[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 95 (Thursday, July 16, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H5640]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THE RIGHT COMBINATION FOR SUCCESS

  (Mr. ROGAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ROGAN. Mr. Speaker, I cannot help but chuckle as I listen to my 
friends on the other side talk about their ``Patient's Bill of 
Rights.'' I chuckle because all this rhetoric is coming from the same 
party that tried to socialize our health care system 4 years ago when 
they were in the majority. Pardon my skepticism, but I hope they now 
are not promoting something that in nothing more than a trial lawyers 
Bill of Rights.
  Just like in health care, we are seeing the same thing from them in 
education. While some of my colleagues regrettably believe that 
education is best run by Washington bureaucrats, a story in yesterday's 
New York Times echoes what Republicans have been working toward all 
along. We know that when we give to local schools the support and 
incentive to excel, our students will achieve.
  Students at New York's Aviation High are part of a unique partnership 
between Tower Air, the FAA, and local school officials. They were given 
hands-on training in the field of aircraft maintenance and other areas. 
But their education goes beyond earning a diploma. As the Times 
reported, Tower Air has hired all its student interns upon graduation. 
What is more, more than three-fourths of them go on to earn a college 
diploma.
  Originally a vocational and trade school, Aviation High has broadened 
its curriculum, offering students a world class education, while 
providing a fundamental background in the airline industry. This is the 
kind of experience no Washington bureaucracy can provide.
  Mr. Speaker, to those who disdain public-private cooperation, and 
love increased control from Washington bureaucracies, I urge them to 
consider the students and faculty at Aviation High School, and work to 
give students across the country an opportunity like this.
  Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record the article in the New York 
Times of July 15, 1998, which describes this program.
  The article referred to is as follows:

                [From the New York Times, July 15, 1998]

                Students at Aviation High Tend to 747's

                        (By Macarena Hernandez)

       Oscar Mendez would sit on his porch and admire the small 
     cropdusters. They flew low to the ground fumigating the rice 
     fields near his home in the Dominican Republic.
       ``One day that will be me flying,'' he would say, pointing 
     at the small planes. He was only 6 years old.
       Friends laughed. But two years later, Oscar took his first 
     plane ride, to the United States. And today, at 19, Mr. 
     Mendez has graduated from Aviation High School and is working 
     at Kennedy International Airport as an aviation mechanic for 
     Tower Air.
       Mr. Mendez's easy move from school to a job just days after 
     graduation last month is a prime model of one of the nation's 
     most unusual school-to-work programs. While many schools are 
     forging stronger links with businesses, Aviation is still the 
     nation's only high school whose students service commercial 
     aircraft, educators say.
       For three years, Tower Air and Aviation High have worked 
     together. About 40 seniors are interns there during a fifth 
     year at the high school, spending 20 hours a week at Kennedy 
     instead of in shop classes. Tower Air has hired all its 
     student interns after graduation either full time or part 
     time.
       ``It is a unique school,'' said Jim Peters, a spokesman for 
     the Federal Aviation Administration's eastern region. ``It 
     has been doing it for the longest time and has been among the 
     most successful programs in the country.''
       Lest the thought of teen-age interns fixing planes generate 
     fear of flying, the airline and the high school both point 
     out that trainees start work with baby steps. They observe 
     for the first five weeks, then they perform more elementary 
     tasks like changing light bulbs in the cabin, fixing seats or 
     lubricating the flap controls on the wings. Eventually, 
     students are allowed to replace faulty circuit breakers and 
     remove and replace aircraft engines, under the supervision of 
     an experienced mechanic.
       ``It's hard to believe a 19-year-old is working with 
     Tower,'' said Mr. Mendez, who plans to continue working next 
     fall when he enters the College of Aeronautics, in East 
     Elmhurst, Queens. ``It's kind of crazy. Here we are fixing 
     airplanes that actually fly.''
       Aviation High School opened in 1925 as the Central Building 
     Trades School, a vocational training program with three 
     instructors teaching woodworking, plumbing and electrical 
     installation. In 1936, the school took aviation technology as 
     its focus and 21 years later, it moved to Long Island City, 
     Queens.
       After four years of shop classes, including hydraulics, 
     welding and sheet metal, students qualify for an F.A.A. exam 
     that licenses them to work on either an aircraft frame or 
     engine maintenance. Students who, like Mr. Mendez, stay a 
     fifth year can obtain a second license from the agency and 
     qualify for an internship with Tower Air--and usually, a job 
     offer. Tower gets the chance to evaluate potential workers 
     while the school's students get the chance to work on real 
     aircraft. ``We have the equipment, but it is not the same 
     thing,'' said an assistant principal, Mario Cotumaccio. ``We 
     don't have a 747 in our back yard.''
       Mr. Cotumaccio started the program because Aviation 
     graduates faced a familiar teen-age Catch 22: they had 
     trouble finding their first jobs because they lacked airline 
     experience, which they could not get until they had a job. 
     Tower Air, a low-cost airline based in New York, decided to 
     give the internship a try. Morris K. Nachtomi, chairman and 
     chief executive of Tower Air, said the company has been 
     pleased.
       Before the internship program, training programs were 
     confided to the small hangar behind the school, which holds 
     about 16 aircraft, 4 from World War II.
       The school now faces a series of new academic hurdles as 
     the state tightens its academic requirements. All public 
     school students--including those at vocational schools--are 
     being required to take Regents exams, which test a student's 
     preparation for college work. It comes during a national 
     effort to raise standards for vocational schools.
       ``We are seeing a need for well-rounded education,'' said 
     John Decaire, president of the National Center for 
     Manufacturing Sciences, a consortium of industrial companies 
     based in Ann Arbor, Mich. ``Companies don't operate sort of 
     autonomously anymore.''
       While some Aviation graduates stay in aircraft maintenance, 
     about 77 percent go on to college. Yvonne Franco plans to go 
     to Jacksonville University in Florida after she completes her 
     fifth year in June of 1999, paying for school by working in 
     aviation maintenance. ``It is a backbone for me,'' Yvonne 
     said. ``I know it assures my future.''
       Her mother, Marleny Franco, said, ``When the children come 
     out of there, they come out with a career in their hands so 
     that they don't have to go fry potatoes at McDonald's.''

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