Dear Editor,

The undersigned candidates and elected officials have drafted a policy proposal, the Workforce Doubling Program, to benefit the students of Los Alamos Public Schools and the businesses of Los Alamos County.  One significant barrier that small businesses face is the lack of workers that can afford housing in the area. We address this by introducing incentives and support to students that typically live here already.

Sincerely,

Nickole Aguilar Garcia (Los Alamos School Board Candidate)
Rick Mooday (Los Alamos School Board Candidate)
Paul Jaramillo (Los Alamos School Board Candidate)
David Hampton (UNM-LA Advisory Board Candidate)
David Reagor (Los Alamos County Councilor)

Workforce Doubling Program:
A joint initiative of the Los Alamos Public Schools, UNM-LA, and Los Alamos County

The goals of this program are to improve the availability of labor for the businesses in Los Alamos County and give more students valuable work experience.  Our most accessible source of labor is the students, both high school and UNM-LA, who usually have housing in place. We will provide incentives for these youth workers to join small businesses in our County, and increase participation in Work-Study programs.  This program involves four coordinated actions:

1. Revive school clubs such as DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) and BPA (Business Professionals of America) to support student participants.

2. Reinvigorate vocational and administrative classes to support skill development.

3. Offer high school work-study credit and class scheduling to accommodate the students work schedule.

4. Pay double the salary that local small businesses can afford by using matching county funds. This will apply up to the current wage of a LANL internship (currently $14-$16/hour).  Small businesses need this help to compete with LANL internships.