[Pages S10662-S10663]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

DUAL EDUCATION TEACHES STUDENTS TO WORK

<bullet> Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, I was proud to be the chief Senate
sponsor of the School-to-Work Opportunities Act, signed into law by
President Clinton in April 1994. The act provides venture capital for
the coordination, integration, merger, streamlining, and performance-
based accountability of education and vocational programs. The
Department of Labor estimates that 116,351 students, 41,772 employers,
and 2,730 schools are involved in state and local school-to-work
ventures.
Recently, I came across an insightful article by Hedrick Smith on why
school to work is so important to the education of our young people and
the economic competitiveness of our Nation. I ask that the article be
printed in the Record.
The article follows:

[From the St. Louis Post Dispatch, July 14, 1995]

Dual Education Teaches Students To Work

(By Hedrick Smith)

With corporate profits and stock prices soaring, Wall
Street has a lot to cheer about. The World Economic Forum of
Switzerland now rates the United States as the world's most
competitive economy.
But the Forum mixed praise with the warning that America
would lose its No. 1 status unless it develops better
education for its high school students.
Thoughtful business leaders echo the concern about the high
cost of America's educational shortfall. Lou Gerstner, chief
executive of IBM, says corporate America spends $30 billion a
year on remedial education for new workers.
Gerstner says American businesses lose another $30 billion
each year, unable to upgrade their operations and products
``because their employees can't learn the necessary skills.''
``We can't squander $60 billion and remain competitive,''
Gerstner declares.
America is justifiably proud of its college-level education
and its college-prep track. But high economic performance
also requires a world-class education for our average teen-
agers.
Seventy percent of the jobs in the American economy do not
require a bachelor's degree, and 70 percent of America's
young people do not complete four years of college.
They are the backbone of our future work force.
Industry and the service sector needs hundreds of thousands
of paralegals, radiologists, engineering technicians, graphic
illustrators, medical technicians and research workers, plus
a more flexible, computer-literate generation for banking,
insurance and other service industries.
But America lacks a nationwide educational strategy to meet
the mushrooming needs of modern industry. The most innovative
businesses, educators and communities have discovered that
one solution lies in rethinking education and forging a close
partnership between business and high schools.
Some innovators have found a model in Germany. Two-thirds
of Germany's teen-agers take ``dual education,'' which
combines classroom learning with half-time training on the
job.
This is not mere vocational training in a school shop class
with outmoded technology. German teenagers are trained right
in the modern workplace--the factory, bank, hospital,
newspaper, insurance company and electronics giant. Business
involvement drives classroom educational standards higher.
In 400 career fields, German businesses and public schools
deliver a world-class education: physics classes that help
future auto workers understand electronics and computer-run
automation; economics and finance classes that match the
needs of modern banking; chemistry classes that prepare young
printers to design and print complex illustrations on many
surfaces.
Several American states and cities have adapted the German
model.
In 1991, Wisconsin began a dual-education, apprenticeship-
style program for high school students in its high-tech
printing industry. So successful was the program that it
moved into banking, insurance, health care, electronics,
engineering, tourism, auto technology and manufacturing. From
two communities in 1991, Wisconsin's youth apprenticeship
program has spread to 200 businesses training 450 students
from 85 high schools across the state.
Pennsylvania, Maine, Arkansas, Maryland and upstate New
York have begun similar programs. In Boston, hospitals and
the financial industry are working with inner-city high
schools. In Tulsa, Okla., the lead has been taken by the
Chamber of Commerce and the machine-tool industry.

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These programs are generating great enthusiasm among
businesses, parents, teachers and students. The results are
dramatic: Student motivation and performance have soared.
So a business-education partnership is taking root, but it
is slow going. The gulf between business and education is
still vast. They speak different languages and go their
separate ways.
Rethinking America's educational strategy requires
overcoming suspicions, accepting joint responsibility and
sitting down together to find the common ground.
Business and education have to rewrite school courses,
train industry mentors, retrain teachers and devise
industrial and educational standards that meet the test of
global competition.
German industry spends about $15 billion a year on dual
education. To match that commitment, American industry would
have to spend $60 billion a year.
Impossible, you say?
But remember, Gerstner says that American industry is
already spending or losing $60 billion because of our
educational shortfall. So why not spend the money upfront on
a world-class, dual-education system?
In 1993, Congress passed the School-to-Work Act,
authorizing $250 million a year in seed money for seven years
to develop this new strategy for high school education.
States had to compete for federal ``venture capital'' to
help them gear up for this new approach.
In 1994, grants went to eight leading-edge states and 36
local areas. More are lined up this year--that is, unless
Congress kills this wise investment in America's future.
That would shortchange both our economy and the next
generation.<bullet>

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