[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16283]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               EDUCATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, forty years ago, the U.S. was number one in the 
world in high school graduation rates. Today it ranks 17th.
  About 1/3 of the students who enter 9th grade each fall will not 
graduate from high school with four years, if at all.
  High school students living in low-income families drop out of school 
at six times the rate of their peers from high-income families.
  Drop out rates are especially high in communities of color: Only 
about 55 percent of African American students and 52 percent of 
Hispanic students graduate on time from high school with a regular 
diploma, compared to 78 percent of white students.
  In my district, in Oakland, the graduation rates for African American 
males is 26 percent, compared to 57 percent is the graduation rate for 
white males.
  In this country, there are about 2,000 high schools that produce the 
majority of dropouts.
  Six million students throughout America are currently at risk of 
dropping out of school. Students who fail to graduate from high school 
are more likely to participate in criminal activity than students who 
do graduate. Likewise, students with low levels of achievement in high 
school are more likely to engage in crime than students with high 
levels of achievement.
  For example, The Harvard University Civil Rights Project and the 
Urban Institute Education Policy Center conducted a study on K-12 
schools in California. The Center estimated that Oakland's 52 percent 
dropout rate costs the state $14 billion in lost wages, crime and jail 
time.
  Investing in education would save millions of dollars in crime 
related expenditures annually.
  The statistics are staggering and tell the story. Approximately 75 
percent of state prison inmates did not complete high school. High 
school dropouts are 3.5 times more likely than high school graduates to 
be arrested in their lifetimes. And a mere one percent increase in high 
school graduation rates would save approximately $1.4 billion in costs 
associated with incarceration costs, or about $2,100 for each male high 
school graduate.
  We must do better by our children. Nothing less than the future of 
this country is at stake. That is why I am committed to effective 
reform that can transform high schools and keep students at the 
greatest risk of dropping out on the path to graduation.
  I'm proud to support authorizing legislation that will soon be 
introduced which will help address some of the reforms that are needed 
and that is why I'm proud to be an advocate on the Labor, Health and 
Human Services and Education subcommittee working to appropriate 
funding to address the crisis in dropouts that our country is facing.
  Clearly, we need increased investments in programs that keep kids in 
school and learning.


                         school counseling bill

  On the Labor, Health and Human Services subcommittee, I worked with 
my colleagues to include $61.5 million for elementary and secondary 
school counseling in the FY08 bill that is currently working its way 
through our committee. This is a 77.5 percent increase in a program 
that the President would have eliminated. These funds enable school 
districts to hire academic counselors, psychologists, and social 
workers. The additional resources will be targeted to improving and 
expanding academic and mental health counseling to middle and high 
school adolescents. This significant increase is a tremendous step 
toward addressing the crisis in counseling in our schools.


                         after school programs

  Another critical tool we have in our arsenal to fight drop out and to 
keep kids off the street and for preventing youth violence is our 
nation's after school programs.
  The fact of the matter is that between 3-6 pm the rate of juvenile 
crime triples.
  On LHHS subcommittee, we were able to provide a $125 million increase 
over FY07 levels for a total of over a billion dollars for the 21st 
century community learning centers. This program is a formula grant to 
states which in turn distribute 95 percent of the funds on a 
competitive basis to local school districts, community based 
organizations and other organizations is for after school activities 
that make sure that young people have alternatives to getting into 
trouble.


                    upward bound / trio and gear up

  I want to echo the comments of my colleagues here tonight about the 
problems we are fighting as it relates to the Absolute Priority 
regulation and the concerns over the loss of funding for numerous 
previously funded grantees including 30 percent of our HBCU's and Mills 
College in my district. I know that working together we will resolve 
these critical issues and I want to specifically thank Bobby Scott and 
Gwen Moore for their leadership on the Education Committee and on this 
issue.
  We all understand just how critical these programs are that provide a 
variety of outreach and support services to encourage low-income 
students to enter an complete college. That is why I'm pleased our L-
HHS subcommittee was able to provide a $40 million increase in funding 
for the TRIO programs and a $20 million increase for the GEAR UP 
program.

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