In March youth unemployment nationally reached a shocking 21.7%. Massachusetts state programs that were designed to aid youth unemployment and end youth violence are facing massive cuts. The proposed budget for 2010, if adopted, would cut $29 million from programs that pay for tens of thousands of summer jobs, mentoring programs and many other programs keeping youth off the streets and furthering their opportunities.

The consequences of these cuts would increase crime and violence, lost opportunities for youth education and increase dropout rates which would be devastating for this generation of teens and our communities.

Violence and crime committed by young people stems from the lack of opportunities for employment and after school programs combined with the prospect of an alienating bleak future. More police with M-16s patrolling the streets and expanding prisons are not solutions. As the economy continues to sink, desperation and hopelessness will inevitably lead to more crime. Young people need job programs, access to higher education and after-schools programs, not prisons.

The cuts in the social services and unemployment continue to come from the local state governments. The bailouts of the banks and corporations prove money is available. Working people did not create this crisis, but we continue to pay for it. We need to demand our hard earned money is used for creating new jobs, education and necessary social programs that we need, not to fund corporate greed and war. A new youth revolt needs to be organized against the system of under-funded schools, standardized tests, military recruitment and dead-end jobs.