If we as a society were genuinely concerned about equity, we’d do much more to help those young people who are not in school and not at work.
The term of art is “disconnected youth”: The one in eight young people between 16 and 24 who neither work nor go to school nor enter the military.
Even temporary disconnection often results in long-term “scarring” with an enduring impact on young people’s mindset, health, and future employment prospects. Those disconnected during their late teens and early and mid-twenties suffer a loss of self-confidence and a sense of self-efficacy and, over time, find it increasingly difficult to enter the job market.
Some of the disconnected are young mothers or family caregivers. Others have disabilities that keep them out of school and the job market, still others suffer from mental health or substance abuse issues. A significant number have aged out of foster care and did not enroll in college or enter the full-time workforce. Then, there are those caught up in the criminal justice system.
One segment of this population is intermittently or temporarily disconnected. But others are chronically disconnected; these young people inhabit a netherworld, subsisting on casual labor, sometimes off the books, and frequently experience unstable living arrangements. Substantial numbers of disconnected youth lack a high school diploma or a GED and have weak basic skills.
The share of disconnected youth varies substantially by race, ethnicity, and gender, and by geographical location as well. According to the most recent statistics, about 9 percent of white youth and 8 percent of Asian American youth are disconnected compared to 14 percent of Latinx young people, 17 percent of Black youth, and 26 percent of their Native American counterparts.
A disproportionate share are male, and some of the highest rates are found in the Bronx and South Central Los Angeles.
In her 2020 study, Abandoned: America’s Lost Youth and the Crisis of Disconnection, Anne Kim, a Washington Monthly contributing editor, makes a persuasive case that disconnected youth “for too long have been the missing link in our national conversation about opportunity, inequality, and the future of American prosperity.”
As Kim shows, there are certain common denominators in the lives of disconnected youth. Cast adrift by substandard schools, these young people lack adequate support structures and guidance, and find themselves in “opportunity deserts” with few nearly jobs.
As she also explains, public policy has largely failed to take account of the rise of a new developmental stage, emerging adulthood. Those who fail to successfully circumnavigate this prolonged, twisting life stage are unlikely to attain a secure adulthood.
It’s not, of course, that this society is oblivious to the problems of disconnected youth. A wide array of programs exists to help these young people. Some programs are community based, supported by churches and non-profits; others state or federally-funded initiatives.
These programs take many forms. There are educational programs to prevent young people from dropping out of high school, as well as high school equivalency programs and GED-to-college bridge programs. There are job training programs, some of which combine basic skills instruction with career and technical training, others which offer summer employment, and still others providing apprenticeships or on-the-job training. There are also outreach programs that use a case management approach and offer therapeutic and behavioral interventions.
But existing services fail to reach many disconnected young people, and even when they do, most programs are of short duration, and their impact modest or short lived. Relatively few programs tackle the fundamental problems faced by many disconnected youth: A lack of stable and secure housing and of the scaffolding, guidance, support structures, and opportunities that many other young people take for granted.
What we have, in short, is a fractured, fragmented assortment of disconnected programs of highly uneven effectiveness and limited accountability that leaves most disconnected youth unserved.
Since the challenges faced by disconnected youth are not a single problem susceptible to a specific set of solutions, perhaps it makes sense to rely on a broad range of programs and initiatives. But my own view is that colleges, especially community colleges and regional comprehensives, offer our best hope for meeting this problem at scale, precisely because these institutions are embedded in their local communities and regions.
I understand and appreciate the obvious objections to my proposal. Colleges and universities are first and foremost educational institutions, not social service agencies. Underfunded campuses are hard pressed to serve their existing student populations, let alone those with even greater financial, emotional, and educational needs. No doubt, the challenges experienced by some disconnected youth are beyond the capacity of even the most caring campus to effectively address.
Nevertheless, with additional funding, these institutions are well-placed to reintegrate many young people into society. These campuses can help disconnected youth exit difficult environments and make a fresh start.
What would this take? An evidence-based holistic approach would include:
- Supportive transitional housing offering an appropriate levels of structure, support, and supervision.
- Intensive, individualized support, guidance, and counseling.
- Skills-building workshops to develop money management, job-seeking, and other life skills.
- Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy for those who experienced abuse.
- GED and stackable certificate, certification, and degree programs.
- Vocational training, apprenticeships, workplace learning, and opportunities for paid work.
Among this society’s most profound inequities is the disparity between what we expend on students who attend 4-year colleges and universities and what we spend on everyone else. Regional comprehensives and community colleges are seriously underfunded, but the situation is even worse for those who do not attend a postsecondary institution.
We’ve grossly underinvested in far too many young adults, and the lifelong consequences are dire, not only for those individuals, but society as a whole, which could use certainly their talents and energy.
Let me conclude with the words of President Lyndon Johnson in his most stirring speech, his 1965 televised address announcing his decision to submit a voting rights bill to Congress.
Every person in this country, he declared, should be able “to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life.” He then made it clear that this should not simply be the battle of Blacks but of all Americans, just as the cause of disconnected youth should everyone’s responsibility.
“Their cause must be our cause too. Because … really it’s all of us who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice.”
Then President Johnson closed with a phrase that still brings tears to my eyes: “And we shall overcome.”
Steven Mintz is professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin.
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