Assembly Concurrent Resolution
No. 16
CHAPTER 130
Relative to the needs of opportunity youth.
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Filed with
Secretary of State
August 22, 2023.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
ACR 16, Mike Fong.
Needs of opportunity youth.
This measure would declare that the Legislature recognizes the importance of creating pathways to success for California’s opportunity youth and the need to develop a statewide comprehensive plan that will reduce persistent economic inequities endured by California’s opportunity youth.
Digest Key
Fiscal Committee:
NO WHEREAS, California’s economy is the largest in the United States; however, according to the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), more than one-third of Californians are living in or near poverty and sizable inequality and disparities remain, especially for California’s disconnected youth; and
WHEREAS, Opportunity youth are individuals between 16 and 24 years of age who are neither in school nor working, as well as teens and young adults involved with the foster care, juvenile justice, and homelessness systems; and
WHEREAS, Opportunity youth facing socioeconomic and systemic barriers are oftentimes disconnected from education and workforce training opportunities, preventing young people of color especially from accessing California’s prosperity; and
WHEREAS, The cost of failing young people at this critical juncture of their lives has significant long-term costs to them as individuals and to society at large; and
WHEREAS, The White House Council for Community Solutions commissioned a study entitled “The Economic Value of Opportunity Youth” estimating that in the year 2011 alone, taxpayers “shouldered more than $93 billion to compensate for lost taxes and direct costs to support young people disengaged from both education and work,” while the long-term societal costs were projected to be $4.7 trillion over their lifetimes; and
WHEREAS, Data collected from the 2021 American Community Survey (ACS) of the United States Census shows that in California, there were 572,756 youth 16 to 24 years of age who were neither in school nor at work (12.5 percent disconnection rate); and
WHEREAS, The latest ACS data indicated that in 2021, 15 percent (307,954) of youth 16 to 19 years of age were not in school in the previous three months and 38.4 percent of young adults 20 to 24 years of age were either unemployed (8.9 percent; 225,942) or not in the labor force at all (29.5 percent; 745,214); and
WHEREAS, In California in 2021, a greater proportion of opportunity youth were living in poverty relative to their connected peers (37.1 percent and 22.9 percent, respectively) and over one-half of the state’s opportunity youth (19 to 24 years of age) had no education beyond a high school diploma, relative to their connected peers (50.7 percent and 28.5 percent, respectively); and
WHEREAS, Opportunity youth face unique employment, education, and training barriers that often do not align with efforts that center adults; and
WHEREAS, In California, 2021 ACS data indicated that the disconnection rate of Black teens and young adults (16 to 24 years of age) was more than twice that of their White peers (22.3 percent and 10.9 percent, respectively); and
WHEREAS, Black and Latinx adolescents not only are disproportionately more likely to come from low-income households and have experienced past trauma, but are also faced with discrimination that can derail their physical and mental well-being; and
WHEREAS, Despite declines in youth incarceration, significant gaps remain as youth of color are overrepresented in our criminal justice system; and
WHEREAS, Prioritizing opportunity youth will not only expand their education and workforce opportunities but also expand the pool of talent that employers can access to meet their workforce needs while averting the societal costs associated with disconnection; now, therefore be it
Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby declares the importance of creating pathways to success for California’s opportunity youth and the need to develop a statewide comprehensive plan that will reduce persistent economic inequities, and prioritize: (1) funding for education and workforce training programs that center opportunity youth and create pathways to good jobs; (2) expansion of innovative “earn and learn” opportunities, including apprenticeships, preapprenticeships, and other work-based learning opportunities; (3) advancement of dual enrollment implementation, which will allow opportunity youth to earn college credit while earning their high school equivalency; (4) ensure inclusivity of opportunity youth in the California Cradle-to-Career Data System; and (5) protection and expansion of social safety net
investments for opportunity youth that support basic needs such as food, housing, internet access, transportation, childcare, health and mental health care, enabling them to complete their education and training goals, including removing barriers to access student financial aid programs; and be it further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.