During last week’s Access Washington trip, Executive Director of Region XII, Rick Hunsaker, says he was focused on bringing two specific topics to our legislators. One of the most critical for the Carroll area is workforce development. Hunsaker says that it is important to have Senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley and Congressman Steve King understand that current mandates for Iowa Workforce Centers cannot continue to be cookie cutter in trying to fill the needs of urban and rural residents. He explains the structure.
There must also be a fiscal agent who oversees the flow of dollars as well as a coordinating services provider, who gets all of these parties working together. Hunsaker says when you look at larger urban areas, dealing with millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of people and dozens of service providers, it makes sense to have the separate staff. But the funding is based, essentially, on unemployment rates and population.
For example, in our region, there is maybe $14,000 to $20,000 a year, and that, he says won’t pay three to four full-time employees. So, the jobs are getting done by Region XII or other partners, but the federal government doesn’t like that. This has led to the idea of Iowa redrawing boundaries and paring down to anywhere from two to four workforce regions in the state. Hunsaker says in Washington they talked a lot about the state’s decision, which is driven by federal policy.
That means Carroll could lose its workforce center. Hunsaker says we would then lose state positions, economic activity and the ability of clients to come in the front door for the unemployment services they need. One of the most critical communities in our area is Denison, where there is no workforce center, but they are seeing up to five times the number of people going to a class at Western Iowa Tech in Denison than they see in Carroll. Certain populations of people would lose access to those services and employers would no longer have that link to the employee streams if these rural posts disappear. He says the government cannot just assume that everyone is the same. Rural is very different than urban and if we lose our workforce centers, the focus gets shifted away from the needs of the smaller populations spread throughout the state. One of the things Hunsaker says residents and businesses can do to help support Iowa workforce development is by contacting their state and federal legislators. The boundaries will be determined by the state, but the federal government will set the guidelines. We will bring you more from Hunsaker on expansion of Highway 30 in an upcoming broadcast.
