Alicia Jarmon began her career by scraping chewing gum from school desks in the federal government's summer jobs program.
She's still working in the classroom - but now as a teacher, a position she says she never would have gained without the motivation and discipline learned during those high school summers."I didn't particularly like the job," Jarmon said recently. "But it taught me a lot of little things - to be on time, discipline, how to work with people and do things I didn't want to do."
More than 500,000 economically disadvantaged youths from high unemployment neighborhoods will be involved in the jobs program this summer, Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich says.
But Reich is asking private companies to step in and offer jobs to the more than 1 million additional young people who he contends will be jobless because the program is more limited this year.
Congressional Republicans had sought to end the summer jobs program as part of budget-cutting efforts. After protracted fights with Democrats and President Clinton, the GOP agreed to finance the program at 75 percent of last year's total - $625 million, down from $867 million in 1995.
"This was part of our overall efforts to streamline (the government's 263 youth training programs) in a responsible way and make sure taxpayers' dollars were put to the most effective use and not wasted on duplication," said Elizabeth Morra, a spokeswoman for the House Appropriations Committee.
Reich argues that participants learn work skills critical to successful job performance and the discipline necessary to hold a job.
"It's their first window on the world of work," Reich said. "There's nothing better than a job to get disadvantaged youths on the road" to a productive life.
Last summer, nearly two-thirds of the youths in the jobs program participated in educational programs, including math and reading instruction, he said.
But many Republicans contend the program does not provide adequate job training. Instead, they had wanted to consolidate dozens of job-training programs, including the summer youth funding, into block grants that states could tailor to their own needs.
The program provides low-income youth, between the ages of 14 and 21, jobs including clerical positions, maintenance work, park and recreation activities, hospital employment, aiding the elderly and tutoring and assisting at day-care centers.
The mayor's office usually directs the local operations, paid for by the federal government.
Participants are paid at least the $4.25 hourly minimum wage and can earn $1,100 to $1,400 during the eight-week period.
Jarmon received her first job during the summer after ninth grade, performing janitorial work at a school in the Washington suburb of Prince Georges County.
She continued in the summer jobs program through high school, including one summer spent "doing basic office work" on Capitol Hill for a Maryland Democrat.
She attended college on a basketball scholarship, earning a bachelor's degree in English media arts. She now is completing a year of substitute teaching at a high school and plans to attend graduate school.