Councilmember Vincent Orange (D-Ward 5) introduced a bill to the D.C. Council that would guarantee a summer job to every District resident between the ages of 14 and 21. The jobs would pay at least minimum wage and would provide at least 20 hours of work per week for more than six weeks. Councilmember Kwame Brown (D-At Large) is a graduate of the summer jobs program that existed under former mayor and current councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8). He is now a sponsor of the bill with Barry. Keith Perry, Brown's chief of staff, said Brown wants the program to teach marketable job skills. He said when Brown was campaigning on this issue, he joked that if all else failed, he could use the horticulture skills he learned in the summer jobs program and become a landscaper. "It's a good laugh line, but he's totally serious about it," Perry said. "It would be nice if every student had something like that to fall back on." Brown also wants the program to tie academic achievement to job eligibility. "You don't reward behavior that is kind of against the goals you're trying to cultivate in kids," Perry said. "You can't fail every class and get a summer job." Orange said 9,000 youths applied for 5,000 summer jobs in the District last year, the Washington Post reported. The current bill emphasizes getting additional jobs from private companies. An already existing summer job program in Ward 5, called "Hire-One-Save-One," has provided jobs in fields ranging from childcare to legal research that pay up to $11.50 an hour, according to a press release from Orange.
