Stay in School...and Get Screwed?

As I reported last winter, my wife Kristine got laid off from a job she'd been at a long time. She applied, with no success, for what few jobs in her field (graphic design) came up, as well as for many part time, low wage jobs which she hasn't gotten either. In the meantime she's collected unemployment benefits. Not a circumstance we're happy about, but it's kept us solvent.

With no luck finding graphic design jobs, and being ready for a change anyway, Kristine has investigated going back to school to study interior design. In preparation for that, last week she started classes in construction (gotta know how a house is put together if you're gonna fix it up). She's loving it.

But yesterday Kristine was checking in online with the state Unemployment Insurance Agency, as she must every other week, and when asked if she had started classes she said yes. And that ended the transaction--claim denied.

She was directed to call an office for follow up, and the person there explained that by enrolling in school she had made herself unavailable for work. They will send her the paperwork to file an appeal, which will then take six weeks to process. We'll appeal, but I don't think we're likely to win. She was also told that to get benefits restored she would need to state she was willing to drop out of her classes.

Who knows, maybe she'll get a job offer soon and this will be moot. But I'm starting to think winning the lottery is more likely.

So: if she chose to sit in front of the TV, quaffing PBR and letting the future worry about itself, the state would be willing to pay her. Perhaps they'd even extend her benefits into next year. But since she has the ambition to retool and retrain yourself, she's penalized.

As it happens, this issue is now under discussion in the state's halls of power. The Michigan House has passed a bill (HB 4786) calling for using $138,000,000 in federal stimulus money to expand unemployment coverage. The provisions of the bill would allow retraining workers, or workers forced to take part time jobs while seeking a full time positions, to keep at least some of their benefits. The governor is eager to sign the bill. But the state senate--controlled by Republicans--is blocking the measure. The expanded coverage would place an undue burden on business owners over the long term, they say.

Presumably these business owners and their Republican backers are the same ones who set the stage for a long term state fiscal crisis by demanding one tax cut after another in the 90s. Presumably they're the same ones who a month ago were willing to accept $30,000,000 in tax rebates out of Michigan's stimulus funds (via legislation supported by organized labor, btw). Presumably they're the same people who wring their hands over liberals "stirring up class conflict" by suggesting that the middle class is getting left behind.

The Detroit News ran an op-ed on this yesterday, and in the comments, some nitwit was pontificating about how this new legislation would just give people incentive not to work. I'm afraid that incentive is already in place, sponsored by the professional advocates of self-motivation and the work ethic.

That, at the moment, is the view from our recession.