[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]

 
              A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO EFFECTIVE EDUCATION

  Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, as we confront a ``Nation at Risk'' with 
new multibillion-dollar education reform measures and as we seek to 
solve our Nation's education crisis through comprehensive programs, 
policies and appropriations, it is refreshing to know that there are 
those in America who provide a quality education without massive 
Federal assistance.
  It is a humble reminder to Federal policymakers that regardless of 
the resources we put forward, it takes a true commitment to our 
children to implement meaningful school reform. In the tiny Oregon town 
of Mitchell, population 185, that commitment is evident on a daily 
basis. The residents of Mitchell have found that a combination of rural 
life and old fashioned discipline can translate into a meaningful and 
practical education for their young people.
  Mitchell has turned its public high school into a boarding school. 
For an additional monthly fee of $75, students live at school in a 
community of their peers--the experience is viewed as an alternative to 
expensive private schools. Students are encouraged to make studying a 
priority, because there are no ``hangouts'' in Mitchell, just a couple 
of stores, a gas station, a post office. The Mitchell school district 
maintains a staff of four teachers--professionals who wear many hats. 
Michael Carroll, the school superintendent, serves as the principal, 
athletic director, Spanish teacher, and substitute bus driver.
  The staff of the Mitchell School District do not offer any magical 
secrets as to the school's success, yet currently there is a waiting 
list of 25 students. Dennis Dalton, math and science teacher, states 
that ``kids learn to get lost in the big schools. There is no way to 
get lost here. Everybody is noticed.''
  The Mitchell school district has capitalized on a principle that 
often gets overlooked in the debate over standards in education, global 
competitiveness, and tuition vouchers--an honest concern for the 
student. In Mitchell, the discipline is stricter than in most public 
schools, but if the students do not want to be there they are welcome 
to leave. Yet, students are clamoring to get in. Mitchell provides an 
opportunity, a choice, for students who want it.
  I ask unanimous consent that an article detailing this unique school 
be included in the Record following my remarks.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             Rural Oregon School Offers City Kids a Chance

                           (By David Foster)

       Mitchell, OR.--Jaime McLawhorn, 18, needed a change of 
     scene. Her grades were in the gutter and her friends were 
     drifting toward drugs, alcohol and trouble.
       When she heard about a public boarding school in this 
     central Oregon town, she thought she might find support here 
     for starting over, far from the temptations of her old school 
     in a Portland suburb.
       First, however, she had to find Mitchell.
       After a 200-mile drive into the lonely sagebrush hills of 
     Oregon's high desert, Jaime and her mother went straight 
     through town without realizing it.
       ``It looked like a little ghost town,'' Jaime recalled. ``I 
     said, `Where are the hangouts? Where's the pizza parlor? 
     Where's the 7-11?'''
       Mitchell, population 185, has none of those things. Indeed, 
     Mitchell has not much of anything--and that's precisely the 
     point of an unusual experiment in public education taking 
     place here.
       Mitchell has turned its public high school into a boarding 
     school, taking in students from afar and giving them a taste 
     of rural life, some old fashioned discipline, and a chance to 
     stay out of trouble.
       ``There isn't much to do in Mitchell and we try to make 
     studying a priority,'' said Michael Carroll, school 
     superintendent. He is also principal, athletic director, 
     Spanish teacher and substitute bus driver.
       Students like Jaime, who pay only a $75 monthly dormitory 
     fee, see Mitchell's boarding school as a cheap alternative to 
     private school.
       For every student enrolled, Mitchell School District gets 
     $4,500 from the state. By adding dorm students to keep 
     enrollment steady, the high school can pay its four teachers 
     and maintain its programs.
       The dorm--three singlewide trailers stuck together near the 
     football field--opened in September 1992. Its 14 beds, half 
     for girls, half for boys, have been filled since February, 
     with a waiting list of 25.
       For some new students, the culture shock is severe.
       From the school's hillside perch, a potholed road passes 50 
     or so houses before dropping down to Mitchell's business 
     district: two stores, a gas station, three cafes and a post 
     office.
       That's about it. Outside town, cattle and sheep roam the 
     valleys; logging roads climb into the forested hills. 
     Mitchell is a place where they play country western music at 
     school dances, a place where kids can walk the streets at 
     night, provided they watch for deer bounding by.
       It's also a place where people are expected to pull their 
     own weight.
       ``Kids learn to get lost in the big schools,'' said Dennis 
     Dalton, math and science teacher. ``There's no way to get 
     lost here. Everybody is noticed.''
       Mitchell is not running a reform school--a record of 
     violence is the one automatic disqualifier for applicants--
     but discipline is stricter than at most public schools.
       Dorm students must do 30 minutes of homework each night 
     before lights go out at 10:15 p.m. for every D, an extra 
     half-hour of homework is required; for every F, one hour.
       ``If they don't want to be here, then we don't want them,'' 
     Carroll said. ``We're set up for the kid who wants to come 
     here, wants to do well, and wants to get along.
       Dorm life revolves around Margaret McDaniel, 44, a divorced 
     mother hired to live there. The kids call her Mom, and she's 
     always home when they get out of school, baking cookies, 
     brokering arguments, bugging them to do their homework. For 
     some students, she provides a sense of security they never 
     got at home.

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