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Louis Jacobson
By Louis Jacobson November 27, 2012
Back to Promote lifelong retraining

Mixed record for implementing a five-part promise

In our previous update, we gave a Promise Kept to two pieces of this promise -- increasing resources for community colleges, and modifying Trade Adjustment Assistance provisions. So here we will focus on the remaining three parts of Obama's pledge.

Reauthorize the Workforce Investment Act. Several bills introduced in the current Congress would have reauthorized or made significant changes in portions of the 1998 act -- including one bill from Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., one from Rep. "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., and one from Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C. -- but none advanced to a vote. This part is a Promise Broken.

Create flexible education accounts. We still find no mention of this proposal in online searches. We rate it a Promise Broken.

Expand and fully fund apprenticeship programs. The Obama administration maintained steady funding for the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Apprenticeship in fiscal years 2011 and 2012 -- $27.7 million -- and has requested the same for 2013. The office administers the Fitzgerald Act, a 1937 law that established regulated and registered apprenticeship programs.

However, Obama's 2013 budget requests no further funding for a program called Women in Apprenticeship in Non-Traditional Occupations. The budget says the program's goals can be through existing programs. This program received roughly $1 million in funding in fiscal years 2010 and 2011.

Taking both of these actions into account, we rate this portion a Compromise.

So, putting it all together, this five-part promise included two parts that rated Promise Kept, two rated Promise Broken and one rated Compromise. On balance, then, we rate it Compromise.

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