'Fiscal cliff' cuts to job training for young people would cost taxpayers dearly

Meanwhile some people insist that spending cuts benefit the next generation because young people will be on the hook to repay the national debt. While deficits eventually should decline to a stable share of the US economy, shortsighted cuts in education and training would harm America's long-term economic future. Ignoring the millions of young people who are neither working nor in school costs taxpayers an estimated $93 billion annually. That’s the price in juvenile justice, social services, and the reduction in tax revenue that results from these young people staying out of the work force.

But taxpayer can save money in the long-run by expanding – not defunding – investments that connect our generation to good jobs. By one estimate, Youthbuild returns between $10 and $43 for every $1 invested in youth involved in the court system and between $7 to $11 for every dollar invested in participants not involved in the court system. Another study found that the youth training program Job Corps saves two dollars for every one invested.

Funding such investment is a matter of priorities. Our report found that the federal government currently spends more on tax breaks for oil and gas companies than on the major youth training programs, and a lot more on subsidies for livestock feed than on national service employment for young people in AmeriCorps. The annual budget for federal education programs in science, technology, engineering, and math – the fields that offer the best wages to young people starting a career – cost the US Treasury less than two weeks’ worth of Bush tax cuts for the top 5 percent of taxpayers.

Right now those tax cuts and nearly every program in the discretionary budget are up for negotiation, as lawmakers devise a plan to deal with the fiscal cliff. This is a chance to align America's spending and tax priorities with investment in the young people who are this country’s future.

We’re hoping lawmakers don’t throw our generation over the edge.

Both Millennials, Mattea Kramer is a senior research analyst at National Priorities Project and Rory O’Sullivan is Policy and Research Director at Young Invincibles. They co-authored the new report “A Fight for the Future: Education, Job Training, and the Fiscal Showdown.”

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