By Laura Aka
Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan
Reporting for the WorkingNation.com-Kenctucky News Connection

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Mayor Greg Fischer of Louisville, like other local leaders around the country, is dealing with the aftermath of 2020. His agenda is clear.

Controlling the pandemic is a top priority. "A bad economy is a result of the pandemic. So that's job one," stresses Fischer, who also serves as the current president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

What racial equity looks like in America is also part of the conversation, says Fischer.

He adds, "And then workforce. How do we go from these record levels of unemployment we have right now and recreate the economy?"

Moving Into Careers

"Getting the unemployed back to work, in meaningful work that has long-term prospects to it, is going to be an extraordinary challenge. People have to feel dignity in work to feel good about what they're doing," says Fischer.

"We don't want to just train folks to do the same old, same old, we've got to move folks into jobs that really represent careers," stresses Fischer, who says its important for residents to have access to training that will support them financially and lead to a good career.

The sectors of wellness and aging care, advanced manufacturing, logistics, and e-commerce are strong in Louisville, according to Fischer. He adds, transitioning people to technology careers is a focus for the city.

KentuckianaWorks is the region's workforce development board. Its Code Louisville and Tech Louisville are among the current programs that are preparing people for careers in software programming or IT support.

According to the board, there are about 100 unfilled junior software development opportunities open in the greater Louisville area every three months. Code Louisville trains people for those coding jobs through online learning and in-person mentoring.

There's also an unfilled demand for IT support, with more than 400 job openings posted in the past 90 days. These jobs have a median salary of over $43,000 locally, 20% higher than the median for all occupations. "Tech Louisville is offered at no cost to participants and participants earn their Google IT Support Professional Certificate," according to KentuckianaWorks.

Transforming Public Education for a 21st-Century Workforce

Fischer says collaborations with local businesses are important to ensure there is skilled talent to fill open positions. And, he emphasizes, those efforts start as early as high school in Louisville.

"People can get a taste for what the jobs of the future look like. Then they can develop their education track around that. They can have internships with that, as well, so that there's already a partnership taking place. It's meaningful work guided by the future. It's supported by our education system and our workforce investment board," he tells WorkingNation.

The Academies of Louisville include 15 high schools in the Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) district. "There was a real desire to make career and technical education classes more a part of a child's everyday world," explains Marty Pollio, Ed.D., superintendent of the JCPS.

Pollio explains the Academies give students access to learning beyond the traditional high school curriculum. "It was about math, English, science, and social studies, and some connections with outside businesses. Looking more towards 21st century jobs and skills."

In order to give options to students at their respective high schools, each Academy has multiple areas of focus. "We wanted to expand it to have at least four academies in every single school. Some have three, depending on the size of it," explains Pollio.

"Each school would engage with the district, talk with their school community about the interest, poll their students about the interests that they have, then build an Academy and pathways out of that."

The range of career exploration is expansive-aviation maintenance, health care, engineering, carpentry, computer programming, veterinary assistant, machinist, financial services, construction, and much more.

Every Academy has an advisory council with members of the business community. Pollio says those partnerships are essential. "We wanted their intelligence, their expertise, their guidance, and eventually their on-the-ground training in their particular area."

Optimistic About the Future

When Academy students graduate high school, they walk away with far more than a diploma. College credits, industry certifications, work experience, and the mastery of academic and technical skills are just a few ways an Academy education prepares students for life after senior year, according to school officials.

Pollio wants his district's students to finish high school with options. "We don't want any student to graduate without that opportunity to go to postsecondary in one way or another. And postsecondary doesn't just mean four-year colleges."

"We want every single student to be able to say, 'I have an employable skill when I graduate, too,'" notes Pollio.

Pollio says all the involved partner are committed to the Academies. "Our business community, our political community, our partners just said, 'This is what we want in this city. It's research-based and we're going to continue to push it.'"

The Need for Federal Support

Michael Gritton, KentuckianaWorks executive director, argues there is overwhelming need for more federal training dollars. "In real terms, the federal investment in workforce is down about 40% from 15 years ago, when you adjust for inflation. So, workforce boards around the country are all starved for resources."

"Doubling or tripling the funding in order to help people get back to work or get into some of these new jobs is a real, viable strategy for the federal government," says Gritton.

Looking ahead, Fischer also sounds an optimistic tone about partnership between the country's cities and the federal government. "I'm a business guy. So if you had a lead product line, cities are the lead product line for America. You should invest in cities. You should encourage cities, and you should lift cities up."

This story was produced with original reporting by Laura Aka for WorkingNation.com.




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Coaches in the Renton School District, just south of Seattle, are organizing with the American Federation of Teachers to fight for what they say are "fair wages" in their first union contract.

Buddy Ryan, head boys track and field coach at Hazen High School, said Renton coaches get paid much less compared with neighboring school districts, which contributes to a 45% turnover rate in coaches from year to year.

"I'm not expecting to go buy a new car off a season of coaching, but I'm not expecting to make minimum wage to be responsible for all these kids," he said. "I think the reality is, a fair wage for a fair day's work is what everybody looks for."

Renton School District has proposed a 2.5% wage increase, far below what the coaches asked for. AFT has said the district has the funds to pay coaches fairly. The district did not respond to a request for comment.

Ryan said the low pay and high turnover rate costs the district more money in training and degrades the quality of the sports programs.

"And then what's the cost to the kids that get a different coach every year? Well, you know what ends up happening? These parents get tired of it and they take their kids to private schools, or they move and transfer them to other schools," he said.

Ryan noted that sports, along with other extracurriculars such as band, are what motivate many kids to keep their grades up in order to participate. He said the district should want to keep the programs strong.

"It's just like when you're a kid at dinner," he said, "and your parents say, 'You've got to eat your vegetables or you don't get dessert.' Well, that dessert is the after-school activities."

Nevada groups concerned about affordability, clean air and health care are speaking out against the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" recently signed by President Donald Trump.

The new law extends tax cuts from 2017, funded partially by huge cuts to Medicaid and SNAP food benefits.

Dr. Joanne Leovy, steering committee chair for the Nevada Clinicians for Climate Action, noted it also ends the tax credit for electric vehicles on Sept. 30, which drives up the price of an EV by $7,500 while promoting the sales of gas-powered vehicles.

"This bill will dump an extra 2.1 billion tons of climate pollution into the atmosphere over the next decade," Leovy pointed out. "Increasing greenhouse gas emissions by about 7% over prior projections; the equivalent of adding more than 400,000 cars to the road."

The new law also cuts tax credits for rooftop solar and energy efficient home upgrades. Backers said the savings were necessary to fund other administration priorities, such as increased funding for immigration enforcement.

Yolanda Kemp, a member of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 4041, said she worries about job losses in the public sector.

"When states, cities, towns, and schools lose essential federal funding, they will be forced to make cuts to their budgets as well, putting all public services and jobs at risk of being cut," Kemp stressed. "And let me tell you, the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' that is supposed to help hardworking Americans is nothing more than another billionaire giveaway paid for by us."

The change to Medicaid and SNAP are not immediate but will be phased in mostly in 2027 and 2028.


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More than 1,100 caregivers at Portland's Providence St. Vincent Medical Center have voted to unionize, joining the Service Employees International Union Local 49.

Hospital staffers, including certified nursing assistants, cooks, lab assistants, pharmacy techs, environmental workers and patient representatives, will soon begin collective bargaining with management over a new work contract.

Finn McCool, senior food service attendant at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, said changes to working conditions in the hospital were a major driver to organize.

"There's a lot that makes St. Vincent a great place to work, but we've also seen just tons of changes over the years around staffing and benefits," McCool explained. "My fellow caregivers really knew that jobs were only going to get harder."

The St. Vincent caregivers will join thousands of other unionized workers at Providence hospitals in Oregon, Washington state and other parts of the country. Providence officials released a statement, recognizing the union and saying they were prepared to work with it toward a new contract.

McCool noted the company made several changes to staffing and work policies without feedback from its employees, with changes to the employees' health care benefits causing a major upheaval.

"It's been a recent change to our health care plan with Aetna switching over, and that was probably a very large reason why a lot of us decided to vote yes," McCool pointed out. "We had our own internal health care system. We changed to a different thing. Co-pays changed. Things were definitely a lot harder with increased deductibles."

McCool stressed political uncertainty, particularly in the government's health care policies, was also a significant concern.

"We're seeing a lot of changes going on with the government with cuts, especially right now," McCool observed. "What threatens us is cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Our CEO said, 'These cuts are threatening the hospital.'"