Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 29, 1995 TAG: 9507310045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Bobbi Yates, 18, of Roanoke, was among the 28 students from low-income households who were left stranded. Since enrolling two months ago, Yates said, she had learned a lot in the remedial education and job training program, which was aimed at 16- to 22-year-olds.
Although the program was open to anyone who met age and income requirements, many of the students were young, single mothers.
"I was pregnant. I was working at Pizza Hut. That was it. I didn't know what to do," she said.
Now, she is awaiting results of a high school equivalency exam and striving for a better job as a bank teller.
The institute at 1006 Second St. S.W. lost its funding when President Clinton cut the federal budget by $16.3 billion, effective Friday. The institute had been scheduled to receive nearly $116,000 during the next year from the Fifth District Employment and Training Consortium, a federally supported agency that pays for a variety of job training programs in the Roanoke area. But the federal action will withhold about 10 percent of the agency's funding.
Of all of the programs the consortium funds, the one hardest hit was the institute, which would have had room in the next year for about 60 more students in addition to the 28 students already enrolled. Three school-based programs for youths will be curtailed.
Bob Spencer, owner of Scheneman & Spencer, said he did not know where his students will go now for help.
In closing the school, he will lay off four teachers and be out of a job himself, he said.
Earlier this year, a program that provides summer jobs to 400 Roanoke-area youths escaped being eliminated by a similar cut.
by CNB