[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 121 (Tuesday, July 25, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10662-S10663]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                DUAL EDUCATION TEACHES STUDENTS TO WORK

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, I was proud to be the chief Senate 
sponsor of the School-to-Work Opportunities Act, signed into law by 
President Clinton in April 1994. The act provides venture capital for 
the coordination, integration, merger, streamlining, and performance-
based accountability of education and vocational programs. The 
Department of Labor estimates that 116,351 students, 41,772 employers, 
and 2,730 schools are involved in state and local school-to-work 
ventures.
  Recently, I came across an insightful article by Hedrick Smith on why 
school to work is so important to the education of our young people and 
the economic competitiveness of our Nation. I ask that the article be 
printed in the Record.
  The article follows:

           [From the St. Louis Post Dispatch, July 14, 1995]

                Dual Education Teaches Students To Work

                           (By Hedrick Smith)

       With corporate profits and stock prices soaring, Wall 
     Street has a lot to cheer about. The World Economic Forum of 
     Switzerland now rates the United States as the world's most 
     competitive economy.
       But the Forum mixed praise with the warning that America 
     would lose its No. 1 status unless it develops better 
     education for its high school students.
       Thoughtful business leaders echo the concern about the high 
     cost of America's educational shortfall. Lou Gerstner, chief 
     executive of IBM, says corporate America spends $30 billion a 
     year on remedial education for new workers.
       Gerstner says American businesses lose another $30 billion 
     each year, unable to upgrade their operations and products 
     ``because their employees can't learn the necessary skills.''
       ``We can't squander $60 billion and remain competitive,'' 
     Gerstner declares.
       America is justifiably proud of its college-level education 
     and its college-prep track. But high economic performance 
     also requires a world-class education for our average teen-
     agers.
       Seventy percent of the jobs in the American economy do not 
     require a bachelor's degree, and 70 percent of America's 
     young people do not complete four years of college.
       They are the backbone of our future work force.
       Industry and the service sector needs hundreds of thousands 
     of paralegals, radiologists, engineering technicians, graphic 
     illustrators, medical technicians and research workers, plus 
     a more flexible, computer-literate generation for banking, 
     insurance and other service industries.
       But America lacks a nationwide educational strategy to meet 
     the mushrooming needs of modern industry. The most innovative 
     businesses, educators and communities have discovered that 
     one solution lies in rethinking education and forging a close 
     partnership between business and high schools.
       Some innovators have found a model in Germany. Two-thirds 
     of Germany's teen-agers take ``dual education,'' which 
     combines classroom learning with half-time training on the 
     job.
       This is not mere vocational training in a school shop class 
     with outmoded technology. German teenagers are trained right 
     in the modern workplace--the factory, bank, hospital, 
     newspaper, insurance company and electronics giant. Business 
     involvement drives classroom educational standards higher.
       In 400 career fields, German businesses and public schools 
     deliver a world-class education: physics classes that help 
     future auto workers understand electronics and computer-run 
     automation; economics and finance classes that match the 
     needs of modern banking; chemistry classes that prepare young 
     printers to design and print complex illustrations on many 
     surfaces.
       Several American states and cities have adapted the German 
     model.
       In 1991, Wisconsin began a dual-education, apprenticeship-
     style program for high school students in its high-tech 
     printing industry. So successful was the program that it 
     moved into banking, insurance, health care, electronics, 
     engineering, tourism, auto technology and manufacturing. From 
     two communities in 1991, Wisconsin's youth apprenticeship 
     program has spread to 200 businesses training 450 students 
     from 85 high schools across the state.
       Pennsylvania, Maine, Arkansas, Maryland and upstate New 
     York have begun similar programs. In Boston, hospitals and 
     the financial industry are working with inner-city high 
     schools. In Tulsa, Okla., the lead has been taken by the 
     Chamber of Commerce and the machine-tool industry.

[[Page S 10663]]

       These programs are generating great enthusiasm among 
     businesses, parents, teachers and students. The results are 
     dramatic: Student motivation and performance have soared.
       So a business-education partnership is taking root, but it 
     is slow going. The gulf between business and education is 
     still vast. They speak different languages and go their 
     separate ways.
       Rethinking America's educational strategy requires 
     overcoming suspicions, accepting joint responsibility and 
     sitting down together to find the common ground.
       Business and education have to rewrite school courses, 
     train industry mentors, retrain teachers and devise 
     industrial and educational standards that meet the test of 
     global competition.
       German industry spends about $15 billion a year on dual 
     education. To match that commitment, American industry would 
     have to spend $60 billion a year.
       Impossible, you say?
       But remember, Gerstner says that American industry is 
     already spending or losing $60 billion because of our 
     educational shortfall. So why not spend the money upfront on 
     a world-class, dual-education system?
       In 1993, Congress passed the School-to-Work Act, 
     authorizing $250 million a year in seed money for seven years 
     to develop this new strategy for high school education.
       States had to compete for federal ``venture capital'' to 
     help them gear up for this new approach.
       In 1994, grants went to eight leading-edge states and 36 
     local areas. More are lined up this year--that is, unless 
     Congress kills this wise investment in America's future.
       That would shortchange both our economy and the next 
     generation.
     

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