[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 27, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S65-S66]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS

 Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, we continue to see positive signs 
reflecting the strength of our national economy. Thirty-year mortgage 
rates remain low, consumer confidence is high and unemployment is down.
  In the midst of these sustained positive trends, America faces new 
challenges as we approach a new century. Among them: meeting a critical 
need for skilled technology workers and the continuing effort to move 
more Americans from welfare to work.
  We are an innovative people and I'm confident that we can meet new 
challenges, in part via public-private partnerships. One of the key 
people in America advancing the concept of public-private partnerships 
is Mr. Greg Farmer. As Florida's Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Farmer 
pioneered public-private partnerships at the state level, doing more 
with less tax dollars.
  Now in the private sector, with Nortel, Mr. Farmer and his company 
are helping provide high-tech equipment to schools and technology 
training to help move people from welfare to work. On January 13, 1998, 
Mr. Farmer testified before the Senate Committee on Labor and Human 
Resources. I commend his testimony to my colleagues and all those 
interested in public-private partnerships as a means of reducing 
welfare dependency and advancing job training. I respectfully ask that 
his testimony be printed in the Record:
  The testimony follows:

  Statement of Greg Farmer, Vice President, Government Relations and 
                      International Trade, Nortel

       Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee. My name is Greg 
     Farmer, and I am Vice President for Government Affairs and 
     International Trade for Nortel (Northern Telecom). It gives 
     me pleasure to be with you this morning to discuss some of 
     the things Nortel is doing in the Washington, D.C. area to 
     help prepare inner city youth for a fruitful life beyond high 
     school, whether it be college or acquiring a special skill.
       Bell Atlantic is a household word and all of you are 
     certainly familiar with it. You might not be as well 
     acquainted with Nortel (even though--and I hesitate to say 
     this in case you had a telephone problem this morning--the 
     Senate does have our telephone switch). Nortel is the leading 
     global supplier of fully digital network solutions and 
     services. We design, build and integrate digital networks 
     that communicate voice, data, image and video for customers 
     in the information, communications, entertainment, education, 
     government and commerce markets. Our customers are local and 
     long distance telecommunications companies, businesses, 
     universities, governments, cable television companies, 
     competitive local access providers, Internet services 
     providers and other network operators around the world. We 
     operate in 150 countries around the globe. We have more 
     employees in the U.S. than anywhere else. Here, we are based 
     in Nashville, Tennessee and have major state-of-the-art 
     centers--including research and development, manufacturing, 
     semiconductor and software-engineering facilities--in nine 
     other states. And we have sales and services offices in every 
     state of the union. We count Bell Atlantic as a good 
     customer, and I am pleased to be on the panel today with my 
     friend Bill Freeman.
       Yesterday the Administration announced a massive public-
     private effort aimed at high tech training. This was in 
     response to concerns by economists and business leaders that 
     U.S. companies have a critical shortage of skilled technology 
     workers. The initiative, which will include millions of 
     dollars in grants to fund educational programs, comes as a 
     new survey shows that 1 in every 10 information technology 
     jobs in the U.S. is unfulfilled.
       This comes as no surprise to Nortel. As with other 
     telecommunications companies, education and workforce 
     development is an essential part of Nortel's overall business 
     strategy. Our industry requires highly skilled workers at 
     even the most basic entry level positions. We are constantly 
     looking for opportunities to work with organizations that 
     provide training and enhance our workforce.
       The Administration ought to take a good look at Capital 
     Commitment. It is a stellar example of a high tech training 
     program that works. It is a shiny gem; a diamond in a rusty 
     crown. And I hope some of those grants will go to Capital 
     Commitment so it can continue the incredible success it has 
     enjoyed in the past.
       One only need hear the Ricky Mozee story to understand the 
     cascading good this program has for individuals and for our 
     community. Ricky Mozee is a walking, talking welfare-to-work 
     success story. Before finding Capital Commitment in 1992, 
     Ricky was a drug and alcohol abuser, living on welfare in the 
     tough streets of Anacostia. In his own words, he had no 
     future; his family had no future; he was afraid to dream. He 
     was fighting his addictions and looking at an 84 percent 
     unemployment rate in his community. Then he found Capital 
     Commitment. Today, he has a high paying job as a 
     telecommunications supervisor at National Airport. He owns a 
     house in suburban Maryland. He supports a wife and three 
     children. He is a poster boy for what the future could be, if 
     we get it right.
       When LaVerne and Ernest Boykin established Capital 
     Commitment in 1991, their vision to train inner city youth in 
     telecommunications and life skills and to facilitate job 
     opportunities for them resonated well with our corporate 
     goals. Since that time, Nortel has been actively involved 
     with Capital Commitment. We have observed a dramatic increase 
     in employment opportunities for the unemployed, under-
     employed, at risk youth and single parents from the District 
     of Columbia. As a result, we have also observed a significant 
     shift of money from public assistance to taxable income.
       In those early days, we worked with the Capital Commitment 
     management team to identify factors critical for their 
     success and discovered their needs went far beyond financial 
     support.
       Nortel's support of Capital Commitment since its inception 
     includes:
       Providing well over $1 million in funding, equipment and 
     personnel resources (switches, computers and state-of-the-art 
     office equipment as well as technical expertise, training 
     materials);
       Providing management advice and coaching;
       Taking the lead in turning Capital Commitment into an 
     industry sponsored organization;
       Establishing a fundraising golf tournament;
       Working to replicate Capital Commitment in California & 
     Texas;
       Serving on Capital Commitment's Board (Stuart Mapes, 
     Nortel's National Director of Minority and Women Business 
     Program).
       In addition, I am pleased to announce today that Nortel 
     will donate and install a new Nortel Central Office Switch to 
     be used for advanced training.
       We have also worked with Bell Atlantic and other private 
     companies to expand corporate funding of the program. I might 
     add here that one of the most telling successes of this 
     program is the fact that Nortel and other corporate sponsors 
     of Capital Commitment have been diligent in working 
     cooperatively. We work with our customers, such as Bell 
     Atlantic, MCI and Sprint, but also with our competitors, such 
     as Seimens and Lucent, in promoting this program. There is 
     something in it for each of us. Not only does it make us 
     sleep a little easier at night to know that we are being good 
     corporate citizens and helping disadvantaged youth become a 
     part of this dynamic industry; but also, in a cold business 
     sense, we are receiving great benefits too.
       Nortel and the telecommunications industry in general are 
     in constant need of highly qualified technical employees. 
     Capital Commitment graduates students who are highly trained 
     in these skills. We have hired over 100 Capital Commitment 
     graduates who have proven to be well trained, competent and 
     reliable employees. As a matter of fact, Capital Commitment 
     graduates have a 90+ percent placement rate and an impressive 
     80+ percent retention rate! This welfare-to-work program 
     really works.
       There is another aspect to this program which is missing 
     from other traditional welfare-to-work programs. The Boykins 
     teach their students critical lifeskills and stress to their 
     students the importance of ``paying back'' their communities. 
     Many of their graduates return to Capital Commitment to help 
     instruct students, or pay back their communities by being 
     role models for others. So the legacy of Capital Commitment 
     lives on in their graduates and provides long term benefits 
     to the community.
       I am committed to spreading the word about Capital 
     Commitment. I have personally taken numerous Administration 
     officials through the program. I found that a tour of Capital 
     Commitment makes believers out of all who go there. My goal 
     is to find sources of federal, state and local funding to 
     help this incredible program expand. I would encourage each 
     of you to take time from your very busy schedules to visit 
     Capital Commitment, which is located a few short miles from 
     here. There is nothing any of us can say to you today that 
     will have the impact a personal visit will have. It will, I 
     know, be time well spent.
       We at Nortel believe very strongly that Capital Commitment 
     is an important and solid example of how business can work 
     within the community to provide increased opportunity for 
     movement from welfare-to-work in highly paid, career oriented 
     jobs in a high growth industry. The need for skilled 
     technicians to enter this industry is growing rapidly so it 
     is incumbent upon us to accelerate efforts to assure 
     continued progress for this important program. Capital 
     Commitment provides opportunities for our most disadvantaged 
     citizens to become productive, well paid workers in this 
     dynamic industry.
       Having said all of this, there is trouble in paradise. 
     Capital Commitment is a shiny gem but it sits in a rusty 
     crown, badly in need of attention by our policy makers.
       We at Nortel believe that corporate-community partnerships 
     are the key to educating and gainfully employing a greater 
     number of high skilled workers. However, there

[[Page S66]]

     is a third critically important partner needed in these job 
     training programs if they are to be successful: the 
     government.
       I worry that Capital Commitment might not be able to 
     continue because it is lacking financial support of any kind 
     by the government.
       It is the government's role to encourage programs which 
     take people who are on welfare and turn them into gainfully 
     employed, responsible citizens who pay taxes and otherwise 
     contribute to their community. This is what Capital 
     Commitment does so well. And the corporate community by all 
     accounts has been extremely generous with financial and other 
     resources to help them achieve this goal. The corporate 
     community benefits from the program; we strongly support the 
     program. And while the Government also has much to gain from 
     these efforts, there has been little effort by the government 
     to encourage this activity.
       Capital Commitment is a victim of its own success. Ernest 
     and LaVerne Boykin triumphed in setting up a high quality 
     welfare-to-work program that actually works. It takes people 
     off of welfare and helps them get jobs in a growing industry.
       Capital Commitment is a public-private partnership without 
     the public. The government has simply not done its part in 
     encouraging this most successful program.
       In my previous two stints at public service, I learned 
     first-hand the benefits of converting traditional 
     governmental functions into public-private partnership.
       As Florida's Commerce Secretary I converted several 
     functions within the department to public-private 
     partnerships, including film and motion picture promotion, 
     sports promotion and tourism promotion. Finally the economic 
     development function was converted to a public-private 
     partnership (Enterprise Florida), completely eliminating the 
     Department of Commerce, which might appeal to some of you.
       As U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Travel and Tourism, 
     I convened the first-ever White House Conference on Tourism 
     charged with planning strategy for the industry for the next 
     five years. The number one recommendation was that the agency 
     be converted to a public-private partnership.
       The reason is that a public-private partnership leverages 
     maximum resources in the most positive way possible. It 
     achieves the public purpose the government wants to achieve; 
     it brings the discipline of business to the operation; it 
     provides accountability; it is cost effective by nature 
     because business simply will not be a part of something which 
     is not effective. History shows public-private partnerships 
     are almost always more effective in terms of achievement and 
     cost than government working alone.
       As an aside, you may all be aware that there is an effort 
     underway in D.C. to revive a plan endorsed by the White House 
     to create a National Capital Revitalization Corporation, a 
     separate legal entity that would oversee development 
     activities in struggling commercial areas across the city. 
     The corporation, a public-private partnership, would be 
     charged with drafting a strategic economic development plan 
     for the city and would have the power to acquire property, 
     issue bonds and conduct other activities which would ensure 
     economic growth happens.
       I endorse this plan because I believe there is no where 
     else in this country that needs a public-private effort to 
     revitalize the economy more than the District of Columbia.
       Capital Commitment would fit well into this new economic 
     plan. But what we have with Capitol Commitment now is a 
     public-private partnership in which the public has not been 
     present. The results have a tremendous public return. Over 
     500 former welfare recipients now are earning high wages, 
     paying taxes and contributing to the economic development of 
     their communities. A proven success record. Yet there has 
     been precious little government investment and apparently no 
     realization of the value this program has in achieving a 
     critical government goal.
       Before I conclude, let me briefly tell you about some of 
     our other efforts to be helpful in D.C.
       Nortel recognizes that computer-based learning is crucial 
     in preparing our students for the 21st Century. So, 18 months 
     ago, we began a program to assist the D.C. school system. We 
     began by providing computers to Burrville Elementary and Hine 
     Junior High School. Nortel also provided the expertise and 
     training necessary to ensure the computers were operable and 
     the teachers knew how to instruct the children. Access to the 
     Internet was an essential ingredient. The computers were most 
     successful at Burrville and Hine, well run schools with 
     excellent teachers and children eager to learn. However, we 
     soon learned that much more needed to be done.
       To respond to this need, we assembled a coalition of 
     federal and city government officials and private 
     corporations aimed at providing inner city D.C. schools with 
     computers, software and Internet access. We met to discuss 
     how, working together, we could provide on an ongoing basis, 
     computers, access to the Internet, software and technical 
     support to inner city schools. It soon became apparent, 
     however, that there was no accounting system for tracking 
     what the D.C. schools presently have or what they need. So we 
     had to start from scratch. Before we could be truly helpful, 
     we first needed to get a handle on what the D.C. school 
     system already had, what was working and what was not and 
     exactly what was needed. A more structured organization was 
     required.
       This led to the creation of Partners in Technology (PIT), a 
     non-profit foundation established to foster technology-based 
     public-private partnerships in the D.C. school system. I am 
     pleased to serve as Chairman of the Board of PIT.
       The goal of PIT is to improve the quality of education in 
     our local educational institutions by increasing the level 
     and maximizing the impact of community investments made by 
     the private sector. We learned from experience that to be 
     most effective takes more than just donating equipment.
       PIT is funded by corporate charter members and is seeking 
     matching funding for programs and operations from private, 
     public and federal sources.
       Although in its infancy, PIT--in partnership with the 
     District Branch of Tech Corps--has already initiated:
       Researching and developing plans for an ``acceptable'' 
     standard work station/computer that will meet the overall 
     education needs of the student. This includes working closely 
     with the D.C. Public Schools in providing assistance and 
     consultation on strategic planning and inventory management. 
     For instance, PIT is in discussions with DC Tech Corps in 
     looking at ways to develop effective technology training 
     programs for the faculty. PIT understands it cannot be 
     effective unless we have trained educators that can and want 
     to teach students how to use the tools of technology in order 
     to enhance their education.
       Establishing a pilot project which is being tested to allow 
     schools to turn over obsolete computer equipment for a credit 
     by a computer remanufacturer. This credit may be used to 
     purchase state-of-the-art equipment and comprehensive 
     computer training for teachers. In addition, local non-profit 
     remanufacturers have expressed an interest in working to 
     provide repair training and intern opportunities for D.C. 
     students in the schools and at their facilities.
       Coordinating the establishment of a computer program within 
     the D.C. public schools which will establish student clubs 
     with faculty-adult supervision.
       These are just a few of the activities already undertaken 
     by PIT. High on our list is to assist the D.C. Public Schools 
     in compiling an accurate inventory of all computer/phone 
     equipment and systems. This will include an inventory of each 
     school's human and corporate resources. This is a critical 
     step in providing the necessary information for intelligent 
     and effective planning.
       We plan to be more active as we develop and believe we can 
     become a highly effective link for the D.C. public schools. 
     We want to ensure that D.C. has the computer equipment they 
     need and the teachers have the resources they need to ensure 
     proper operation of the equipment, access to the super 
     highway and training so D.C. students are assured of having a 
     good, solid education which will prepare them for a good 
     future.
       We have coupled our efforts with Capital Commitment and 
     PIT. Capital Commitment has arranged office space for PIT in 
     its facility, and we have provided computers for both 
     organizations to enhance their effectiveness.
       Again, thank you for allowing me to present to you this 
     morning to discuss these two important programs, both of 
     which could be easily transported to other parts of the 
     country where there is also critical need.
       We encourage other corporations to join us in ensuring that 
     organizations like Capital Commitment and PIT are securely 
     funded. And we would also encourage our policy makers to take 
     a careful look at programs like these for government funding. 
     These are programs where a little bit of funding can go a 
     very long way in enhancing economic development to the 
     betterment of all citizens.
       We need to provide the shiny gem that is Capital Commitment 
     with a gleaming crown so it can beacon far and wide to others 
     who can copy this program and get into the business of 
     turning lives around.
       I would be happy to answer any questions.

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