Date: 2005-05-04
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time. I also want to thank her for all of her work on behalf of our Members on this side of the aisle in helping to shape this legislation. And I want to thank the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman BOEHNER) for bringing this bill to the floor in a timely fashion. and to the gentleman from Delaware (Chairman CASTLE) for all of his work and his dedication to the vocational education programs within our jurisdiction. I rise today for two reasons: One. I am hopeful that bringing this bill to this floor at this time And all of the statements made by Members on both sides of the aisle as to the successes of vocational education and the various components of vocational education in their districts and in their States will forever put an end to this idea of the administration that it is going to somehow zero out this legislation or that it is going to take this money for some other initiative when Members of Congress recognize in such an overwhelming fashion the importance of vocational education to the students in their districts. to the success of the educational programs. and certainly to their local economieg and to their State economies. That is really the second reason that I rise. and that is to again reiterate the idea that this is not our fathers or our grandfathers vocational education. A dramatic transition and a transformation has been made within many of our educational establishments in high schools and community colleges that now provide for the linking and the merging and integration of academic programs and vocational programs and skillsacquiring programs so that students now not only are taking vocational education or participating in vocational education to get a job. . What they are getting is a set of skills that will allow them to get that job but also to have the options to create creer paths within that industry or within that vocation. within that sector of our economy. Far different than has been done in the past. In the integration of the academic skills. again. building upon the research that has been developed over the last decade. and that is that really for people to be proficient. to continue to maintain a middleclass lifestyle. to be able to continue to maintain their opportunities in employment. The set of skills that they need on the academic side and on the vocational skills side really are equivalent of what one needs to have an AA degree. So now students are put on that path. They are given the opportunity to relate the academic skills that they need to acquire for the job opportunities. for the career opportunities. and for the academic opportunities in their future lives. And that is a dramatic change from what many people view as vocational education of the past or of their experiences when they were in school. We now talk to young people. I just recently visited a program at the. Serendipity training program in Mr. Diablo High School in my district. where Chevron Corporation just made a major grant to the county schools for the purposes of enhancing these kinds of economic opportunities and educational opportunities for young people. And when we talk to the young people. whether they are participating in the health academies or they are participating in the fire academies or the food service academies or the technical academies. the fact of the matter is they now see themselves having multiple options. For some it is just to simply get a job. A number of students said they were go to become EMTsbecause they wanted to be able have that work and that work schedule and that income to pay for their college education. Others decided that they would go just to the fire academy and try to get a job. Others thought that they would go to the fire academy and go on to Humboldt State and to the 4year programs in terms offire sciences. So what these students now see are the multitude of opportunities that are available to them. the opportunities for career and advancement and providing for them and their families into the future. I would hope that we would support this bill. I am disappointed that the Committee on Rules. in its continued abuse of power. simply could not provide for the debate of the amendments that many on this side of the aisle wanted to offer. Again. it is not like the Congress is running at maximum RPMs here day in and day out and there is no time for that debate. It is unfortunate that the Committee on Rules continues that abuse of power. but we will have an opportunity to debate a couple of amendments and then push. this bill forward to conference committee. where a couple of its modest shortcomings can be hopefully corrected. Mr. Chairman. I want to thank Chairman BOEHNER and CASTLE for bringing this bill the floor. The V ocational and Technical Education for the Future Act reflects a bipartisan work product and I am pleased to be able to join the chairman. Chairman CASTLE and Ranking Member WOOLSEY in supporting this reauthorization. Career and technical education has traditionally been a bipartisan effort in Congress and that continues today. Unfortunately. the President. for the fourth year in a row has tried to eliminate this program. and this is a mistake. Career and technical education programs make high school matter for many young people. offer college students pathways into productive employment and new hope for displaced homemakers and workers reentering the workforce. Now. is not the time to retreat on our investment in career training. The global economy demands a highly skilled workforce and the Perkins program has been instrumental in building that workforce. H.R. 366 moves the successful Perkins Act. named after the distinguished Senator from Kansas. to the next level in career and technical education. This program may have started out as second tier education program for students who sought employment after graduation from high school. but today. these programs are changing the face of secondary and postsecondary education. Perkins equips Americas workforce with the skills they need to compete in a global economy. More and more schools are using career and technical education programs to develop highly challenging and academically sound education systems. combining secondary and postsecondary education elements. H.R. 366 adopts this model. Successful career tech programs allow academic and vocational teachers to develop curriculum together and teach together so that students can apply academic content in a real world context. In order to make high school matter. learning. must become more meaningful to students. Career technical education programs do this. H.R. 366 also ensures that students learn the identical challenging academic content as students who are in a purely academic program further reinforcing the goals of No Child Left Behind: that all students should be taught to high standards. We know that students who are enrolled in career technical programs are less likely to drop out before graduation. Students who graduate from these programs perform better than their academiconly counterparts in math and science. And. students who complete these programs are able to obtain higher salaries than their counterparts. Mr. Chairman. while I will support this bill. I remain concerned that it fails to address two critical issues: the bill eliminates the separate authorization for the Tech Prep Program and cuts State Administrative funding far below what states need to carry out the new responsibilities that have been added to the bill. These problems can and should be corrected in conference. I The Perkins Act is a critical workforce development tool and the bill before us represents sound education policy. It contains critical improvements in the areas of accountability. integration and coordination and is supported by a range of organizations to include the Association for Career Technical Education. the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical" Education. the NEA. and the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education. I want to thank these organizations for their input on the bill and I want to thank our staff for their efforts in bringing this bill together in a relatively short period of time. I will vote in favor of final passage and urge my colleagues to do the same.