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http://news.lycos.com/headlines/Politics/article.asp?docid=RTPOLITICS-CLINTON-YOUTH&date=20000219

Clinton Announces $223 Million in Youth Grants

Saturday, February 19, 2000
 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Decrying racial disparities in America, President
Clinton on Saturday announced $223 million in grants to help provide
education and job training to up to 44,000 poor young people across the
country.

In his weekly radio address, Clinton marked Black History Month and said
although there had been strides in improving the economic and social
situation for all Americans, worrying gaps remained.

"Still there are wide and disturbing disparities in health, income,
perceptions of justice and educational achievements that break down along
the color line," Clinton said.

"It is clear we must do more to close these gaps and give all our citizens a
chance both to contribute to and share in our growing prosperity and
promise," he said.

In an effort to help the nation's youth, Clinton announced the Department of
Labor was awarding $223 million in Youth Opportunity grants to 44,000 young
people in 36 communities from Watts in Los Angeles to the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation in South Dakota.

"This will provide a lifeline of opportunity to any young person willing to
work for a better future," Clinton said.

The grants, for youth aged 14 to 21, emphasize placing young people in
private sector jobs along with efforts to keep them in school, encourage
enrollment in college and provide work experience.

The White House said in a statement the grants range from $4 million to $11
million each and focus on youth who live in high-poverty urban, rural and
Native American communities.

Programs differ depending on the area. One in Maryland includes computer
literacy classes, career counseling and internships while another in South
Dakota assists with high school completion, drug and alcohol counseling as
well as tutoring and mentoring services.

They are a part of the "Youth Opportunity Agenda" that Clinton has proposed
to increase by more than $1.3 billion in his budget for fiscal 2001.

House Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts said while he agreed with
some of the president's ideas on the government's role in healing the racial
divide and closing the income gap in the United states, he took issue with
some of Clinton's ways of dealing with the problems.

"Unlike the Clinton-Gore administration, Republicans don't equate the word
'minority' with an inability to determine one's future," said Watts, the
highest-ranking minority member of Congress of either party. "We place our
trust and resources directly with the people who we are looking to help."

Watts, an African American, said he had tried to pass the American Community
Renewal Act since coming to Congress in 1995. He said the act provides tax
incentives to encourage prosperity in struggling urban and rural
communities -- many of which are minority communities.

"The Republican Congress passed this bill last summer, authorizing more than
$2 billion in tax incentives for these communities," he said in a statement.
"Weeks later, the Clinton-Gore administration turned its back on these
communities and vetoed our measure."

Last year Clinton vetoed a $792 billion tax cut, calling it too big and
bloated. As he signed the veto, Clinton said he supported "affordable
middle-class tax relief" but said the $792 billion plan would go mostly
toward the wealthy.
 

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