[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 33 (Monday, March 23, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2448-S2449]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         DAVID DOMENICI AND JAMES FORMAN, JR: LIGHTING CANDLES

 Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, there is an article in the Metro 
section of today's Washington Post, ``A New Way to See the Future,'' 
about a small school which is going about the difficult business of 
reclaiming young people here in the District of Columbia. The school, 
which is called See Forever, was started by two lawyers, David Domenici 
and James Forman, Jr. See Forever--on its way to becoming a charter 
school--only enrolls those students who have become ``entangled'' in 
the D.C. court system. The regime consists of a regimented schedule, 
strict discipline, core classes and electives, participation in a 
school-run catering service, and paid internships (the money from which 
is put into Merrill Lynch investment funds, which the students learn to 
manage). The school runs 12 months a year, and 10 and one-half hours a 
day. The youngsters enrolled are turning their lives around; they are 
beating the odds.
  Adlai E. Stevenson once remarked of Eleanor Roosevelt that she 
``would rather light candles than curse the darkness.'' So it seems 
with David Domenici and James Forman, Jr. (whose father was active in 
the civil rights movement a generation ago). Of course, knowing David's 
father--the senior Senator from New Mexico--it is not surprising at all 
that David should dedicate his life to helping those less fortunate.
  Mr. President, throughout the course of our nation's history, we have 
seen the shift from labor to capital--in agriculture, in manufacturing, 
etc. But there is one enterprise that remains stubbornly labor-
intensive, if we are to do it properly. And that enterprise is raising 
our children, especially those who are socially and economically 
disadvantaged. David Domenici and James Forman, Jr. understand. The 
student-teacher ratio at See Forever is 5-1, and more than sixty 
volunteers help tutor the twenty or so students.
  Two years ago, I published a book on social policy, ``Miles to Go.'' 
I ended that book by saying,

       Even were governments specifically qualified for such work, 
     which is to say the restoration of individual character and 
     moral instruction in everyday life, the national government 
     has entered a time of chronic, even disabling fiscal 
     stricture. . . It is a time for small platoons; a time 
     possibly to be welcomed for such can move quickly, and there 
     are miles to go.

  David Domenici and James Forman, Jr. have formed one such ``small 
platoon'' and we--and the lives of those whom they touch--are lucky for 
it.
  I ask that the article, ``A New Way to See the Future,'' be printed 
in the Record.
  The article follows:

               [From the Washington Post, Mar. 23, 1998]

 A New Way To See the Future--School With High-Powered Backers Aims To 
                        Help Troubled D.C. Teens

                           (By Peter Slevin)

       Sherti Hendrix was 15 years old and headed nowhere but 
     down. School was lousy and the rest of the day seemed worse. 
     After she was jailed overnight in the District for fighting 
     with a teacher, nothing ahead or behind her looked good.
       The same was true for Jerome Green. Kicked out of one New 
     York school at age 14 for what he called ``cussing teachers . 
     . . and fighting,'' he blew another opportunity by getting 
     arrested in Washington, accused of street fighting.
       Both teenagers are now on a different track. Both got 
     another chance to do things right. Both say an innovative 
     school program run by a pair of fired-up young District 
     lawyers is helping them believe in themselves and in a future 
     no longer entirely bleak.
       The school is called See Forever. Not yet one year old, it 
     serves about 20 students in a row house on a tattered block 
     of Sixth Street NW. Amid modest beginnings, See Forever's 
     dreams are big and its backers include some of the best-known 
     faces in Washington.

[[Page S2449]]

       The two lawyers are David Domenici, 33, son of Sen. Pete V. 
     Domenici (R-N.M.), and James Forman Jr., 30, namesake of the 
     civil rights activist who presented the 1969 ``Black Economic 
     Manifesto,'' demanding $500 million in reparations from white 
     churches and synagogues.
       Domenici and Forman, who have run study and work programs 
     for youngsters in trouble before, believe too many 
     adolescents are written off early by a D.C. juvenile justice 
     system that seems forever short on solutions.
       ``We're trying to get kids into the game. They've been 
     locked out. They're not players,'' Forman said. ``They need 
     discipline. They need high standards. They need jobs. One of 
     our goals is to change the vision of where they can go.''
       It's not just another struggling D.C. program for 
     delinquent youths.
       The idea for the school was hatched by Deputy Attorney 
     General Eric H. Holder Jr., a former U.S. attorney for the 
     District, and Holder's friend Reid Weingarten, one of 
     Washington's most prominent white-collar criminal defense 
     lawyers. The first fund-raiser was sponsored by then-Commerce 
     Secretary Ron Brown before his death in an April 1996 plane 
     crash.
       Another fund-raiser--a $100-a-plate gathering March 10--
     drew poet Maya Angelou and a constellation of D.C. power 
     players, including Health and Human Services Secretary Donna 
     E. Shalala, White House Chief of Staff Erskine B. Bowles, 
     former U.S. Senator Robert J. Dole and a half-dozen senators.
       See Forever has a $500,000 budget this year and plans to 
     spend $2 million in coming years to expand the school to 100 
     children, including space for 20 boarders. In September, it 
     will become a D.C. charter school--The Maya Angelou Public 
     Charter School--which will mean an allocation of $6,000 in 
     D.C. tax money per student and the authority to award high 
     school diplomas.
       One D.C. Superior Court judge, who asked not to be 
     identified, calls See Forever ``the only program I have 
     complete faith in.'' Such words are high praise for a largely 
     untested program, but students echo the sentiment.
       ``These streets are only going to lead you to getting 
     locked up. Or you'll probably die,'' Sherti, now 16, said. 
     ``Today, I'm not all the way all right, but I'll be all right 
     for the future. I know what I'm capable of doing.''
       For that, Sherti credits the adults at See Forever, where 
     the student-teacher ratio is 5 to 1 and more than 60 
     volunteers come each week to tutor the teenagers 
     individually. The 12-month school calendar and 10\1/2\-hour 
     day are not for the faint of heart, and some students drop 
     out early.
       The school is open only to students who have been entangled 
     in the D.C. court system, but the seriousness of their 
     situations varies. What gets each teenager in the door at See 
     Forever, after interviews and recommendations, is that 
     school's assessment that the youngster can be saved.
       Twenty percent of the students, Forman estimates, were 
     ``factually and legally innocent,'' and the cases were 
     dropped. An additional 50 percent were picked up for crimes 
     such as joy riding, fighting or theft. The remaining 30 
     percent faced more serious charges, including armed robbery.
       In a typical tightly structured day, the teenagers are kept 
     occupied from 9:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. They eat two meals a day 
     cooked by other students in a catering kitchen. Each student 
     gets lots of individual attention and is tutored every night. 
     Some stay until 11 p.m. because they prefer the place to 
     home.
       Study subjects are broken into five 80-minute classes. Core 
     subjects are math, English, social studies and computer. 
     Electives have included a layman's law class taught by two 
     Pentagon lawyers, an art class led by Domenici's sister 
     Helen, and classes in jazz appreciation and public speaking.
       All students do internships part of the year. The school 
     requires that they be paid $130 a week, and the money goes 
     into bank accounts and Merrill Lynch investment funds that 
     they learn to manage. Each student also works in a 
     moneymaking catering service called Untouchable Taste, run by 
     the school.
       A guiding principle is that job skills and schoolwork are 
     connected. See Forever aims to be broader than either a 
     conventional school or a vocational school by combining the 
     best elements of each. If the skills are useful, the 
     reasoning goes, jobs will be available and the students will 
     stay motivated.
       ``Schools dump kids with behavioral problems, learning 
     problems, those who've been locked up,'' said Forman, a Yale 
     Law School graduate on leave from the D.C. Public Defender 
     Service. ``D.C. taxpayers are spending money that is being 
     wasted on programs that aren't working.''
       Judges and advocates alike acknowledge that options are 
     painfully limited for children in the District's court 
     system. D.C. delinquents are offered few broad services close 
     to home. Some are sent to distant states in search of 
     programs that work at costs that exceed $100,000 a year per 
     child.
       Some of Washington's most violent teenagers, and many who 
     are not, end up at the city's Oak Hill Youth Center, a widely 
     perceived failure that has operated under court supervision 
     since 1986. In November, Department of Human Services 
     Director Jearline Williams and the D.C. financial control 
     board declared a state of emergency at Oak Hill because of 
     poor conditions.
       See Forever, with room for only about 20 students, can 
     serve only a fraction of the needs of a city where 
     supervision or jail beds were required for 3,800 youths in 
     1996. The goal is to set a tone, create a model. As Holder 
     said, ``If it works, maybe it can be copied.''
       Angelou, taking the stage at the March 10 fund-raiser, told 
     the students of her own life.
       ``Somebody would've looked at me as an illiterate or 
     semiliterate black girl on the dirt roads of Arkansas and 
     said, `Never!' '' Angelou said, adding ebulliently, ``Look at 
     me now!''
       She sang a Negro spiritual, ``Don't You Let Nobody Turn You 
     Around,'' and told students, ``Keep on walking, keep on 
     talking, keep on learning, keep on burning, keep on 
     laughing.''
       Jerome is feeling good about things. In an essay, he 
     recalled how difficult his work at See Forever seemed at 
     first. He said he got mad and sometimes skipped his 
     schoolwork. But then he made a discovery: He could do it.
       ``Now that I have finally made a change, I want to look 
     back on everyone who told me I was stupid or dumb,'' Jerome 
     said. ``I want to see if they are still on the street selling 
     drugs. I want to ask them. `Who's dumb now?' ''

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