skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, July 11, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Federal judge issues new nationwide block against Trump's order seeking to end birthright citizenship; TX flood Death toll at 121 as search continues for the missing; Hoosier businesses face fallout from tariff shake-up; Sick of moving, MN senior worries about losing federal rental aid; Second mobile unit for helping formerly incarcerated launches in NC.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

NOAA nominee says he supports cutting the agency's budget. Many question why Ukraine's weapons aid was paused. And farmers worry how the budget megabill will impact this year's Farm Bill.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Rural Americans brace for disproportionate impact of federal funding cuts to mental health, substance use programs, and new federal policies have farmers from Ohio to Minnesota struggling to grow healthier foods and create sustainable food production programs.

Report: Federal funding would ignite apprenticeships, create job pathways

play audio
Play

Friday, November 17, 2023   

Pennsylvania needs more economic opportunities and a new report from the Keystone Research Center showed federal investments in climate and infrastructure projects would help grow a skilled construction workforce.

Diana Polson, senior policy analyst at the center, said the report revealed federal money would create thousands of trade jobs through expanding union construction apprenticeships leading to quality careers, as electricians, operating engineers, carpenters, and laborers.

"In Pennsylvania, for example, these apprenticeships train workers for jobs that pay more than most college-educated workers earn, and 61% more than the average worker in Pennsylvania," Polson pointed out. "Significantly, this training comes without any student debt."

Polson added Gov. Josh Shapiro wants to use 3% of the federal funds from recently signed climate and infrastructure laws to expand workforce development and apprenticeships. Shapiro's 2023-24 budget includes $6 million for the effort.

Polson noted President Joe Biden's Good Jobs Initiative seeks to embed job quality and equity incentives into the federal funding, to make sure apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeships benefit underserved communities. She called it a huge win all around, for the state, climate, for those communities, and taxpayers.

"We had shared this in the report, research has shown that for every dollar invested in apprenticeship $35 is returned to the government in higher tax collections, or reduced expenditures on public assistance or unemployment over the career of an apprentice," Polson emphasized. "These are huge returns on investments."

Keystone Research Center said the resources will lead to high-wage union construction careers. The center is holding a webinar today at 1 p.m. on construction apprenticeship programs in coal country, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

Disclosure: The Keystone Research Center contributes to our fund for reporting on Budget Policy and Priorities, and Livable Wages/Working Families. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


get more stories like this via email
more stories
Close to half of all American whiskey, bourbon and rye is sold internationally, primarily to Canada, Mexico and the European Union. (Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

Hoosier businesses across the state are feeling the ripple effects of rising tariffs and shifting trade policies, especially in farming, …


Social Issues

play sound

Some 15 community and faith-based organizations gathered again this week outside the Geo Group ICE detention facility in Aurora where longtime Denver …

Social Issues

play sound

By Garrett Bergquist for WISH-TV.Broadcast version by Joe Ulery for Indiana News Service reporting for the WISH-TV-Free Press Indiana-Public News Serv…


Students at the 2024 Arts Advocacy Day spent time networking and discussing policy issues affecting arts education. (Skye Morse-Hodgson/Snap Yourself)

Social Issues

play sound

More than 400 teen artists will gather this Saturday in Southern California to learn about equity in arts education. The 3rd annual Arts Advocacy Day …

Environment

play sound

New Mexico farmers finding it more difficult to grow historic crops are taking up conservation techniques to meet the challenge. Drought, water …

Places like rural Dutch Harbor, Alaska, rely heavily on diesel powered generators for a majority of their power production. (Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

Despite last-minute concessions in the Trump administration's budget, which removes alternative energy tax incentives, rural Alaska power providers …

Environment

play sound

"Don't go into the water" is a warning Illinoisans may want to heed. A 2024 study released this week found all state-border beaches on Lake Michigan …

Social Issues

play sound

The Trump administration has made it clear it will cut funding from schools continuing diversity, equity and inclusion programs and with record …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021