The Drive for Decent Work: Renew America By Investing in Services & Infrastructure

Service or Infrastructure Category	Public Service Gap	Opportunity	Expected Results
Child Care	Hundreds of thousands of families not eligible for financial assistance. Wages for child care and early education workers are very low.	Increase federal funding for Child Care Development Block Grants, Head Start, and other early education programs.	Each dollar spent on child care generates more than $2 in additional economic activity, and generates more jobs for local economies.
Schools	Class sizes are too large.	Hire 100,000 teachers and 100,000 classroom paraprofessionals.	Greater public investment in schools staffing will reduce class sizes, boost educational achievement, and create jobs.
Afterschool Programs	Some 14.3 million kids take care of themselves after school.	Create afterschool programs for all eligible children.	Afterschool programs improve school performance, create jobs and lead to a stronger economy.
Youth Employment	At least 2.5 million young low-income adults between 16 and 24 have left high school without a diploma and are unemployed.	· Create 100,000 additional jobs in the federal YouthBuild Program to build and renovate affordable housing. · Create 100,000 additional jobs in the Youth Conservation Corps to build parks, trails and campsites, plant trees, and restore the environment. · Create 100,000 jobs for youth to learn skills in computer tech support to help families in low-income communities.	Jobs are created, employed youths contribute to the economy and pay taxes, communities benefit from affordable housing, a more livable environment, and computer support services.

Service or Infrastructure Category	Public Service Gap	Opportunity	Expected Results
Eldercare	Long-term care for seniors and people with chronic illnesses and disabilities is extremely expensive. There are chronic shortages of workers because working conditions are difficult and wages are too low.	Create public investment fund to create jobs and raise wages for 200,000 personal care and home health aides.	Better quality of life for seniors and families through expanded care options, including home- and community-based care. More jobs, higher wages, better working conditions, and career ladders for employees.
Arts & Culture	Arts and cultural organizations such as museums and historical sites are experiencing a decline in donations and revenues, and laying off workers.	· Create a publicly-supported fellowship program to provide 100,000 limited-duration jobs at nonprofit arts and cultural organizations around the U.S., including jobs for visual artists, musicians, writers and dancers · Provide $1 billion in grants for community media centers to engage young people in producing their own video and radio media. · Create $1 billion grants program to support maintenance and expansion of music programs in the public schools	Preserve and create jobs, create new opportunities for young artists, and maintain and expand arts and cultural activities for the public.

Service or Infrastructure Category	Public Service Gap	Opportunity	Expected Results
Environment ü	Polluting fossil fuels threaten human health and threaten the climate by raising temperatures. Industrial pollution and toxic waste has contaminated land in urban, suburban and rural communities.	· Expand research and development of clean energy. · Expand energy conservation and retrofit programs to reduce energy use in houses and buildings. · Clean-up contaminated sites in communities to restore habitat and promote economic development.	The Apollo Alliance Program projects creating 3.3 million jobs over 10 years, and would pay for itself through increased economic activity and related tax and energy savings. Conservation and retrofit programs will reduce energy use reduce energy use, save money for residents and tenants in government and commercial buildings, and create jobs. Redeveloping “brownfield” contaminated sites could create 576,373 new jobs and generate $1.9 billion in new tax revenue.
Housing H	There is a severe national shortage of affordable rental housing.	· Provide $5 billion in funding for the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund. · Address $28 billion backlog for public housing construction and repair. · Expand Community Development Block Grant Program. · Expand programs to provide transitional and permanent housing for homeless people.	Funding the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund at $5 billion would create 184,300 direct jobs, and leverage an additional 1.6 million jobs in the nonprofit and private sectors.

Service or Infrastructure Category	Public Service Gap	Opportunity	Expected Results
Libraries G	Many library buildings are aging and need modernization or replacement. Many libraries are slashing hours and services because of insufficient funding.	· Make $1 billion in grants available for public library construction and modernization · Provide grants to libraries to maintain hours and services during economic downturn.	Many jobs will be created and preserved, and the public will receive better library services. Unemployed workers can use the library to research job opportunities and improve knowledge and skills.
Nonprofit Human Services ”	Many employees in the nonprofit sector -- who provide essential public and social services -- do not have decent wages or retirement benefits.	Create multi-billion federal investment initiative to make every human service job a decent job.	Maintain and enhance essential social services, improve quality of life and career ladders for nonprofit-sector workers, and strengthen local economies by boosting worker purchasing power.
Transportation	The US needs to expand, upgrade and modernize aging mass transportation systems, and research and deploy new systems that will give people better options to reduce commuting times, sprawl and pollution.	· Expand federal grants programs for new mass transit development by $20 billion or more. · Save Detroit & the Midwest – revitalize the car industry for the 21^st century, and encourage transition to hybrid cars and alternative vehicles.	Mass transit programs will improve the quality of life for people and communities, and create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. Hybrid and alternative vehicles, by helping to reduce pollution and carbon emissions, will improve quality of life for users and non-users alike.