Mayor Daley doesn't seem to get it. He recently supported NAFTA,arguing it would mean more high-wage, high-skilled jobs for Chicago'sfuture. Now Ron Gidwitz, chairman of the board of trustees of CityColleges and the mayor's appointee - is planning to close 144 AdultLearning Skills Program centers in neighborhoods through the city.
If the mayor really believes NAFTA will mean more high-skill jobgains than job losses, then he'd better pay attention to expandingthe educational resources required to learn those skills.
The City Colleges and institutions like them will be theprincipal locations for President Clinton's training programs fortomorrow's work force. No matter what the future holds - whetherit's a miraculous flood of high-skilled jobs gained from blind faithin the market or a growth of jobs created by responsible planningtoward socially responsible economic development - workers will needaccess to education.
The Adult Learning Skills Program understands that this doesn'tcome easy. Not everyone has been prepared for college. Someworkers need basic study skills. Some need to complete their highschool education. Some need to learn to read, write and speakEnglish. Some workers can't travel very far from their homes. Someworkers can't function effectively outside immigrant neighborhoodculture.
But all workers need to be prepared to learn. The AdultLearning Skills Program makes a difficult step possible by bringing abroad range of learning opportunities into the neighborhoods. It'sthe kind of learning infrastructure that will be absolutely necessaryif government really believes that our jobs future is tied tolifelong learning and decent wages to high-skill jobs.
The mayor has until Christmas to intervene and keep theseprograms alive. He should. It makes no sense to threaten education,whatever you believe about NAFTA. But for someone who advocated itbecause it will give Chicago workers access to high-skill jobs, theseAdult Learning Skills Programs are as fundamental as learning yourABCs. Jim Benn, executive director, Federation for Industrial Retention and Renewal Estate's Value
The letter (Nov. 25) lauding the virtues of the property taxsystem by William H. Shafer, a disinterested property assessor, says:"Property taxes are based on a very visible asset. Contrast thiswith taxes based on income . . . How much income tax, for example,is collected from Chicago's drug dealers?"
My visible asset is an old, sided, wood frame house that I havespent the last 30 years trying to keep from falling down around myears. This palatial structure sits on a sprawling25-foot-by-125-foot lot. It is so visible that the taxes have goneup nearly 100 percent since I bought it.
Now, thanks to Shafer, I realize it's not the value of my vastestate that's being assessed, but the estimated income of tax-evadingdrug dealers.
His tax encomium continues: "Property taxes are based on accessto wealth. It is well understood that, if property taxes are notpaid, the sheriff will (after foreclosure) sell your property."
Bank robberies are based on access to wealth. It is wellunderstood that, if that access is denied, a violent foreclosure willfollow. The bank robbers are probably tax evaders, too. Walter Tegtmeyer, Lincoln Square Tough Times
Everyone is talking about how the recession is over, but that'snot true in my house.
In April, 1991, my father lost his job. He worked for a largemanufacturer of precision measuring instruments. He didn't findanother job worth taking for 20 months. All of the jobs he wasoffered paid either the same or lower than unemployment.
He sent more than 500 resumes in that time, and he is veryqualified for all of the positions he applied for. He finally got areasonable job offer and accepted the job. He only worked there forone month. Apparently, the company had to get rid of some peoplebecause of lack of money. Since my father was new at the company, hewas fired.
To this day, my father is still unemployed. Again, he wasoffered many jobs, but none was worth accepting. My father waseither overqualified, would have been underpaid, or both.
The government needs to implement plans to help create morejobs. I hope NAFTA will help to create a job for my father. Jennifer Obecunas, Berwyn Wrong Message
Jeff Robertson's letter on the "cure" for teen pregnancy (Nov.18) and the two other responses (Dec. 1) were way off the mark. Teenpregnancy is a symptom of problems teens face in the larger world,not a "disease" they can be miraculously cured of. Norplant andother "advanced" contraceptive technologies have opened the door forthinking that technology, rather than social change, will fix ourperceived problems.
At the International Conference on AIDS in Berlin, data showedthat teen pregnancy rates in the Netherlands are one-tenth those inthe United States. The difference is that "sex education messages inEurope stress love, affection and loyalty, whereas in the U.S. themessage emphasizes fear."
I would add that the message in the United States is heavy onshame, blame and judgment. According to the Citizens Alliance for VDAwareness, "Dramatic decreases in (sexually transmitted diseases)and teen pregnancy rates have been accomplished . . . through . . .public supported education and condom availability programs."
It is a bad idea to bash teens for their presumed moral deficitsand to "fix" the situation by implanting them with a device that ispotentially dangerous and lends itself to abuses because control ofthe method is not in the hands of the user, but in the hands of aprovider. If, in the future, we find that Norplant is very bad foryoung women who may not have stable menstrual cycles and who have notyet matured physiologically, what will we say? "Oops?" We oppose the use of Norplant in teens and will continue to supportremoval on demand for women who have been implanted. Kati Punnett, collective member, and Sharon Todd, executive director, Women's Health Education Project
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