Written by Mason Bishop, Founder of WorkED Consulting.
In 1997, I had the opportunity to participate directly in the policy development and legislative negotiations that created the Utah Department of Workforce Services (DWS). On the heels of federal welfare reform, and a year before federal workforce reform with implementation of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), Utah began a bold experiment in innovative governance. My report on this history was just published.
Hampered at the state level by program fragmentation, then-governor Mike Leavitt led a bold attempt to merge and integrate organizations and funds dedicated to workforce development, job training, and social services. Much of the program fragmentation experienced in Utah continues to exist today, as documented in my earlier AEI report, “Landscape Study of Federal Employment and Training Programs.” However, what began as an effort to reduce fragmentation has, 20 years later, proven to be a model for states looking to provide comprehensive, customer-focused services to its workers, job seekers, and employers.
Utah’s initial merger served as a foundation for later reforms that incorporated other programs. Over the past 20 years, Utah has merged Medicaid eligibility services, housing assistance, refugee resettlement, and Vocational Rehabilitation services for individuals with disabilities, with each change proving to enhance services to people who frequently needed multiple services to help move toward self-sufficiency.
One of the most important features of Utah’s model is its “single state area”, a designation permitted under the previous Workforce Investment Act and “grandfathered” for Utah but not currently allowed for other states under the successor law, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). By working as a single state area, DWS manages all funds and distributes them locally to its Employment Centers based upon labor market conditions and operational priorities. Under WIOA, funds are distributed to separate local workforce areas regardless of economic needs or conditions making it difficult for states to recapture and reallocate funds toward the areas of greatest need.
Utah has also uniquely integrated its federal and state funding in a manner that streamlines bureaucracy and appropriately charges costs to the program services utilized by the customer. Rather than interfacing with multiple federal agencies, Utah only deals with one — the US Department of Health and Human Services, which then liaisons with other federal agencies on behalf of DWS vastly simplifying its reporting requirements and processes.
Taken together, the Utah approach provides a vision for addressing problems that have plagued federal employment and job training programs, and the people they are supposed to serve, for decades. With an economy recovering from the pandemic, Utah’s two-decade effort to more effectively serve workers and empower local economies is a hopeful model that should be closely examined by other states and communities.
Article reposted from the American Enterprise Institute. Photo credit: REUTERS/George Frey.