[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 7143-7144]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING VALLEY COMMUNITY SCHOOL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Cardoza) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CARDOZA. Mr. Speaker, I am honored today to have four students in 
attendance here from Valley Community School in Merced, California. 
Valley Community School, led by its principal, Jill Macha, is an 
alternative education program that serves at-risk youth throughout 
Merced County. I had the privilege of visiting Valley Community School 
in October during Red Ribbon Week festivities, and it left an 
impression with me and had a positive impact on alternative education 
and the impacts it was having on the students there.
  However, I also had a very moving experience while I was visiting. I 
see school groups in my district frequently, but nothing compares with 
the interaction I had with the students at Valley Community School that 
day. After the Red Ribbon Week assembly was over, a group of children, 
young people, came and met with me. Many of them were products of the 
foster care system, just like those who are fortunate enough to be here 
in Washington today.
  During our 90 minutes together, I heard many of their personal 
stories from the students that would shock anyone who cares. They told 
me about some of the horrible conditions that they had encountered as 
they moved from placement to placement in foster care. They told me 
about situations that have gotten them in trouble. They told me about a 
lot of things that I thought I would never hear or even have to hear 
from young people: abuse, neglect, domestic violence, sexual assault. 
These kids have been through more unfortunate events at a younger ages 
than most of us will ever go through in a lifetime. Many of them had 
begun to get tougher than they ever should have to become just to 
survive. But, ladies and gentlemen, in all their eyes, I saw a glimmer, 
a glimmer of hope, the glimmer of hope that I see, frankly, in all 
young people's eyes. But it was one that moved me even stronger than 
normally because these kids had had such a tough life.
  They wanted to talk about and overcome their problems. They wanted 
people to become aware of the flaws in our foster care system, and they 
wanted people to understand how important it is for them just to have a 
stable home. I want the students of Valley Community School who are 
watching back in Merced to know that people really do care about them 
and the problems they are going through. Their principal, Jill Macha, 
is one of those people. They lead an alternative education program at 
the school that is one of the sources of stability for those kids in 
that situation, and stability is what they desperately need.
  But, ladies and gentlemen, there is much work to be done. I am 
committed to working on improving our foster care system and the 
support network for children who are left behind. I hope my colleagues 
will take the time to learn more about the kids like those who are at 
Valley Community School and join me in the effort. I know that if they 
do, we can have a better understanding of the enormous challenges that 
at-risk kids face and that we can

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actually do something to improve their situation.

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