They could later be directed to community college vocational training programs or earn degrees in four-year-schools, and be linked along the way with clean energy employers who might later hire them.
"It's a huge cost," Brown said of the cost of expanding the service corps. But what's the cost of losing kids to gangs, he asked, and the cost of astronomical dropout rates?
"The way great presidents come to greatness is in response to challenges," Brown said, "and Obama's got as big a challenge as the country has faced since the 1930s."
Meanwhile, Brown said of the federal government, "They're throwing money around like there's no tomorrow."
He was referring to hundreds of billions in bailouts for bungling bankers, insurance executives and other Wall Street barons, with the failed leaders of the auto industry now bellying up behind them at the public trough.
If there's money for them, then why not for our youth, now that they're lined up and ready to march?
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steve.lopez@latimes.com
