By Amy Condon
When President Barack Obama brings his “White House to Main Street Tour” to Savannah Tuesday, March 2, jobs and economic recovery will take center stage.
The President will be in town to renew his push for his ambitious legislative agenda on the heels of the Senate’s bipartisan passage on Wednesday of a modest $15 billion jobs bill aimed at small business expansion and unemployment assistance.
Georgia’s unemployment rate of 10.3 percent exceeds the national average. Savannah’s hovers around 8.4 percent.
The Savannah Morning News reports that President Obama wants to meet with local leaders, small business owners, and workers to learn about the economic struggles they face and to listen to their ideas about how “to grow the economy.” In keeping with his push for more funding for education and job training, the President is expected to visit YouthBuild, a program that helps struggling students obtain their GEDs while honing construction skills.
A year ago this week, the President signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), a federal funding initiative designed to pump $787 billion dollars into the national economy over the next several years. The money would be put into the economy in the form of tax benefits, shoring up entitlement programs for states, and contracts, grants, and loans for education, job training, and infrastructure improvements.
The Council of Economic Advisers reports that 2 million jobs have been created or saved to date as a direct result of ARRA funding. Almost 65,000 of those jobs were in Georgia. More than 350 transportation projects in the state, worth $1 billion, have been obligated, which will move stalled road and bridge improvements. The projects will employ an array of professions from urban planners to cement producers to construction workers.
Savannah projects, in particular, will benefit, from the completion of the Truman Parkway, the dredging of the Savannah Harbor and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site.
There is some positive information for SCAD students, as well.
According to Recovery.gov, the official Web site for accountability of how the ARRA funds are spent, part of ARRA has been dedicated to college affordability by increased funding for Pell Grants and the provision of higher education tax cuts to almost 4 million students. Discussion continues about redirecting federal funds for school loans away from banks toward educational institutions.
State Fiscal Stabilization Funds have led to the hiring of more teachers nationwide, including almost 14,000 positions in Georgia. Teaching is one job market that has proved to be holding.
Students, though, will have to read between the lines to see how the President’s recovery plans provide for them specifically. Is it in forgiveness of student loans for a few years of service? Is it in the investment in green technologies and sustainable development and the kinds of jobs that will emerge? Is it in additional funding for graduate school or to start a small business?
It’s too soon to know if the President will get a passing grade.
