Political Quotes

“I rise as well to oppose this amendment, which really overlooks the incredible positive impact that a summer of service can have on our youth. The Summer of Service is a program which fills a policy gap which helps communities create positive alternatives for young teens. The middle school years in particular are extremely pivotal years for young people. Most youth are making the difficult transition from middle school to high school, and many of them have no organized activities during those periods when they are out of school. Many are left unsupervised and at risk of being engaged in potentially harmful activity. We want to engage them. We want to make sure that they have something to do. I was recently, Mr. Chairman, at a conference held in Baltimore that is focusing on what some refer to as the summer learning slide or summer learning lost. Basically, what do you do to engage students over those summer months to make sure that you are complementing the educational opportunities that they have during the regular school year? And the Summer of Service is a perfect opportunity to do that and to support them so that continuum, that trajectory is always upward. It is not a kind of roller coaster where you get two steps forward and you slip one step back. How our youth spend their time during the summer period may determine whether they embark on a course of active citizenship and civic engagement and engaged learning or whether they go down a different path.”