Danny Davis: “as the debate continues around the issues of vouchers, charter schools, and what some call alternatives to traditional…”

“as the debate continues around the issues of vouchers, charter schools, and what some call alternatives to traditional public education, I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the Whitney M. Young Public High School in Chicago, Illinois, which has the distinction of being hailed number one in the Nation in college preparatory education. For 15 years, the Whitney M. Young magnet school has been number one in the State of Illinois. This year, the year 2000, it leads the United States in the numbers of its students who qualified as semi-finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Competition for outstanding black students. Twenty seniors put Whitney M. Young on the top of the list as a result of their ranking in the top 2 percent of youngsters in competition. Graduates of Young go on to college at the astronomical rate of 96 percent, with the University of Illinois enrolling more than any other college or university. Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, Yale and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology lead other schools in enrollment of Whitney Young alumni. Mr. Speaker, Principal Joyce Kenner, her staff, local school council, parents, the Chicago Board of Education, and the students themselves are to be commended for proving, and for proving conclusively, that a student does not have to have a voucher or go to a private or charter school to achieve, and indeed to excel academically.”