[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 10 (Monday, February 7, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 7, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                 THE SHOOTING OF PATROLMAN STEVEN SHAW

  Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, last Thursday in Providence, a terrible 
tragedy occurred: a fine young Providence policeman was killed in the 
line of duty, shot by a suspect using a handgun.
  Steven Michael Shaw and other officers were responding to a call 
involving a search for three men who were suspected of committing two 
robberies earlier that afternoon. After entering the house where the 
suspects were believed to be, Patrolman Shaw was shot in the head by 
one of the suspects, who had hidden himself in a bedroom closet.
  Patrolman Steven Michael Shaw, just 27 years old, began his career 
with the Providence police in January 1989, working in the patrol 
bureau and the community policing unit. Steven Shaw was an officer well 
recognized for his work: he had been involved in a 1991 capture of an 
armed man who at the time was shooting at him. In 1992 he also played a 
key role, at some significant personal risk, in securing the release of 
a hostage held by five armed--and actively firing--men.
  These events and his work in handling armed robberies, break-ins, and 
shootings made him a decorated officer: he received the Police Chief's 
Medal, given for ``an outstanding act in the performance of duty;'' the 
City Council Medal, and the Hostage Situation Medal. Moreover, 
Patrolman Shaw was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, and 
indeed had served in the Persian Gulf war.
  Steven Shaw did not shy from dangerous situations in the course of 
duty. He had experience in dealing with armed criminals; he had the 
skills to handle a dangerous and tense situation.
  But on February 3, he didn't have a chance.
  How long are we going to allow our officers to face the kind of 
danger posed by the number of handguns out there in circulation? Every 
year, dozens of police officers are killed while carrying out their 
official duties--and every year, the vast majority of them are killed 
by handguns. Since 1982, a staggering 70 percent of the 802 officers 
killed in the line of duty were fatally shot by handguns. Due to the 72 
million handguns out there, our officers face the threat of death every 
time they leave the station. Due to the presence of handguns, any 
routine police call can result in tragedy.
  No Providence police officer has been killed in the line of duty 
since 1928, more than 65 years ago. But regretfully, due to the growing 
number of handguns, it is becoming increasingly dangerous for our 
officers. In March of 1989, three officers were shot but thankfully not 
killed in a gunfight. And just last September, a Providence patrolman 
was shot while investigating a disturbance; his life was saved when the 
bullet bounced off the bulletproof vest he was wearing.
  Every day the men and women of our police force take their lives in 
their hands on our behalf. We cannot allow the proliferation of 
handguns to continue to needlessly threaten their lives.
  Steven Shaw, this young man of great courage, died in the act of 
performing his duties. He was a kind, thoughtful, and considerate young 
man. His friends and family say he had a zest for life, enjoying 
rafting, hunting, foreign travel, and car racing. His partners say that 
he enjoyed a challenge; one described a training day where Patrolman 
Shaw tried to outdo his fellow officers, saying that Shaw was a ``150-
pound man with a 300-pound heart [who] wouldn't quit.''

  My deepest condolences go out to Steven Shaw's parents, Robert and 
Judith Shaw; to his five brothers and sisters; and to his other 
relatives and his many friends. My heart goes out especially to his 
young wife, Mrs. Maria Angela Conte Shaw, to whom Patrolman Shaw was 
married just 1 year ago. On behalf of Mrs. Chafee and myself, I want to 
offer her and the entire Shaw family my heartfelt sympathy. And on 
behalf of all Rhode Islanders, I want to convey to Mrs. Shaw and to 
Steven Shaw's parents the thanks and gratitude that each and every 
Rhode Islander feels for the service that Steven Shaw gave 
wholeheartedly to our State.
  Flags are at half-mast in Rhode Island in honor of this brave young 
man. He deserves no less, and indeed, much more. We must not lose 
another Steven Shaw to the slaughter arising from handguns. In his name 
and the name of all those officers who have been gunned down, we must 
act.
  I thank the Chair. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Wofford). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Simon). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, for the benefit of Members, even though 
we have not been involved in extended debate on the floor, we have been 
making good progress in the areas in which a number of our colleagues 
have been interested and concerned, such as addressing issues about the 
length of the authorization and the kinds of flexibility that we have 
provided in this legislation to be able to deal with some of the 
existing rules and regulations and even laws.
  We have found a consistent position both in the education programs 
and, hopefully, in this program to provide a degree of flexibility 
which had not existed previously. I think there are some Members who 
desire to go even further than that. But we have been working with our 
colleagues.
  Then there are some other issues involving the questions of 
employment and the paying of certain employees. We have been addressing 
that. Others want to have some limitation in terms of the total amounts 
that are going to be authorized and a few other matters as well.
  Nonetheless, we have been working with our colleagues. There are 
several who have been listed on this list of amendments who have common 
positions, so we have been working through on the substance of those 
issues.
  We want to give assurance to our colleagues that we are proceeding 
along and making good progress. We will have the opportunity to address 
the areas where there still remain some differences, but all of us are 
appreciative of the amount of cooperation that we have been able to 
achieve so far.
  Mr. President, earlier in the debate, my good friend, the Senator 
from Illinois, had mentioned the hearings that we had on America's 
Choice, the very outstanding group of men and women who reported to the 
Congress over a year ago on some of the activities that were taking 
place in a number of the other industrial countries that were assuring 
those countries of high skills, high-wage employees and the steps they 
were taking to make sure that their employees were going to be able to 
be competitive in the new world markets.
  Actually, one of the members of that group was Mrs. Clinton. I can 
remember very clearly her testimony before our committee when she, Ray 
Marshall, Bill Brock and actually Ira Magaziner, who has now been 
working with the President and Mrs. Clinton on the issues of our health 
care, made an excellent presentation.
  As the Senator from Illinois has pointed out, and others, one of 
their key recommendations for young people in this country was the kind 
of School-to-Work Program which is now before us. For those who really 
are interested in the justification of this program, any review of 
their report is enormously compelling and incredibly persuasive. They 
really were enormously interesting and challenging recommendations 
which a number of us worked on to try and ensure that the legislative 
efforts were going to incorporate the recommendations.
  Another very important aspect of that report is the continuing 
education and training programs of most of the important industries in 
the European Community.
  (Mr. BAUCUS assumed the chair.)
  Mr. KENNEDY. They commit from about 1.5 percent up to about 3 percent 
of their payroll costs for training programs to upgrade employee skills 
including continuing training programs with certificates establishing 
what the content of those training programs actually was.
  I think there was reluctance by the administration to talk about some 
kind of requirement by the companies and corporations to move into that 
kind of encouragement for those plants and factories. But nonetheless, 
that has been the policy in those countries and is widely embraced by 
all the political parties, by business as well as workers, and that 
continues to function.
  What we have seen in the United States is that about anywhere from 
$30 billion to $40 billion a year goes into training programs. Two-
thirds of that is for white-collar workers, not the blue-collar 
workers. A number of the companies that have had those programs have 
been willing to do that even though there is a reasonable chance that 
after their employees actually gain the training, there is enormous 
interest in those employees by some of the competitors of those 
companies and then they move and become hired by those competitors. 
That is a condition which does not exist by and large in most of the 
other industrialized nations in the world.
  I know that is not the issue before us, but I do think it does 
describe the very modest but important initiative which we have at this 
particular time. We are taking a very important aspect of the 
recommendations which have been made by that Commission and putting 
them in place, and I think, as the Senator from Illinois has pointed 
out, with very broad support from the private sector and from business 
and from labor. I think it is enormously encouraging. For anyone who 
did not have the opportunity the other evening to see Rick Smith 
interview President Clinton, he spent about an hour talking about what 
was necessary to have a highly skilled, well-paid, competitive work 
force--the matter before the Senate--addressing how the President and 
his administration viewed the importance of this very program, and also 
how it related to the other programs and plans of other industrialized 
nations.
  The President made it very clear that we are not attempting to 
replicate the programs in these other countries. We have our own 
economy. We have our own traditions. We have our own labor-management 
relations. But there are fundamental and underlying concepts which have 
demonstrated time in and time out the importance of these kinds of 
programs and cooperative efforts.
  The President, I thought, in that program--as well as at other times 
when many of us have heard him speak, has clearly indicated his strong 
commitment to this area. As recently as last week at a training 
conference here in Washington, a training conference of those who are 
interested in continuing training programs in the private sector, 
programs conducted by unions and by others--heard the President of the 
United States, over a period of about 2 hours, moderating a panel on 
these training issues. I think that is a very clear indication of his 
strong commitment in this area, and the support of the administration 
for training.
  As I mentioned earlier, this is in harmony with Goals 2000 that 
establishes the skills standards. It will also help establish world-
class standards in the areas of learning, with the more effective kinds 
of assessments of what young people know and what they should know.
  Parents in our country need to know how effective our high schools 
are in preparing our young people. This legislation is all part of this 
interest in young people and making sure that they are going to have 
productive and contributive lives in terms of our economy.
  I will take just a few moments of the Senate's time to illustrate 
some of the programs we are working on in our own State which I believe 
demonstrate what might be able to be achieved in other communities.
  We have in Massachusetts relatively high unemployment. We have in New 
England 5 percent of the Nation's population. Almost 25, 28 percent of 
all the job loss over a 5-year period was in that area. We are one of 
the highest States, in the top five States, with individuals who have 
lost their jobs and who have been unable to recover them. So when we 
find that people lose employment without the other kinds of 
opportunities, of having additional kinds of skills and training, it is 
an enormous personal burden on those workers, men and women, and upon 
the families.
  I thought I would just, for a few moments, mention a few of the 
programs that appear to be working which, I think, incorporate this 
concept. They are only affecting maybe a few hundred people now, but 
what we are very hopeful about is that we will affect thousands, tens 
of thousands, hundreds of thousands, including the hundreds of 
thousands of people who actually drop out from the school systems. With 
effective kinds of programs, we will be able to reach out to some of 
those individuals and bring them back into a process which hopefully 
sets some opportunities for their own future.
  In my own State, we are experimenting with a number of different 
approaches to assisting young people in making the transition from 
school to work.
  In Boston, we have three different models: A youth apprenticeship 
program called Pro-Tech, which prepares high school students for 
careers as health care specialists; three national academy programs 
which operate as schools within schools which offer programs in travel, 
tourism, finance, and public service; and restructured vocational 
education programs which integrate vocational and academic programs.
  Project Pro-Tech is a collaborative effort with the Boston public 
schools, the Boston teaching hospitals, the Bunker Hill Community 
College, and Jobs for the Future, a nonprofit organization. It is that 
kind of coordination which is so essential to produce an effective 
program and why the support for those different elements being brought 
together is a critical part of this whole legislative effort.
  Under the program, which got underway in September 1991, 
participating students combined work at participating hospitals with 
on-site classroom training by health professionals and a specialized 
school curriculum emphasizing math and science courses specifically 
designed to complement their work experience.
  We heard earlier in the day about the importance of the Tech-Prep, 
which we very strongly support. We have evidence of that in my own 
State. But that is different from this kind of program.
  What this legislation is intending to support is the diverse kinds of 
ways of equipping young people with both the academic wherewithal and 
the technical skills.
  The program I just mentioned was designed for students to enter the 
program in the 11th grade, continuing after high school graduation with 
course work at Bunker Hill Community College, with a goal at the end of 
the 4 years that they would have a professional certification 
establishing their qualification as health care professionals and an 
associate's degree from the community college.
  Pro-Tech students spend 15 hours per week in the workplace as part of 
a restructured and extended learning program. Teachers and workplace 
supervisors have jointly developed new curricula for clusters of 25 to 
50 students. That is going to be necessary, the developing of new kinds 
of curricula which will be supported with this kind of an effort. 
Participating employers have committed to supporting these students 
beyond high school graduation through at least 2 years of additional 
education and potential entry into a career path within their 
organizations.
  Although project Pro-Tech is still in the pilot stage, the results so 
far have been highly encouraging. All 38 of Pro-Tech's first class of 
high school graduates successfully have begun their postsecondary 
education at 17 different area community colleges and universities, 
while continuing their apprenticeship jobs at local hospitals.
  The program has reached out to a number of the community colleges and 
universities, not only in my State but in other States.
  Interestingly enough, the results in some respects have turned out 
differently than what was envisioned on the theory that this was a 
program primarily for kids who would otherwise be unlikely to go to 
college. The program was originally set up to terminate with a 2-year 
community college associate degree. Instead, contrary to expectations, 
almost a third of the Pro-Tech's first class of high school graduates 
have entered 4-year colleges rather than community colleges. This is 
obviously an encouraging development. It should help to alleviate 
concerns that school-to-work programs will turn out to be just another 
way to attract students who are considered to be poor achievers away 
from the goal of 4-year college and limit their future opportunities 
and earning potential.
  The project Pro-Tech Health Care Program now has 150 students working 
in seven area hospitals. The program has recently extended from health 
care to financial services, providing an additional 70 students with 
youth apprenticeships at seven different banks, insurance companies, 
and investment companies. That clearly also is different from what we 
developed in the Pro-Tech area.
  Boston now has three national academy programs that together enroll 
more than 200 students--the Travel and Tourism Academy; East Boston 
High School, the Financial Academy, Hyde Park, a Public Service Academy 
of Dorchester High School. These academies provide participating 
students with 4-year programs and upgrade academic learning with the 
study in the particular industry in which the students plan careers.
  Students in these academies are grouped together for many of their 
high school courses, and their academic courses use curriculum that 
relates to the academy's occupational field. Area employers promote 
mentor and summer internships to introduce students to the academy's 
field.
  Again, in terms of the mentoring, we accepted the mentoring amendment 
on our Goals 2000 program. We can see now how this community service 
program has an important role.
  A third model for school-to-work programs is being implemented at the 
new Madison Park Vocational Technical High School, Cambridge Language 
and Latin. There, additional vocational-educational programs have been 
completely restructured to provide students with earlier and broader 
opportunities to learn about varied careers and explore those careers 
through job shadowing, visits to the workplace, and closer linkages 
between communities' occupational and academic courses.
  Each of these programs has its own special strengths. Boston and 
other communities should be encouraged to continue to experiment with 
these and other models under the legislation we are considering today. 
Because this legislation does not describe one rigid model for all 
communities to follow, we expect schools and employers to continue to 
combine and adopt new ideas that meet local needs.
  That is what this legislation is really about. We have seen fewer 
dropouts taking place in a number of the other communities, which has 
resulted in very positive experiences for many young people who, in too 
many instances, may drop out of school and involve themselves in a more 
negative direction. These programs have been a lifeline in many 
different areas.
  What we are seeing in a number of the schools and colleges is that 
they are developing their academic courses and relating those to some 
of the work experience courses and doing that in a very demanding 
academic fashion. This, in turn, has awakened a great deal of interest 
in a number of different areas. This has been very, very encouraging as 
well.
  Mr. President, I see my friend and colleague from Pennsylvania [Mr. 
Wofford], who has worked in this area as well as in many other areas 
and is a real leader in his State in terms of the creation of jobs, 
skills, and voluntary services.
  As has been pointed out, Paul Simon has been enormously involved in 
these kinds of programs and has been very, very much involved, as was 
recognized earlier today, in the shaping and fashioning of the program. 
We have worked very closely on this effort together.
  I know Senator Wofford has some comments. So I will yield the floor.
  Mr. WOFFORD addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania is recognized.
  Mr. WOFFORD. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Massachusetts, 
our distinguished chairman. I suppose I should accept his kind words 
because it takes one to know one, and he has been in the forefront of 
this effort, as has Senator Simon, for a long, hard time; a creative 
time, too.
  Mr. President, I rise in full support of the School-to-Work 
Opportunities Act of 1993 because this bill will create a diverse, 
national system of apprenticeship-style programs from the grassroots 
up, it will increase the skills of our young people, the success of our 
schools, the competitiveness of our businesses, and the productivity of 
our work force.
  School-to-work and youth apprenticeship programs are built on a 
simple truth: People learn best by doing. It is like the old Chinese 
proverb: ``What I hear I forget. What I see I remember. What I do I 
understand.'' We must empower young people to become active, not 
passive, in learning the skills they will need to get good jobs and be 
productive workers. Real learning requires more than textbooks. You 
have to get your hands dirty.
  Let me give you two examples of how these apprenticeships are already 
working in Pennsylvania. At Osram Sylvania, a tool and die manufacturer 
in York, PA, three young men are learning hands-on skills that they 
need to be part of the work force in the future. And at Flinchbaugh 
Engineering, also in York, Ryan Crowl is developing proficiencies in 
math and science while learning how to read a blueprint, operate a 
lathe, and adjust machinery. They are developing a work ethic and a 
sense of personal responsibility for the quality of the products they 
turn out and for getting them to the customers on schedule.
  Once they complete this work, a 4-year program as part of their high 
school curriculum, these students will not only have the skills and the 
high school degree but also the real workplace experience and solid 
employer references that they can apply to a job in any industry.
  But apprenticeships are not only good for young people who need jobs. 
Business needs apprenticeship programs to train the skilled workers 
they need. My friend, Robert Valentini, president and chief executive 
officer of Bell of Pennsylvania, offered us some time ago some powerful 
reasons why in our Pennsylvania economic development partnership just 
before I got sent down on this mission to the Senate of the United 
States.
  About 10,000 Bell workers in Pennsylvania, over 30 percent of their 
total work force, are in three separate entry-level jobs within the 
company: Telephone operators, service representatives, and technicians. 
All these jobs offer a career ladder and progressive pay scales, health 
care benefits, and opportunities for long-term employment. Most of the 
workers are hired right out of high school with no college experience.
  At the time of Bob Valentini's report--and he told me the other day 
the situation still has not improved--Bell of Pennsylvania was hiring 
1,100 employees in these three jobs each year. But to get that number, 
they had to interview and test over 9,000 applicants just in order to 
identify 1,100 qualified workers to hire.
  Many candidates scored reasonably well on writing and math tests, but 
most scored low on critical thinking and applied problem solving. A 
high proportion quit or had to leave in the first year--in fact, in the 
first 6 months--because they lacked the motive or the work ethic to 
succeed.
  Last April I held a roundtable discussion with students, 
manufacturers, teachers, and union representatives at a pilot 
apprenticeship program in Williamsport to talk about how we can use 
Pennsylvania's experience to expand apprenticeship nationwide. Area 
manufacturers--Precision Metal Forming, Keystone Friction Hinge, and 
Textron Lycoming--told me that apprentices like the ones I met there, 
Jason Huff and Jamie Rakestraw, were filling a critical need they had 
for trained toolmakers.
  In Pittsburgh, Bill Bleil, vice president of manufacturing at 
Scheirer Machine Co., found that apprenticeship was the answer to the 
question that he and his competitors have been wrestling with. ``Where 
are we going to get trained, skilled workers? Where are our future 
technicians going to come from? Because right now we are stealing 
workers from each other.'' Scheirer Machine is employing a student now 
from Peabody High School in Pittsburgh. Peabody High has 14 apprentices 
placed in local businesses, and the students are the ones who choose 
which businesses they go to work in.
  Many American companies want this legislation. It has been endorsed 
by the Business Roundtable, the National Alliance of Business, the U.S. 
Chamber of Commerce, and the National Association of Manufacturers. As 
some of us know who are working hard on the health care reform effort, 
getting endorsements from those groups is not so easy.
  Schools, teachers, and students want the bill, too. One such student, 
Stacey Coleman, a junior at Peabody High in Pittsburgh, wanted to 
pursue a career in printing. Now she is working at Hoechstecher 
Printing learning computer technology and how to read a blueprint while 
creating a real work product. Her response to her experience so far 
echoes our Pennsylvania Economic Development Partnership's 
recommendation that ``This program should be in every school.''
  We all want cost-effective education reform that improves how 
students learn and teachers teach. But no one could have said it better 
than Rick Miller, a machinist and teacher, who heads the program at 
Peabody High. He admits: ``We have a harder time nowadays teaching high 
school students. They think they know everything. But through the 
apprenticeship program, kids quickly see that they don't,'' he said. 
``It shows them why they need to learn.''

  As I discovered when I was our State's secretary of labor and 
industry, the mismatch between what our schools and job training 
programs are teaching and what our businesses need is growing. It is 
estimated that 30 percent of 16- to 24-year-olds nationwide lack the 
skills necessary for entry level employment. That is why Senator Simon 
and I worked together to develop the Career Pathways Act of 1993 and 
why I join him so enthusiastically in supporting the School-to-Work 
Opportunities Act, which is based in large part on our original bill.
  The United States lags way behind our competitors in Europe and Asia 
in preparing young people--especially those who choose not to go to 
college--for the world of work. Germany and Japan have developed 
extensive, integrated youth education and job training programs to 
succeed in the high-technology global economy of the 21st century.
  As a former college president, I think it is critical for us to open 
the doors of opportunity to college to every young person through 
grants and loans. My first bill in the Senate made college more 
affordable for middle-income families. Our national service bill 
includes college aid as a key component. But it is wrong that this 
country spends $55 on college aid for every dollar we spend on 
opportunities for those who do not go to college, especially when such 
a small percent of today's high school freshmen will graduate from both 
high school and college. That is penny-wise and dollar-foolish.
  As we have learned over and over again, what we do not invest today 
in giving our young people the skills, discipline, and sense of 
personal responsibility to be productive workers and good citizens, we 
pay tomorrow in the costs of unemployment, welfare, drugs, crime, and 
prison. Only about half of our high school graduates enter 
postsecondary education or training programs and, of these, only half 
will complete their degrees. Too many of these people move from one 
low-skilled job to the next with periods of unemployment and sometimes 
welfare in between. Fifty percent of adults in their late twenties are 
estimated not to have found a steady job. Think of the wasted 
productivity, talents and skills. We can do better.
  As the examples in Pennsylvania that I gave demonstrate, we know we 
can do better. So if you want to see the future of where we must take 
this Nation in youth apprenticeships, look at where Pennsylvania has 
already been. Under Governor Casey's leadership, we now have more than 
450 students participating in Pennsylvania's Youth Apprenticeship 
Program at 14 sites, including 152 businesses, across the Commonwealth. 
They are learning practical skills in metalworking, manufacturing, 
electronics and health care. Contrary to what my distinguished 
colleague from Kansas suggested this morning, many of these businesses 
that are participating in initiating and leading this program and 
supporting it are, in fact, small businesses.
  Philadelphia is just one of the cities where this apprenticeship 
program is having extraordinarily good results under the joint 
leadership of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, the Philadelphia 
High School Academies, and the Philadelphia School District. And in 
this Philadelphia partnership, I salute particularly Natalie Allen and 
J. Lawrence Wilson and Ted Kirsch. In one of their programs we have 135 
students in 15 hospitals and community health centers around the city. 
At Jefferson, Hahnemann, Einstein, Temple, and Abington hospitals, and 
other medical centers, students are learning the technology needed to 
work in areas such as radiology, nuclear medicine, and pulmonary 
therapy from mentors on the job.
  The Philadelphia academy system itself, schools within schools, is 
the Nation's oldest and biggest program linking school and work. It is 
representative of the type of programming and school reform the School-
to-Work Opportunities Act will help foster. Recently, I visited with 
some of the over 250 students and teachers from the Environmental 
Technology and Horticulture Academy at Philadelphia's Abraham Lincoln 
High School. That is a 4-year specialized program in an emerging growth 
industry. This program teaches chemistry, biology, and geology, and it 
is the only one of its kind in the country. They teach by doing as well 
as by studying.
  The Philadelphia academy system, serving less than 10 percent of the 
city's high school population, has an impressive 54 percent of its 
students going on to college. It has a dropout rate less than half of 
the rest of the school district. Businesses contribute $1.5 million a 
year to the program, and executives volunteer to help oversee and 
manage the operations.
  One final example: In Hershey, PA--where I started this very day--an 
innovative partnership between the school district and Hershey Medical 
Center is now giving 21 Hershey and Lower Dauphin High School students 
the opportunity to work alongside doctors, nurses, and medical 
technicians at Penn State's Hershey Medical Center. In their junior 
year of high school, they go through 16 clinical rotations, including 
radiology, physical therapy, patient transport, orthopedics, and even 
surgery. In their senior year, students choose two fields to specialize 
in.
  The program is so popular that they are nearly doubling it to include 
40 students next year. The response from the medical center has been 
equally enthusiastic. They have asked the school district to bring the 
students in for longer periods of time.
  Most important, the experiences on the job are translating into 
better performance at school, higher confidence, and stronger 
motivation. Formerly average students are now earning above-average 
grades and moving into accelerated courses. During the past 9 weeks, 
nearly every student in the program has had perfect attendance. The 
young people's enthusiasm and motivation is contagious. As Priscilla 
Fair, the program coordinator and assistant superintendent of Hershey 
school district said, ``The other kids now look up to them.''
  The efforts I have described, when taken together, represent a still 
small but very promising start. Now it is our turn to do our job so 
that teachers, students, business and community leaders can do theirs. 
These pilot programs I have described have worked. They are working. 
But the purpose of pilot programs is when that happens, they ignite the 
whole, and that should be our purpose today.
  The House has already passed the School-to-Work Opportunities Act. I 
note with particular appreciation the support of my Pennsylvania 
colleague, Representative Bill Goodling, the ranking minority member of 
the House Education and Labor Committee.
  It is my hope that this bill will pass the Senate with the votes of 
many of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle tomorrow, because 
this legislation has nothing to do with party or politics. It offers us 
another chance to show the American people that we can come together to 
empower citizens and schools, communities and companies to help each 
other. It is part of the business education partnership that is the key 
to good education for the good jobs of the future, not with more 
government bureaucracy, but with support for education that works.
  So this is the time to support on-the-job, school-to-work training 
that will give young people--especially those millions of young people 
who do not go to college--the chance to build prosperous careers and 
better lives for themselves and their families.
  That is our job right now. That is the idea behind the School-to-Work 
Opportunities Act.
  So I urge my colleagues to support this creative and vital 
legislation.
  Mr. SIMON and Mr. D'AMATO addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. SIMON. I will be just 1 minute. I know my colleague from New York 
has been on the floor.
  I simply want to commend my colleague from Pennsylvania who has 
provided real leadership in this area. I mentioned in my opening 
remarks this morning my gratitude to him. He has worked in this area as 
Secretary of Labor in Pennsylvania. He understands it. He knows this is 
really the key to our Nation moving ahead as we should, and I am very 
grateful to him.
  Mr. WOFFORD. I am grateful, from someone who has played such a 
pioneering role, to hear those words.
  I ask unanimous consent to print in the Record a letter about this 
program from our Governor, under whose leadership it was instituted in 
Pennsylvania, Gov. Robert Patrick Casey.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                       Office of the Governor,

                                 Harrisburg, PA, February 7, 1994.
     Hon. Harris Wofford,
     U.S. Senate, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC.
       Dear Harris: I am writing in support of the School-To-Work 
     Opportunities Act which I understand is now under 
     consideration by the Senate. This program, which tracks the 
     Pennsylvania Youth Apprenticeship Program, has the potential 
     of reinventing vocational educational curricula across the 
     nation.
       Pennsylvania's Youth Apprenticeship Program that you were 
     instrumental in developing as Secretary of Labor and Industry 
     is aimed at meeting the growing demand for skilled workers in 
     technical occupations and providing students with the 
     advanced capability and flexibility they will need in the 
     high technology workplace of tomorrow. We believe that we 
     have developed more than a program; we have created a means 
     to unleash the energy and creativity of our youth and prepare 
     them for the global marketplace.
       We are working to make our program available throughout the 
     Commonwealth. Last year the program included six sites with 
     105 apprentices and the participation of 79 metal working 
     companies. This year we have 450 apprentices at 14 sites with 
     programs that now include health care, general manufacturing, 
     printing, and finance. Our programs are in the urban settings 
     of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, rural communities of Lycoming 
     County and the Northern Tier counties, and suburban sites in 
     Montgomery, Allegheny and Dauphin counties.
       Pennsylvania's experience has demonstrated the value of a 
     competency based curriculum which includes paid work 
     experience and work site monitoring. I understand that there 
     has been opposition to the requirement of paid work 
     experience; in Pennsylvania we have found that while paid 
     work experience may be a challenge for school administrators, 
     it is as fundamental to the curriculum as algebra. I would 
     encourage the Senate to maintain these critical elements in 
     the program.
       Harris, I want to commend you for successfully moving the 
     concept of our Youth Apprenticeship Program from a program 
     which we started in Pennsylvania into a means for changing 
     the face of vocational education throughout the nation. I 
     wish you much success with the School-To-Work Opportunities 
     Act.
           Sincerely,
                                                  Robert P. Casey,
                                                         Governor.

  Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I might be 
permitted to proceed as if in morning business
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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