[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 68 (Wednesday, May 15, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H5133-H5134]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                THE CAREERS ACT, CONCERNS VERSUS REALITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Goodling] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, I am amazed at what length special groups 
and organizations will go to in order to stir up controversy, 
manufactured controversy so they can get contributions to keep their 
organizations going.
  We are working for years on a bill called the careers bill. It 
started when the General Accounting Office indicated that there are 163 
Federal job training programs spread over every agency downtown 
possible, most of which are totally ineffective. Many are duplicative, 
and so we set out to see what it was we could do, first of all, to 
consolidate these programs to eliminate those that overlap and are 
redundant and return the power and the authority back to the State and 
particularly back to the local communities so that they could plan job 
training programs that would actually prepare people for jobs that will 
exist in that particular area.
  Well, as I indicated, it is amazing at what lengths some of these 
organizations would go to keep filling their coffers so that they can 
stay in business. Of course, the only way they can stay in business is 
to create controversy. Whether it is there or not, they create it.
  Mr. Speaker, now let me mention some concerns and then some facts. 
First concern: Does the careers bill merge the Departments of Education 
and Labor? The fact: No, nothing in careers merges these Departments.
  Second concern: Does careers reference Goals 2000? Fact: No, there is 
no reference to Goals 2000 in the bill.
  The other day I almost had an accident on the Beltway because again 
these same groups will use any statements they want to make to prove

[[Page H5134]]

whatever it is they are trying to prove, no matter how false it may be. 
So this person on the radio was saying that these sixth-grade girls 
were receiving examinations, physicals in school, and they were very 
thorough physicals. He was very upset, and it was because of Goals 2000 
and outcome-based education that they were receiving these physicals.
  Now, how ridiculous can anybody be. Physicals, when I was a principal 
of school, superintendent of school and a teacher, were required by our 
State, that certain grades had physicals. As a principal, the first 
doctor that I lost came in to me one day and said, I am not about to 
continue this. He said, I am not going to sign if I do not examine 
them, and I am not going to examine them and then have these innuendoes 
and so on spread all over the community. My business is too important 
to me.
  So I had to hire another doctor who did it the way they used to do 
when we went through our physical in the Army, stood us at the other 
end of the room and said, oh, you are okay, move on. But he got paid 
for that.
  No, nothing in this bill references Goals 2000. In fact, nowhere does 
the legislation require that any individual enter into a specific 
career track or enter into employment. In fact, special language was 
included to specifically guard against such abuses.
  Let me read a few specific protections. ``Nothing in this act shall 
mandate that any individual, particularly youth served under title II 
of this act be required to choose a specific career path or major or to 
meet federally funded or endorse industry-recognized skill standards or 
obtain federally funded endorsed skills certificates.

  Second, none of the funds made available under this title shall be 
used to compel any youth to pursue a specific career or to obtain a 
federally funded or endorsed skills certificate. Youth participating in 
the program under this title shall be eligible to change their course 
of study and training.
  The problem we are faced with is that people out there who somehow 
believe that everybody should be a college graduate. That is a great 
idea. What are they going to do? We now have hundreds of thousands of 
college graduates who either have no job or they are working at 
something far beneath their education. On the other hand, we have 
hundreds of thousands of technical jobs out there with no one to fill 
them in.
  These same people believe that somehow or other in high schools there 
is an academic program or a vocational program. They forget that a 
large percentage are in a general program, and I got news for you; a 
general program in this day and age is just that. A general program is 
a dead-end street by all means for these people Will the CAREERS bill 
result in the collection of private information on individuals, 
especially children? No; the bill does not allow for the collection of 
private information on individuals, and these are some of the 
protections.
  Specific language restating title 13 of the Census Act relating to 
confidentiality of information. Specific language that states nothing 
in the act shall violate the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act 
under section 249 of the General Education Provisions Act. Specific 
language that all labor market data is aggregated from existing sources 
like the census, unemployment rates, and so on.
  States would not be allowed to use funds to collect data about 
school-age youth. Those are just a few of the corrections that should 
be made. In future sessions I will make all the others because again, 
it is sheer nonsense that is being spread out there in relationship to 
the CAREERS bill.

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