March 21, 2008
Radio Address emphasizes need for state support for Michigan workers
LANSING - In her weekly radio address, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today talked about an important victory in Lansing for Michigan workers. A key subcommittee in the House of Representatives voted last week for a $40 million appropriation to expand the governor's No Worker Left Behind initiative, and the House passed the bill last night.
"My administration launched the No Worker Left Behind initiative to give unemployed workers in Michigan and those about to be laid off the chance to get their tuition paid for the training and the college degree they need to fill high-demand jobs," Granholm said. "Michigan government needs to do all it can to help people willing to work hard get the skills they need for those good jobs."
While the No Worker Left Behind initiative is barely eight months old, it has already enrolled 20,000 Michigan citizens in job training or college, and there are over 11,000 people in Michigan today who are on waiting lists for the training and education provided by No Worker Left Behind.
"This critical program is making good use of federal job-training funds that come to our state, but we also need state support to reach our goal of helping 100,000 Michigan workers get new skills and new jobs," Granholm said. "The most important issue we face in Michigan today is jobs."
The governor's weekly radio address is released each Friday morning and may be heard on broadcast stations across the state. The address is available on the governor's Web site at (
www.michigan.gov/gov
) for download, together with a clip of the quote above. The radio address is also available as a podcast on the Web site, as well as on iTunes and via RSS feed for general distribution to personal MP3 players and home computers. Links to the audio files and text of today's address follow.
GOVERNOR JENNIFER M. GRANHOLM
Radio Address - No Worker Left Behind
March 21, 2008
There was an important victory in Lansing last week for Michigan workers and for all of us who want to see bipartisan cooperation in government. And it dealt with the most important issue we face in Michigan today, and that's jobs.
We all know that there are too many people in Michigan today who are unemployed. But, what's less well known is that there are also tens of thousands of jobs in our state that are going unfilled. And, the reason is this: Michigan citizens who have lost their jobs as our manufacturing industries have been battered by unfair trade practices.
They have a work ethic that is second to none. But what they don't have, in many cases, are the specific skills needed to fill good-paying jobs that are available across our state. To address this mismatch, my administration launched the No Worker Left Behind initiative to give unemployed workers in Michigan and those about to be laid off the chance to get their tuition paid for the training and the college degree they need to fill high-demand jobs.
A highly skilled workforce is key to retaining and attracting employers who want to grow their business in Michigan. In fact, just this week, we announced that eight companies and four redevelopment projects across the state were going to generate roughly $195 million in new capital investment that will create and retain 6,066 jobs - six THOUSAND jobs.
While the No Worker Left Behind initiative is barely eight months old, it has already enrolled 20,000 Michigan citizens in job-training or college. That's great news for those 20,000 Michigan families, AND it's great news for all of us who want to see our neighbors working and our economy humming. But we have more to do to make sure that NO Michigan worker is left behind in this changing economy.
Today, there are over 11,000 people in Michigan who are on waiting lists for the training and education provided by No Worker Left Behind. And that's why a vote that took place in the first House of the Legislature last week was so important. In its first action in the budget process, a key subcommittee in the House of Representative voted for a $40 million appropriation to expand No Worker Left Behind.
So the Legislature has got to finish the job and put the financing for job training in place. This critical program is making good use of federal job-training funds that come to our state, but we also need this state support to reach our goal of helping 100,000 Michigan workers get new skills and new jobs.
That's why Democratic and Republican lawmakers on that panel cast a unanimous vote for No Worker Left Behind. That's the kind of bipartisan action we need more of in Lansing. And our state government needs to do all it can to help people willing to work hard get the skills they need for those good jobs.
This is Governor Jennifer Granholm. Thank you for listening.
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