Published: Wed, 04/10/24
San Antonio Express-News
By Molly Smith,
Staff writer
Mayor Ron Nirenberg spent part of his second-to-last State of the City speech urging business leaders not to give up on the struggling job training program that he pitched to voters four years ago.
“The program’s engines are just revving up,” Nirenberg said Tuesday at the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce’s annual event. “We’re now entering uncharted territory as we create a coordinated workforce development ecosystem at a scale unparalleled in our city’s history — maybe in any city’s history.
“Training for new careers and finishing degrees is vital, but it will take time,” he said.
The city launched Ready to Work nearly two years, and it has struggled to meet its targets. It aims to enroll far fewer San Antonians than Nirenberg promised to voters ahead of the November 2020 city charter amendment election, and it’s currently behind on its target for placing program graduates in jobs that pay at least $15 an hour.
The program’s advisory board chair warned last week that if the multimillion-dollar program doesn’t make improvements, San Antonio’s next mayor could force changes to the initiative.
Nirenberg reiterated Tuesday a refrain that has defined his tenure since first being elected mayor in 2017.
“Hardly any of my major initiatives have been short-term projects because truly investing in our people, our families, our community takes time,” he said to a crowd of politicians, city employees and business leaders in a Marriott Rivercenter hotel ballroom.
Nirenberg has pinned his four-term legacy on Ready to Work and other long-term initiatives centered on affordable housing, mass transportation, the $2.5 billion expansion of San Antonio International Airport and climate change adaptation.
Though some business leaders and City Council members have soured on Ready to Work, Nirenberg told reporters after his speech the program is “absolutely not” a failure.
“This is a work in progress,” he said. “We’re not counting widgets — we’re changing peoples’s lives. And it takes significant work. Each individual participant has a different story, a different set of challenges that have to be overcome through case work, case management.”
Nirenberg recognized four Ready to Work graduates, who attended the lunchtime speech, for their accomplishments.
As of January, the program had spent just 14% of the $240 million in sales tax dollars that will be allocated to it through December 2025.
Nirenberg highlighted two new Ready to Work initiatives that will pay for job training for 33 companies — instead of training San Antonians whom the companies would hire and then train themselves. The City Council will vote on the subsidies Thursday.
The two pilot programs amount to about $3 million to the companies to provide on-the-job training to new hires and skills training to existing workers looking to advance in their careers. The money will cover up to 722 new hires and 666 current workers, according to city documents.
There is no stipulation that these workers must have graduated from Ready to Work, which enrolls San Antonians living below the federal poverty line in training for industry-recognized certificates or in an associate’s or bachelor’s degree programs — free of charge.
It costs about $6,000 to train or educate each participant. The cost includes case management, housing, food, transportation or child care assistance for trainees.
The companies include large, for-profit employers, including Holt Cat, Methodist Healthcare System and auto parts maker Toyotetsu Texas Inc. University Health, the Bexar County-run hospital system funded partly through property tax dollars, would be another recipient.
Despite its rocky start, Ready to Work has supporters. Alamo Colleges District Chancellor Mike Flores touted the program as he introduced Nirenberg on Tuesday, calling it “the largest single investment in job training in United States history.”
Of the more than 6,500 San Antonians who have enrolled in Ready to Work since its 2022 launch, 1,800 participants signed up for Alamo Colleges District certification or degree programs, according to city figures.
The program aims to enroll more than 28,000 people — a goal that will be reached long after Nirenberg leaves office in May or June 2025, depending on whether there’s a runoff in the race to replace him.
Nirenberg told reporters he would like his successor to keep the program intact.
“I hope we continue our commitment to the voters, which is to continue to work to train folks and earn higher paying careers,” he said.
Still, changes are needed, he said. That includes better data collection and management to correct what he believes is “an underreporting” of the number of graduates who have found employment paying at least $15 an hour.
There also needs to be ongoing talks with area employers to learn what type of training they require in new hires.
“What we are doing here is creating generational change in terms of turning back, reversing cycles of poverty,” Nirenberg said. “That is an enormously important goal.”
To date, 628 people have found a job through the program.