At the senate meeting tomorrow night, Victor Gonzales will speak to the HELP committee about advancing education policy. Senator Reed kindly provided CMC with Gonzales's prepared statement. It will be interesting to see what kind of debate this statement generates tomorrow.
REMARKS OF VICTOR GONZALES
EDUCATION POLICY ADVOCATE
AMERICA’S PROMISE ALLIANCE
Too many of our nation's high schools are performing poorly, and far too many American students are dropping out of high school. In order to ensure our nation's competitiveness in the 21st Century, it is essential that the Department of Education address the problems of "dropout factory" high schools.
As a high school student, I attended one of those “dropout factories,” Rio Grande High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I grew up in a culture of failure, in which graduation was not the norm.
Many of my classmates did not hold academic achievement as an important goal. They came from poor families, and many were from African American, Native American, and Latino families that were just struggling to make a living. In this setting, many students dropped out.
Luckily, I made it through that culture, graduated and attended college earning a degree in political science from the University of New Mexico. I now work as an education policy advocate in former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s America’s Promise Alliance, a national organization that works to curb the dropout crisis.
At America’s Promise Alliance, I have worked on policy issues that affect schools like my high school. Nearly a third of American high school students do not graduate within 4 years. Another third graduate, but are not prepared for post-secondary education or competition in the 21st century economy. A large amount of these students come from minority populations. Nearly half of these students come from high schools that graduate less than 60 percent of their students. These “dropout factory” high schools are in nearly every state and need to be targeted to fix our nation’s low graduation rates.
Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 does not provide enough funding to high schools. Although there is funding authorized under the Dropout Reduction portion of the act, only 10 percent of funding is given to high schools, while the majority of education funding is given to early and elementary education. There are effective school models that struggling high schools should try to adopt. Yet states and local education agencies need federal funding to implement these models.
Senator Bingaman and Senator Murray have proposed the CAP and GOWN Act of 2011 that should do just that. I think that this bill creates a strong and comprehensive strategy for the Department of Education to use in fighting our nation’s dropout crisis.
The bill authorizes the Secretary of Education to provide grants to states and local education agencies to implement dropout reduction efforts. The bill also provides a comprehensive strategy to increase graduation rates. It is a necessary supplement to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which addresses dropout reduction but does not provide enough clear strategies for the Department of Education. The appropriations of the bill are already authorized by ESEA, and the amount of funding has not been changed. This means the bill would not increase the federal deficit. The funding goes to states and local education agencies and allows for flexibility to fit different high schools and communities.
The bill also creates programs to vocationally train American students for jobs in a green economy. This type of vocational training is also a way to help students gain an education that will help them compete in the 21st Century economy. Vocational training for green-collar jobs can be an effective way to educate at-risk youths and give them a chance to compete for jobs.
I think this bill should be able to garner bi-partisan support. I know that all of you are committed to helping America's children receive the best education possible so they can be competitive in the future. This piece of legislation is crucial to that end.
I look forward to your questions.
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