to con poor minority students into doing janitorial work on the cheap!