[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 61 (Tuesday, May 14, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E793-E794]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNIZING OUTSTANDING WORK BY PARTICIPANTS IN STUDENT CONGRESSIONAL 
                 TOWN MEETING AT UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 14, 2002

  Mr. SANDERS. 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 testimonials be included in 
the Congressional Record.

                       Regarding Juvenile Justice

        (By Sean Fontaine, Krystal Turnbaugh, and James Nichols)

       SEAN FONTAINE. Hi. I am going to begin. My name is Sean 
     Fontaine. This is Krystal Turnbaugh and James Nichols. We all 
     represent YouthBuild, and we're all members of the policy 
     committee.
       We come here today to discuss juvenile justice, the idea of 
     what ongoing problems in the community with juvenile 
     offenders, usually in age brackets of 16- to 17-year-olds, 
     and how it affects the community in terms of positive 
     reinforcement and what we need to do for programs to 
     financially fund these reinforcement types of things.
       I got some notes here somewhere.
       I'm just going to start with a brief summary. But I'm 
     speaking on behalf of juvenile offenders on the juvenile 
     justice system. We all know the community is just as 
     responsible for the upbringing of these delinquents as they 
     are themselves. Most people fear the youth of America, and it 
     is not a surprise. There are 2.4 million 16- to 24-year-olds 
     in the U.S. that live low-income lifestyles. 360,000 of them 
     are in prison. There are only 300,000 job-training openings 
     among the 2.4 million students, which means that there are a 
     lot of kids running rampant with no positive reinforcement 
     and nothing to do.
       There is a very few amount of people that are not involved 
     in the community, because a community involves everybody, 
     even though delinquents are the weakest links, I guess. But 
     in 1997 alone, drug-law violations increased 125 percent, and 
     I'm sure crime has a lot to do with drug use. Drug use is 
     definitely an ongoing problem in my community, and that's 
     something that we definitely need help with. We need more 
     money for youth programs to support drug-free environments, 
     recreational facilities, and low-income housing programs like 
     YouthBuild that promote positive reinforcement and good life 
     styles and living situations.
       The biggest problem with juvenile cases today, I believe, 
     is the system that's handling with them. I don't believe it 
     is right to throw kids in jail. We need to improve conditions 
     in SRS today. I attended a meeting, there was a partnership 
     in service, with Dave Martin, the director of SRS. According 
     to him, the caseloads are just unmanageable for their 
     caseworkers, and they're completely understaffed, underpaid, 
     and overwhelmed,

[[Page E794]]

     which leads kids to believe that no one cares about them, 
     especially in the system of social rehabilitation services.
       YouthBuild honors community. YouthBuild has just made 
     unparalleled contributions to its community, and the 
     residents are proud of its participants. And it's one of the 
     many programs. There are 250-something YouthBuilds 
     nationwide, and there is a proposal for more money. We are in 
     the process of doing a HUD grant to get more money for those 
     programs.
       I know, from my experiences, it is unlike any program I 
     have been in, in terms of juvenile offenders, and that is why 
     I speak about this as I do. I know that the system that deals 
     with juvenile offenders is basically a ``first-come, first-
     serve'' basis, that you need to be referred to by programs 
     like Spectrum or the Department of Corrections.
       Now, for kids that would like to intervene on negative 
     pathways, we need to have programs available for kids to want 
     to enroll for themselves, alternative programs in jail. 
     Instead of, like, CSE is a program and Pathways is a program 
     in jail for sexual offenders and drug addicts. There should 
     be a way to intervene and have other programs available for 
     kids that just need positive reinforcement. These programs 
     can't just possibly apply to everybody's need areas.
       But more importantly, people need to listen. Problems exist 
     everywhere, and we see them and we try to solve them. Our 
     current juvenile system doesn't respect individual cases. It 
     is merely paperwork and statistics, seemingly. These 
     conditions need to improve. I know it cannot be done in a 
     six-minute segment, a six-year or a 600-year projection. The 
     important thing here today is the acknowledgement of these 
     problems and spreading of awareness to parents who are trying 
     to raise these troubled teens.

                         Regarding Credit Cards

                            (By Kelly Green)

       KELLY GREEN. I would like to begin by asking if the people 
     who plan on attending college would raise their hand.
       Thank you.
       How many of you have a credit card at this time?
       Thanks.
       Two-thirds of you that raised your hand for going to 
     college will have a credit card while you are there, 
     according to Keeping an Eye on Junior's College Habits by 
     Terry Savage. That is completely normal. The unimaginable 
     part is, the average undergraduate will leave college about 
     $12,000 in credit card debt. This is due to the fact that the 
     average unpaid balance left on a credit card is $2,200. You 
     most likely won't just own only one credit card either. The 
     average number is three cards.
       As a high school junior with college in my near future, 
     these statistics scare me. Not only am I paying more than 
     double what my parents did, but I also now have to worry 
     about a credit card company luring me into a trap that could 
     take away my future. According to chapter one of Paying for 
     Your Child's College Education by Margaret Smith, a year at 
     Harvard in the 1970s was barely $5,000. And between 1995 to 
     '96, the freshmen had to come up with $27,575. And today, on 
     average, a year in a public college costs about $6,824, and 
     in a private college costs about $17,630.
       As you can see, college costs have risen drastically over 
     the years, due to more and more students attending. The 
     median income of families in America who have college-age age 
     children has nearly tripled. Today only 30 percent of the 
     public college costs is paid by a family's income. The rest 
     is coming from loans and grants. These loans have to be paid 
     off somehow, and what better way than a credit card or two, 
     or that is what the credit card companies lead to you think.
       According to a Salliemae Financial Advice Internet site, a 
     $2,000 tuition bill on a credit card with 18.5 percent APR, 
     with only a minimum payment of $20 each month, will take 
     eleven years to pay off, plus you will pay over $1,900 in 
     interest on top of the initial $2,000. In the end, you will 
     be paying around $3,900 total. I don't know about you, but I 
     can't come up with that much money all the time. Credit card 
     companies know that. They aren't stupid. But they also know, 
     one way or another, they will have the money in the end, even 
     at the cost of your future.
       Could you imagine being 19 years old, a sophomore in 
     college, and filing bankruptcy because you owe a company 
     $23,000? This is a true statement according to the College 
     Student Credit Card Protection Act. This sophomore isn't 
     alone either. In 1999, 100,000 Americans under the age of 25 
     declared bankruptcy. As you can see, I am not the first 
     person to bring this issue up. The legislature, too, has 
     discussed this issue.
       In this day and age, more and more young people like myself 
     are being forced into bad credit ratings, without even 
     starting a full-time job. We will be forced to live with this 
     slander on our name for years after. It will affect our 
     ability to buy a house, car, and, depending on our field of 
     interest, starting a business will be almost impossible.
       Credit ratings follow you for the rest of your life. Young 
     people like me and many others shouldn't have to file 
     bankruptcy so young, or be haunted by bad credit ratings. We 
     have our whole lives ahead of us.
       Things can change, and should. I strongly suggest that we 
     take the time to make change happen. We can't eliminate all 
     debt and credit problems, but we can lower them. High schools 
     today don't offer much for money management classes. Freshman 
     in college are going in blind to what these companies are 
     doing. The school should be required, at some point in the 
     senior year of high school, to educate us about what is 
     happening and how to manage money so we can protect ourselves 
     from such debt.
       Another problem that is influencing the debt is guidance 
     counselors. They are pressuring college on to students who 
     don't want to attend. So when they get to college, they end 
     up dropping out, and are stuck with the costs. And that, in 
     itself, is causing higher tuition and more debt. I'm not 
     saying that guidance counselors should stop promoting 
     college, but should not make students feel forced to attend. 
     This way, in the end, it will be worthwhile for them.
       The credit card company should keep the amount an 
     individual can put on a card low, instead of letting us dig 
     ourselves a hole we can't get out of. John Simpson, of the 
     University of Indiana, stated, ``Credit cards are a terrible 
     thing.'' I strongly agree. College students shouldn't be 
     forced to ruin their lives by the bright, ludicrous ideas 
     credit card companies are putting into their head.
       Lastly, I would like to thank you, Mr. Sanders, for 
     allowing teens like me an opportunity to have a voice on 
     issues that affect us now or will in the near future.

     

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