New Paper From Center On Budget Shows Why Unemployment Benefits Shouldn't Be Conditional On A High School Degree Or GED

Remember the idea of making unemployment benefits conditional on having a high school diploma? It’s back – and it looks more offensive than ever.

A new briefing from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities makes clear just how pernicious that requirement could be. According to the Center, nearly half of all workers without a high school degree are older than 45 and more than a third are older than 50. It’s not clear that a high school degree will do these workers much good and, more to the point, it’s unlikely many of them could even get one. Waiting lists for high school equivalency programs are widespread, affecting three-quarters of the local programs and spanning nearly every single state in the most recent survey. And that data predates a 14 percent cut in federal funding for career, technical, and adult education in the 2012 fiscal year.

It may go without saying, but workers without a high school degree tend to be in low-skill, low-paying jobs. They’re unlikely to have much savings, which means they’re particularly dependent on those unemployment benefits. That’s just one reason that Bob Greenstein, president of the Center, calls the proposal “appalling even by current Washington standards.”