Calls for focus on emerging businesses and entrepreneurship, while continuing support for established businesses

Releases Report Urging Strengthened Investment in Career and Technical Training in City Schools

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Addressing hundreds of the city’s business, civic and government leaders, New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. today stressed the importance of maintaining New York City’s competitive edge so that businesses large and small can succeed and a next generation of workers can find greater opportunity in an increasingly competitive global economy.

“A competitive city is a skilled city. A skilled city is a city that works. A city that works is a city of hope,” Thompson said. “A city of hope is a city that can weather downturns, fend off competition both domestic and foreign, and provide access to the tools for success for all of its residents.”

Thompson presented his plan – available at www.comptroller.nyc.gov - at a breakfast hosted by the Association for a Better New York, stressing that success as a city hinges on making sure that the needs of a changing workforce are met and that roadblocks that hamper prosperity and success for all residents be removed. The plan is rooted in concern that the city may experience diminished strength in the global economy.

“There are signs that our decades-long position as a skilled city and the financial capital of the world are becoming less secure,” Thompson said. Yet, he added: “I have no doubt that we can meet the challenge of preserving both our established and emerging business sectors while nurturing a skilled workforce… We can and must put New York on a course to remain competitive at every level.”

And the way to do that, Thompson said, is to reinforce areas to help both those with strong footing already but also others to take a solid first step. Among Thompson’s plans:

• Establishing a database within the New York City Department of Business Services in coordination with the city’s largest companies and non-profits to identify available space that could connect established and emerging businesses. “This way,” he said, “larger firms would help to incubate smaller ones. Making the machinery of government serve our small businesses is critically important to our city’s future growth and success.”
• Identifying taxes, fines and fees that unfairly hamper the growth of businesses.
• Changing tax regulations that unduly burden small firms, such as the unincorporated business tax, or UBT, and the double taxation on sub-chapter S corporations. “The income level at which the UBT kicks in is still too low and the range over which the UBT tax credit declines isn’t indexed for inflation,” he said.
• Easing provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to prevent them from hindering opportunities for growth. “We simply cannot tie the hands of our corporations if we seek to remain at the cutting edge of business,” he said.
• Addressing airport congestion that is forcing travelers to reconsider New York City stops because of extensive delays, economic costs amounting to $50 per hour per passenger. Said Thompson: “That lost income undermines our city’s ability to remain a premiere location for attracting tourists and transacting business.”
• Fighting to ensure that the securities and real estate industries remain strong and robust.
  

“While we work to preserve the strength of both small businesses and the larger corporate interests that have traditionally fueled our economic growth, we must also work harder than ever to create a sense of hope among the young people who will comprise the city’s future labor force,” Thompson said.

Thompson subsequently issued a comprehensive proposal to address the city’s waning support for career and technical education through vocational high schools. Thompson issued a report – available at www.comptroller.nyc.gov – identifying how the city has “relegated these nuts and bolts high schools to second-class status in spite of their proven record.”

As Thompson noted, “though there are enormous variances among the schools, vocational programs are more successful overall than other high schools in keeping kids in school and in graduating students…I should add that most of the students who complete a vocational course of study go on to two- and four-year colleges.”

Nevertheless, he observed, “many schools make do with equipment that is two generations old. Clearly, to have a 21st Century workforce we will need up-to-date equipment…So many industries across the city are begging for skilled personnel, and yet the City is not aggressively courting such partnerships.”

In his report, Thompson analyzed the city’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, finding that the CTE has not been a priority of the New York City Department of Education. During the 2004-05 school year, there were 6,288 students in city schools in State-approved CTE programs, and 103,499 students in not-yet approved programs. The report found that:

• As a result of funding CTE high schools at a lower level than general academic high schools, the ability of the DOE to offer CTE programs that meet the needs of industry and students has been compromised.
• Federal vocational education funding for CTE in the city does not fill CTE funding gaps.
• DOE’s new Fair Student Funding system, which has been partially implemented in the current school year, does not met schools’ special funding needs.
• Principals report they have little direct assistance from DOE’s Central Administration to develop critical partnerships with private industry that can lead to internships, apprenticeships, job placements and donations of essential equipment and supplies.
• Difficulty attracting qualified CTE teachers is the greatest challenge facing CTE schools.
• DOE recently reduced the number of staff in its Central Administration assigned to CTE from 27 to 10.

Thompson proposed six solutions to address the problem so that greater legions of students can receive proper training and skills to give them a competitive edge. Specifically, he called for: increasing funding to CTE schools and programs to reflect actual costs; developing more private partnerships; expanding academic intervention programs for CTE-enrolled students; making a five-year graduation the standard for some CTE programs and schools; including CTE components in the new DOE school report cards; and, establishing a Learning Support Organization exclusively for CTE schools and other schools with large CTE enrollments.

“The global economy has created a greater demand for more sophisticated skills. In the information economy, employers in an expanding array of fields are demanding ever more highly skilled technical workers,” Thompson said. “By providing trained workers in areas of labor market need, from nursing assistants to office computer network maintainers, a robust CTE program can become a vital contributor to New York City’s economy.”

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