[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16234-16235]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   CARL D. PERKINS VOCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION IMPROVEMENT ACT

  Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the Carl D. 
Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2004.
  I am extremely pleased that this bill was written in a bipartisan 
fashion. I thank Senator Enzi, Senator Gregg, Senator Kennedy and their 
staff members, Scott Fleming, Ilyse Schulman, Kelly Scott, and Jane 
Oates, for working so hard and so quickly to make this happen. I 
sincerely hope that we continue in this spirit of bipartisanship as we 
work together on future legislation coming out of the HELP Committee.
  It is an often-overlooked fact that the Perkins program is the 
largest Federal investments in our Nation's high schools. Over 66 
percent of all public high schools have at least one vocational and 
technical education program and 96 percent of high school students in 
this country will take at least one vocational or technical course 
while they are in high school. In New York, this means that over 
275,000 high school students benefited from Perkins Act programs last 
year.
  Perkins also plays a key role in postsecondary education. According 
to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly 38 percent of 
all degree-seeking undergraduates are pursuing vocational careers. When 
I travel throughout New York, I hear about

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how important career and technical education is for tens of thousands 
of New Yorkers. Institutions such as the Adirondack Community College 
and the Culinary Institute of America in the Hudson River Valley and 
thousands of our Nation's community colleges, skill centers and other 
postsecondary sub-baccalaureate institutions rely on the Perkins 
program to help provide vocational and technical courses to students.
  Last year, 65 New York community colleges received funding under the 
Perkins Act, directly benefiting over 200,000 community college 
students. These schools use the funds to provide career counselors and 
academic curricula that guide students toward high-wage and high-skill 
occupations.
  The Perkins program is extremely important--not just for the numbers 
of students it serves but for the communities that benefit from a 
better prepared workforce as a result of these programs. This is why 
for the last 2 years I have spearheaded a letter to the Senate 
Appropriations Committee requesting additional funding for Perkins. I 
also offered an amendment to the budget resolution in 2003 to protect 
the Perkins programs from cuts because I was deeply concerned that 
President Bush's proposal to slash the Perkins program by 25 percent 
would be reflected in the Senate's budget.
  The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Improvement 
Act of 2004 will go a long way towards strengthening vocational and 
technical education in New York and across the country. Among other 
things, it will provide for comprehensive professional development for 
career and technical education teachers, increase States' flexibility 
to meet their unique needs, and align secondary and postsecondary 
indicators with those established in other programs to ultimately 
reduce paperwork.
  I am particularly pleased that this bill also improves programs and 
services for women and girls pursuing nontraditional occupations. A few 
weeks ago at a HELP Committee hearing on vocational education, an 
inspiring woman from New York, Angela Olszewski, testified about how 
important it is that we support and encourage women and girls in their 
pursuit of nontraditional, traditionally ``male'' careers--in 
technology, math, science, and the construction and building trades. 
Unfortunately, women are still significantly underrepresented in these 
fields. For example, we know that while the number of women carpenters 
has tripled since 1972, they still only represent 1.7 percent of all 
carpenters. You can say the same about many other high-skill, high-wage 
trades.
  Many of these skilled trades industries are experiencing a 
significant labor shortage and experts expect these shortages to get 
worse over the next two decades as many workers retire. If women were 
to enter these professions, most of which are unionized and pay a 
livable paycheck and benefits, women would increase their earnings and 
standard of living for their families. For example, a journey-level 
electrician will make over $1,000,000 more than a typical cashier in a 
30-year career. That would go a long way toward putting many women on 
the road towards selfsufficiency. I want all New York women--and women 
throughout the country--to have the same opportunities. This bill helps 
us toward that goal.
  I also want to highlight another successful program started in New 
York called Project Lead the Way. This program builds partnerships 
among public schools, institutes of higher education, and the private 
sector to promote pre-engineering and technology courses for middle 
school and high school students. Project Lead the Way is now a presence 
in more than 875 schools in 39 States and should serve as an example 
for career and technical education of the future.
  I am very pleased with this legislation; it shows that we are moving 
in the right direction, tweaking our education policies to better serve 
our Nation's career and technical students. I look forward to working 
with my colleagues as this bill goes to conference.

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