Bush Pushes Job Training

Under a banner emblazoned with the slogan, "Better Training, Better jobs," President Bush unveiled a plan Monday to double the 200,000 people a year who receive federal job training for what he calls high-growth jobs.

"Technology is changing. Can the work force change with it? That's the challenge," Mr. Bush told an audience at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, N.C.

The visit by Mr. Bush to announce the initiative, part of a wider election-year bid to help workers adapt to the changing economy, also marks his last planned personal appearance in the record-shattering fund-raising drive that brought in more than $182.7 million in 11 months. Monday's event brought in $1.55 million, the Bush-Cheney campaign said.

Under attack from Democratic rival Sen. John Kerry for the loss of 2.6 million jobs on his watch, Mr. Bush aims to be seen working to create new jobs – and workers with the training to fill them, reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Knoller.

Jobs are also on Kerry's mind this week, as he returns to the campaign trial after a brief hiatus following minor shoulder surgery. He was to travel to the electoral battleground state of Ohio on Tuesday to promote a plan he says would create 10 million new jobs.

In North Carolina, Mr. Bush defended his record on the economy, saying it was getting stronger and that he is optimistic about the future. He cited March unemployment figures showing the best job growth in four years.

Mr. Bush also declared that he will "stay the course" and bring democracy to Iraq. "We're still being challenged in Iraq and the reason why is a free Iraq will be a major defeat in the cause of terror."

He said that in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, "I had a choice to make after Saddam Hussein once again refused to disarm," adding that "I will defend America every time."

The president made no mention of the radical Shiite cleric whose supporters rioted in Iraq over the weekend. Aboard Air Force One, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, has "pledged solidarity with terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah." The cleric is an "individual who is seeking to derail democracy and freedom for the Iraqi people," McClellan said.

Mr. Bush was using North Carolina, a state where a new economy is replacing the old, to propose doubling the number of Americans who receive job-training help from the federal government but without additional funding.

"I fully understand that there are people who hurt here," the president said. "Industries like the textiles, and furniture manufacturers are struggling ... that is an issue we've got to deal with."

The initiative Mr. Bush announced contains no new federal spending with a budget deficit expected to approach $500 billion this year. Instead, it relies on $250 million the president proposed spending earlier this year and forcing state and local governments to spend less on "administrative expenses."

Washington now provides state and local governments more than $4 billion through the Workforce Investment Act, and 16 million people receive various services through it. But only 206,000 people completed formal training through the act's programs last year, according to the White House.

Mr. Bush seeks to double that figure to 412,000 in one year.

The White House says Mr. Bush's Jobs for the 21st Century Initiative, announced in his State of the Union address, would move 100,000 more people into job training.

The $250 million proposal is already part of the president's budget proposal for next fiscal year's budget, which Congress is considering. The soonest the money would become available would be October of this year.

The money would expand the Labor Department's initiatives to bolster ties between community colleges, public work force agencies and employers. The result, the administration says, is that community colleges produce graduates with skills in demand by area employers.

An additional 100,000 people could receive job training if the government cut $300 million in red tape and administrative costs, the administration officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Administrative expenses for the job-training programs are capped at 15 percent but are loosely enforced, meaning such costs sometimes sap up to 35 percent of federal funds, the officials said.

The Kerry campaign said the Bush administration has a history of cutting job training and vocational education programs "as millions of U.S. jobs disappeared overseas."

"It's great that the president is talking about job training. It's just too bad that there aren't any jobs to train for," said Phil Singer, a Kerry campaign spokesman. "His election-year scramble to come up with a jobs program is not good enough for America's workers."

North Carolina is a textbook example of a state with a shifting economy, from one based largely on tobacco farming to one where high-tech and health care are job engines, a White House official said. Charlotte is a thriving commercial region where more than 600 foreign-owned firms are doing business.