[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 129 (Wednesday, September 18, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1643]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    ARE OUR CHILDREN BETTER OFF TODAY THAN THEY WERE FOUR YEARS AGO?

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                        HON. GERALD B.H. SOLOMON

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 18, 1996

  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, the American people understand the 
connection between the drug crisis and our Nation's most critical 
domestic problems. Drug use permeates and exacerbates virtually every 
social, health and economic problem facing this country.
  Education is one area where we can see the devastation caused by 
increasing drug use. Drug use is the major contributor to poor academic 
performance and accounts for our Nation's staggering dropout rate of 25 
percent.
  For this President to call himself the education president, when we 
have witnessed an across the board increase in drugs by school children 
under his watch, is at best disingenuous. Drug use erodes self-
discipline, motivation and concentration, making it difficult for 
teachers to teach and for students to learn. Since Bill Clinton's 
election, marijuana use among young people has doubled.
  Mr. Speaker, according to a report by the Partnership for a Drug Free 
America, the national dropout rate hovers at 25 percent, and the rate 
climbs to nearly 50 percent in New York City, Chicago and Detroit. The 
report states that the explanation for these shocking statistics is 
poor academic performance--caused or exacerbated by illegal drug use. 
And yet we have a President who tells America's young people that if he 
had to do over again be would inhale.
  In research conducted among young male adults, 60 percent of those 
who had used illegal drugs by the age of 12 had also dropped out of 
school--with devastating consequences, for the users and for society. 
Drug use by 12-year-olds has skyrocketed under President Clinton's 
term. Dropouts are twice as likely as are high school graduates to live 
in poverty. A strong correlation also exists between educational 
failure and crime. In New York City, for example, a staggering 90 
percent of the inmates of the city's prisons are former dropouts.
  Illegal drug use has escalated dramatically during President 
Clinton's term of office. Today, one in three high school students are 
using illegal drugs and one in four are dropping out of school. The 
total lack of Presidential leadership concerning teen drug use will 
have lasting and devastating consequences on the educational process in 
the United States.
  President Clinton's decision to place our country's drug problem on a 
back burner has reduced our children's chances of obtaining the 
education they need. In the America I know and love, people care more 
about their children than about themselves. Isn't it time for us to ask 
if our children and grandchildren are better off today than they were 4 
years ago?

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