Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO evaluated summer youth employment and training programs (SYETP) funded under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) to determine service delivery areas' (SDA) plans for providing JTPA-required remedial education to SYETP participants.
GAO interviewed officials at 200 SDA and found that: (1) local school districts provided advice on remedial education to 41 percent of SDA; (2) SDA cited funding uncertainties, program specifications, and service-level estimates as problems associated with developing remedial-education plans; and (3) about 50 percent of SDA believed that they received insufficient local guidance regarding SYTEP remedial-education requirements. GAO also found that: (1) more than twice as many youth will receive remedial education in 1987 as in 1986; (2) SDA that provided remedial education in 1986 had higher JTPA allocations, served more youth, and were more urban than SDA that provided no remedial education; (3) rural SDA cited transportation difficulties and a lack of service providers as barriers to their remedial-education efforts; (4) urban SDA were more often hampered by insufficient funds; (5) most SDA expected to provide the same remedial-education services in 1987 as in 1986; and (6) 67 percent of SDA believe that the remedial-education requirement for SYTEP is reasonable.
