David Durenberger: “I rise today to urge my colleagues to give their strong support to the School-to-Work Opportunities Act. I became the…”

“I rise today to urge my colleagues to give their strong support to the School-to-Work Opportunities Act. I became the lead Republican cosponsor of the School-to-Work Act because the bill is consistent, in my view, with so many basic Republican principles like bottom-up program development, strong community involvement, program consolidation, and a limited role for the Federal Government. The reality is the School-to-Work Opportunities Act provides seed money, technical assistance to States and communities in order to encourage and facilitate locally developed, locally operated, locally administered school-to-work transition programs. And as I get into my statement, I will illustrate what I mean by 'local' and 'community,' in terms of my own community. It builds on existing programs and it removes existing barriers that States and employers now face in making alternative ways of learning job skills a real option. The programs supported by the legislation will help bring together employers, educators, government, labor, everyone--I will, again, illustrate that in my statement because it is really happening in my community--in true partnerships, to provide training and opportunities so that all our Nation's young people can compete for higher skilled, higher wage jobs.”