Relates to the establishment of a wage data clearinghouse

• Democratic2

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Jessica Ramos says this is needed

The state spends billions of state and federal dollars each year on educating and training future workers through the PK-12 system, public colleges and universities, workforce development and preparation programs, and adult literacy classes. Yet policymakers and the public have little idea which programs are effective and actually help partic- ipants get on career paths that lead to living wage employment. Since the enactment of a state law in 2013, colleges and public workforce programs have had access to the earnings and employment information of people who completed their programs. While most large institutions do have the capacity to meet the state's exacting standards for using the information safely and effectively, smaller workforce preparation programs, which might benefit from information, do not have the techno- logical capacity and analytical expertise to use the data. Most other states are using wage data, often in combination with educa- tion data to assess education and workforce programs. Examples of Data Aggregation: *Colleges and universities can now look at the earnings of graduates, see not only whether students got a job after graduation, but whether they stayed in a job and were able to move into higher-paying positions. * Individuals and policymakers can identify which educational and work- force development programs are producing the best outcomes for partic- ipants. * This data will help the state and localities identify how many people are trained in specific skills, where they are, whether they are out of work or are looking for similarly skilled jobs, how many went through such skill programs, are grads of programs and are successful in train- ing more.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.