Missing the point we never acknowledge about the DC summer jobs program

In today's Post, Amy Corbin writes a letter to the editor, "How Not to Run a Jobs Program" stating:

What about the equally important component of training young people to be successful at work? You can't just send a 14-year-old to a job site and expect him or her to know how to work. Showing up on time, receiving instructions and knowing how to ask questions are skills that need to be taught.

If the summer jobs program does not include a thorough training component, of course businesses will complain about "poor work habits." And it seems unlikely that the Department of Employment Services has the resources to thoroughly train 21,000 workers.

Sending unprepared young people to work does a disservice to everyone. Businesses and the young people will be soured on the experience and will be reluctant to try it again.

The reality is that this program has always been about patronage, building support for the Mayor, and never about building the job readiness capabilities and capacities of DC's youth.

Note that the verysame points made by Ms. Corbin in 2008 were recounted to me back in 1988, when someone explained to me why the nonprofit organization I worked for was no longer willing to participate in the DC Youth Summer Jobs program.