[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 49 (Friday, April 26, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E647-E648]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     RECOGNIZING OUTSTANDING WORK BY UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT STUDENT 
                       CONGRESSIONAL TOWN MEETING

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 25, 2002

  Mr. SANDERS. Dear Mr. Speaker, today, I recognize the outstanding 
work done by participants in my Student Congressional Town Meeting held 
this spring at the University of Vermont. These participants were part 
of a group of high school students from around Vermont who testified 
about the concerns they have as teenagers, and about what they would 
like to see government do regarding these concerns.
  I respectfully request that the following be included in the 
Congressional Record.

             On Behalf of Jessica Walters and Falinda Hough


                      Regarding UNDERAGE DRINKING

       April 8, 2001
       JESSICA WALTERS: We are talking about teen alcohol. There 
     is a lot of teen alcohol going around, and it needs to stop. 
     If it doesn't stop, a lot more people are going to get 
     killed. We think the reasons why teens drink is because they 
     get into fights with their parents, and they get so mad where 
     they end up drinking. Teens go to parties where they have 
     peer pressure to drink, and they end up doing it because they 
     think they will be cool. Then they get hooked on it where 
     they can't stop. It only takes one time. It can also be 
     inherited by their parents that are alcoholics, and it 
     already is in their bloodstream.
       Over in Canada, the teens are allowed to drink at the age 
     of 18. They should not be allowed. They might be more 
     responsible at that age, and then again, maybe not.
       FALINDA HOUGH: Ways we can help. Police in every bar. The 
     national government can give grants to cities that can help 
     police in every bar. Watch out for fake IDs. National 
     governments can give states money to buy the technology 
     where, when they enter the bar, they can scan on the back of 
     IDs to tell whether they are of age or not.

                                  ____
                                  

        On behalf of Lee Goldsmith, Robby Short, and Greg Howard


                       regarding school id badges

       April 8, 2001
       LEE GOLDSMITH: Thank you for coming up this morning. Who is 
     going to begin?
       ROBBY SHORT: I will. A current issue at Mount Anthony is 
     whether or not to have students wear ID badges. The main 
     reason is to know who belongs at the school and who is 
     actually not supposed to be there.
       Currently, teachers at Mount Anthony are required to wear 
     their ID badges. Visitors and substitutes are given stickers 
     that say either ``visitor'' or ``substitute'' on them. So the 
     only unknown factor is the students.
       I do see all the subs and visitors wearing their badges, 
     but I see many teachers not wearing theirs. I think the 
     teachers feel that the ID badges are kind of tedious, and 
     they don't need to be wearing them. And I think a lot of 
     students feel the same way.
       GREG HOWARD: We did the pros and cons.
       Just to list some of the pros: There are several good 
     reasons why students should wear identification tags at all 
     times. If a fire or some other emergency occurs, it will be 
     easier to identify students and to identify strangers by who 
     is and who is not wearing the tags.
       Another idea was that, if fire codes were put on the tags, 
     they could be used for other things, such as to unlock doors 
     and to check school books in and out of our library, at 
     least. Other people wanted to use the cards, not only for ID, 
     but as debit cards, so students could buy lunches.
       And the last idea is that people could take attendance, or 
     teachers could use the cards to take attendance in the 
     morning, which would give them more time to teach their 
     subjects instead of taking attendance.
       LEE GOLDSMITH: Going over the cons, real quick. Basically, 
     the biggest argument against this is there just isn't enough 
     money and there are better things to spend it on.
       And there were a lot of pros we came up with, and it would 
     work very well in principle, but not in practice. We think 
     that students would lose them a lot, and teachers and 
     administrators would have a lot of trouble enforcing the 
     rules and making students wear the identification. And people 
     would just, you know, forget them.
       And also, there are a lot of students who think that it's 
     against our right to privacy, and a lot of people don't want 
     to wear the tags, and they think that it's just--it will make 
     us feel like we are in--not really a prison, but we are not, 
     like, welcome there and we are not at home, which is 
     obviously how we should feel.

                                  ____
                                  

                         On Behalf of Dan Hill


                      regarding affordable housing

       April 8, 2001
       DAN HILL: I am presenting on affordable housing for young 
     adults. Especially for people in Burlington here, there is 
     not a lot of affordable housing for young adults.
       I can read from my report, but I don't want to.
       The housing situation here, especially here in Burlington, 
     is horrible. If one has UVM here--pardon me, Professor. It is 
     just, here in Burlington, you have 50 percent of the housing 
     being taken by the colleges. And I believe you have about 
     14,000 students here. If you say that the University of 
     Vermont provides about 49 percent of its housing here for its 
     students, and all the rest of the students have to go out, 
     and that is over 7,000 who have to find apartments here in 
     Burlington. And we actually need 7,400 housing just to meet 
     the current needs of the residents living here.
       CONGRESSMAN SANDERS: Let me jump in and just ask you a 
     question right now.
       DAN HILL: Yes.
       CONGRESSMAN SANDERS: We have a very serious housing crisis 
     in the Burlington area, and in fact, we have a very serious 
     crisis in communities around the state and all over the 
     country. What do you think should be done?
       DAN HILL: I think that more money should be put into 
     building more suitable housing, affordable housing, for young 
     adults, and not just young adults, but anyone who needs them. 
     If you look at the problem and you just go anywhere, the rent 
     is just so high here in Burlington. And not many people make 
     that much money.
       Especially when you are a young adult, you don't have your 
     college diploma or anything, you are just out of high school, 
     or in

[[Page E648]]

     high school, and you have a job that pays you about $8 an 
     hour, and you probably make 800 a month, net.
       CONGRESSMAN SANDERS: Dan is making a very, very important 
     point. And that is, if you are working, earning $8 an hour or 
     $10 an hour, just do the arithmetic and figure out how you 
     would be able to pay rents of--what?--500 or 600 a month?
       DAN HILL: It's about $750 for a two-bedroom apartment.
       CONGRESSMAN SANDERS: So if you had a kid and were making $8 
     an hour, you do the arithmetic. And what you find is that you 
     end up spending 50 or 60 percent of your income for housing, 
     which leaves very little left over to do other things that 
     human beings need to do.

     

                          ____________________