Hot Air posted an article today about a federal jobs program for youth. The program is part of President Obama’s Summer Opportunity Project. This is the description of the program when it was announced:

The Summer Opportunity Project is a multi-agency effort in partnership with the National Summer Learning Association and other collaborators to provide support to communities. The Project aims to significantly increase the percentage of youth in evidence-based summer opportunity programs, decrease the percentage of youth experiencing violence over the summer, and—more broadly—make sure that young Americans have the support they need to get their first job.

Research shows that Black and Hispanic teenage boys lag behind their peers in summer employment and year-round jobs. This employment gap broadens as young men get older, making them the highest percentage of the nearly seven million youth 16-24 disconnected from school and work. That’s why the President’s My Brother’s Keeper Task Force recommended to the President in May of 2014 strengthening the case for summer youth employment and launching a cross-sector campaign to reduce summer learning loss and increase the number of job and internship opportunities for all young people.

I am going to ignore the constitutional problem with the government creating jobs and say that this program looks reasonable. However, what you start with is not necessarily what you finish with.

It turns out that the Summer Opportunity Project funds have been diverted:

Utica is among 11 communities nationwide that will share $21 million in grants for summer jobs programs aimed at helping disadvantaged youth, the White House and U.S. Department of Labor said Monday.

Utica will receive almost $2 million to help 400 students in the city’s refugee population receive summer work experience and part-time jobs the rest of the year, White House officials said.

The Utica students also will receive tutoring in English and math as part of the New Americans Career Pathways Project.

The federal money is part of the Summer Opportunity Project launched by the White House in February.

So rather than help the Black and Hispanic Americans who have grown up here and need jobs, we are taking the money away from them and spending it on refugees. Let’s help our own children first please.