Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men (Urban Institute Press)

By several recent counts, the United States is home to 2 to 3 million youth age 16 through 24 who are out of school and out of work Much has been written on disadvantaged youth, and government policy has gone through many incarnations, yet questions remain unanswered. Why are so many young people “disconnected,” and what can public policy do about it? And why has disconnection become more common for young men―particularly African-American men and low-income men―than for young women? In Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men, Edelman, Holzer, and Offner offer analysis and policy prescriptions to solve this growing crisis. They carefully examine field programs and research studies and recommend specific strategies to enhance education, training, and employment opportunities for disadvantaged youth; to improve the incentives of less-skilled young workers to accept employment; and to address the severe barriers and disincentives faced by some youth, such as ex-offenders and noncustodial fathers. The result is a clear guidebook for policymakers, and an important distillation for anyone interested in the plight of today’s disconnected youth. With a foreword by Hugh Price, former President and CEO, National Urban League

Peter Edelman is a professor of law and former associate dean for the Georgetown University Law Center. In the Clinton administration, he was assistant secretary for Planning and Evaluation for the Department of Health and Human Services. Among his publications are Searching for America’s Heart: RFK and the Renewal of Hope (second edition, Georgetown University Press, 2002), the Atlantic Monthly article "The Worst Thing Bill Clinton Has Done" (winner of a 1998 Harry Chapin Media Award), and a monthly column in the Legal Times (1989–1990). He is president of the board of the New Israel Fund, the board chair for the National Center for Youth Law, and a board member for the Center for Community Change, the Public Welfare Foundation, the Center for Law and Social Policy, the Juvenile Law Center of Philadelphia, and many other organizations. His numerous awards include the Eason Monroe Courageous Advocate Award from the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (1996) and the Ned Pattison Award from the Capital Region chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (1997). He graduated from Harvard Law School.

Harry J. Holzer is a professor and associate dean of Public Policy at Georgetown University, a visiting fellow at the Urban Institute, a research affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University ofWisconsin–Madison, and a senior affiliate of the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan. Formerly, he was chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor and professor of economics at Michigan State University. He received both his A.B. and his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard. Among his other books are The Black Youth Employment Crisis (coedited with Richard Freeman, University of Chicago Press, 1986); What Employers Want: Job Prospects for Less-Educated Workers (Russell Sage Foundation, 1996); Employers and Welfare Recipients: The Effects of Welfare Reform in the Workplace (with Michael Stoll, Public Policy Institute of California, 2001); and Moving Up or Moving On: Who Advances in the Low-Wage Labor Market (with Fredrik Andersson and Julia Lane, Russell Sage Foundation, 2005).

Paul Offner (1942–2004) enjoyed a distinguished career spanning government, research, and education. After earning his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University, he was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly, then to the Wisconsin State Senate. He served as deputy director of the Ohio Department of Human Services before moving to the federal government, first as a legislative assistant to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then as chief health and welfare counselor for the Senate Finance Committee. His accomplishments include terms as commissioner of Health Care Finance for the District of Columbia, as a research professor for Georgetown University’s Institute for Health Care Research and Policy, and as a consultant for the Urban Institute. A prolific researcher and writer, he counted among his many publications Medicaid and the States (Century Foundation Press, 1999) and the Journal of Human Resources article "Labor Force Participation in the Ghetto" (1972).