[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 79 (Tuesday, June 21, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


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

 
                    SCHOOL TO WORK OPPORTUNITIES ACT

                                 ______


                           HON. PAT WILLIAMS

                               of montana

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 21, 1994

  Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. Speaker, I have comments concerning the conference 
report on the School-to-Work Opportunities Act which passed some time 
ago.
  Why do we need this school-to-work initiative? About half of our 
young people do not go on to college; 75 percent never earn a college 
degree. And yet today's typical high school education is geared toward 
the college-bound student and not the vast majority of students who go 
directly into the work force. Unless these young people, who will 
either never go to or finish college, have the skills to produce 
quality goods and services in a technologically oriented and fast 
changing consumer marketplace, America will not prosper in the global 
economy. In fact, the United States is the only advanced nation that 
does not have a comprehensive formal system designed to help students 
prepare for and enter the work force.
  The school-to-work initiative helps bring such a system about. Its 
goal is the development of a comprehensive school-to-work transition 
system that is driven by States and local communities. This system is 
aimed at creating an education environment in which work experience is 
an integral part of the regular school curricula and to make that work 
experience real and meaningful by having it be part of a planned job 
training program. We already have a similar program at the college 
level. We call it cooperative education. Under it, college students get 
real life work experiences while enrolled in college that will assist 
these students in making intelligent future career choices. School-to-
work takes this concept and extends it to the local school level.
  There were a few areas of disagreement between the House and Senate 
versions of this legislation, but I am satisfied that we have worked 
these out responsibly. One major area of disagreement was about the 
issue of governance. This conference report represents a reasonable 
resolution of that issue, and I am confident it will result in both the 
involvement and concurrence of duly elected officials in every State in 
the development and implementation of each State's school-to-work plan. 
Many States have State constitutional structures that place supervision 
and control over certain programs--such as education--in the hands of 
State elected officials other than Governors. The conference report 
before us today preserves the integrity of those State decisions.
  The conference report also requires that the program be implemented 
consistent with the regulatory requirements of the General Education 
Provisions Act. What this means is that regulations for this program 
will have to be developed and published, and interested parties given a 
reasonable amount of time to review proposed regulations and comment on 
them. This is a responsible approach to take when we are introducing a 
new initiative of such importance to our Nation's schools and the 
American public.
  This is an important piece of legislation that can complement 
existing Federal and State occupational training efforts.

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