Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 2, 1993 TAG: 9308020045
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ANNANDALE LENGTH: Medium
At the Annandale campus of Northern Virginia Community College, Caprice Williams gets paid $4.25 an hour for the more than three hours she spends attending classes five days a week. She then spends about three hours in the afternoon doing clerical work for Fairfax County schools.
When the Fairfax County teen-ager found out she would be paid to learn this summer, she said, it seemed "like bribery."
But she doesn't feel guilty about cashing her paycheck. "I'm doing homework. It's not like I'm just sitting there," she said.
Her schedule represents a shift in the emphasis of the U.S. summer employment program, which provides minimum-wage jobs to nearly 25,000 poor and disadvantaged youths in the Washington area and about 700,000 across the country.
"It's traditionally been a work-experience program," said Felix Contreras, deputy director of the U.S. Labor Department's Summer Task Force. Now the goal is to mix work with education in roughly equal parts. "The approach should be: What does the kid need?" he said.
Most Washington-area jurisdictions already are using large portions of their federal summer jobs dollars in the classroom. Officials said the classroom work may reduce high school dropout rates and the need for many students to repeat in the fall lessons that they have forgotten during the summer.
The extra classroom time, which emphasized English and math, will help bridge the gap between the world of academia and the world of work, officials said.
"One thing we do a bad job of The approach should be: What does the kid need? Felix Contreras U.S. Labor Department's Summer Task Force. is transitioning kids from school to work," said James Price, a Virginia job training official.
Some critics, however, say paying young people to study is not a good idea.
"I see no reason why taxpayers' dollars should be used" to pay teen-agers to study, said Marcia P. Dykes, president of the Fairfax-based Citizens for Sensible Taxation. "This is not a summer job."
To qualify for a job, a youth must be handicapped, have a family income below the poverty level or receive other forms of government aid. Typically, jobs are at government agencies or nonprofit organizations.
In most area jurisdictions, students are not given letter grades and do not earn high school credit in classes they are paid to attend.
Several dozen Arlington County teen-agers are taking classroom skills and applying them in occupational training in areas such as printing and drama production.
In Prince William County, the public schools and the federal government are sharing costs to run a similar program. The focus is on lessons that can be used in specific careers, said program director Vera Fletcher.
While many area students are getting remedial help this summer, some, like Caprice and her classmates, are preparing for college entrance exams.
Caprice, who hopes to become a pediatrician, said she is working on speaking to large groups in her English class. "That should really help me in the future," she said.
Caprice's classmate, Jason Rodriguez, who works at the Literacy Council of Northern Virginia, spent a recent afternoon making flashcards to help adults learn to read.
Jason, 16, of Fairfax, said getting paid to study and work "makes a lot of sense. I need a lot of math because I want to become an astronomer."
For summer job participants who are far behind in basic academic skills, the classroom time may make the difference between getting a job and going on welfare, Fletcher said.
"You can pay now, or you can pay later," she said.
by CNB