Full Text of SR0923 95th General Assembly
SR0923 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| SENATE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, The U.S. economy is experiencing the worst | 3 |
| slow-down in the past 30 years and is facing a severe | 4 |
| recession; and
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| WHEREAS, The U.S. economy has shed more than 1 million | 6 |
| payroll jobs in the 10 months of 2008 and now has on average | 7 |
| 2.8 million more unemployed persons than one year ago; and
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| WHEREAS, At 33%, this was the worst summer teen (16 to 19) | 9 |
| employment rate in post-World War II history, and this national | 10 |
| employment crisis is crippling the teen job market, with Black | 11 |
| and Latino youth the hardest-hit groups; and
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| WHEREAS, In the summer of 2008, more than 2 million | 13 |
| low-income youth were out of work and on the streets; and
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| WHEREAS, In October 2008, 68% of teens were jobless and | 15 |
| there were 500,000 fewer teens employed than in October 2007, | 16 |
| and the nation's teen employment rate fell by three percentage | 17 |
| points over the past 12 months; and
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| WHEREAS, Youth, particularly Black and Hispanic, are | 19 |
| living in a "Depression" with very high jobless rates - 77% of | 20 |
| Black youth and 69% of Hispanic youth across the country; and |
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| WHEREAS, President Bush, President-elect Obama, and the | 2 |
| Congress are now proposing a very large stimulus to restart the | 3 |
| U.S. economy; and | 4 |
| WHEREAS, From 1964 until 2000, there was a separate summer | 5 |
| youth employment program for over 750,000 low-income youth, and | 6 |
| these jobs were often the first jobs for low-income youth, | 7 |
| giving them a chance to work and gain experience to later find | 8 |
| a job on their own; and | 9 |
| WHEREAS, The summer youth employment program was | 10 |
| eliminated when the youth employment and training program was | 11 |
| revamped in 2000; and | 12 |
| WHEREAS, Teen employment has a variety of long-term | 13 |
| benefits for youth as well as the short-term improvement in | 14 |
| their earnings and income; the more teens work when they are 16 | 15 |
| and 17, the more likely they are to work when they are 18 and | 16 |
| 19, and then they are more likely to work when they are 20 and | 17 |
| 21; teen employment raises earnings of youth when they reach | 18 |
| 25; and | 19 |
| WHEREAS, Teens who work are more likely to get trained by | 20 |
| their employers via formal apprenticeship training, and | 21 |
| low-income youth who work more in high school, especially |
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| males, are less likely to drop out of high school, and female | 2 |
| teens who work more are less likely to get pregnant; and | 3 |
| WHEREAS, Illinois has demonstrated this past summer how to | 4 |
| quickly and successfully implement a broad-based summer youth | 5 |
| employment program that employed nearly 10,000 youth across the | 6 |
| State; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL | 8 |
| ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that the Illinois State | 9 |
| Senate urges President Bush, President-elect Obama, and the | 10 |
| Congress to allocate $2 billion of the next proposed economic | 11 |
| stimulus to create an employment program throughout the year, | 12 |
| and with a particular emphasis on the summer, for 1 million | 13 |
| youth (13 to 21 years old), combining education and productive | 14 |
| work in their neighborhoods; teens would earn money while they | 15 |
| are producing meaningful work, and they will spend this money | 16 |
| immediately providing a direct economic stimulus to the U.S. | 17 |
| economy; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 19 |
| delivered to President Bush, President-elect Obama, and each | 20 |
| member of the Illinois Congressional delegation.
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