[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 45 (Thursday, April 21, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 21, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                       THE SCHOOL-TO-WORK PROGRAM

  Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, I claim for myself the remaining period 
allocated to Senator Kennedy.
  Mr. President, the United States is the only industrialized nation 
that lacks a comprehensive system to help its youth acquire the 
ability, knowledge, skills, and the information about labor market 
necessary to make an effective transition from school to work.
  That being the case, let me cite just a few statistics that are 
increasingly alarming.
  Only 15 percent of all the young people in our country will graduate 
with a 4-year degree within 6 of years, entering college; 15 percent is 
all.
  The second statistic is that today in America 50 percent of the adult 
population in their late twenties have not yet found a steady job. This 
demonstrates how uncertain our whole education-job training-related 
activity is today in our country.
  I want to commend the Secretary of Education, Mr. Reilly, and the 
Secretary of Labor, Mr. Reich, for coming together as two major leaders 
in this administration to draft up and to work out the School-to-Work 
Opportunities Act which we will be taking up later today as a 
conference report from the House.
  Mr. President, I am proud to be the chief Republican original 
cosponsor of this legislation and assist in its development. I want to 
indicate that coming from the State of Oregon, I am proud to say that 
our State has had a long history of activity with this problem or 
malady within our society in trying to prepare our young people with 
the skills necessary to maintain a job.
  One particular school in Portland, OR, Roosevelt High School, has a 
program called the Roosevelt Renaissance 2000 Project. This is made up 
of three particular components.
  To focus in upon our students in that high school, there is an 
academic high school approach to teaching and training for school-to-
work opportunities.
  The second component beyond the academics is a hands-on involvement 
with local businesses in those areas of that community that corroborate 
with this school to help young students make the connection between 
education and the labor market.
  And the third component is an evaluation of those experiences and 
those particular skills for which these students have learned. 
Proficiency in academics and the hands-on experience helps them 
understand their abilities to move into particular types of employment.
  This is not the panacea, but this is one of those experimental 
demonstration projects that I think contribute to our State as a whole 
in trying to fill the void in our American educational and job training 
system.
  So I am proud to be a cosponsor of this, and I urge my colleagues to 
join in an overwhelming vote on the conference report later today.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. THURMOND addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under a previous order, the Senator from South 
Carolina [Mr. Thurmond] is recognized for 10 minutes.
  Mr. THURMOND. I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mr. Thurmond pertaining to the introduction of S. 
2037 are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced 
Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. JEFFORDS addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont [Mr. Jeffords] is 
recognized.

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