Washington, DC (August 1, 2006) – Last week, Congressman Rubén Hinojosa (TX-15) joined fellow members of Congress to pass S. 250, the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act Conference Report by a vote of 399-1. 

The Act helps prepare high school students for careers and helps adults improve their job skills so they can find better-paying, higher-quality jobs.  This includes: bridging the gap between secondary and post-secondary career technical education programs; integrating technical education into curricula; improving accountability systems; develop career plans; and, improve opportunities for men and women to gain access to non-traditional careers.

Below are Congressman Hinojosa’s remarks submitted into the Congressional record:

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“I am pleased to support the Conference Report for S. 250, legislation to reauthorize the Carl Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act.  This conference report is the product of an all too rare, bipartisan, good faith effort to pass real legislation that makes a difference in our communities across the nation.  This conference report also sends an important message to the President who has proposed to eliminate federal career and vocational education programs:  These programs work and we are united in our support for them.

“I am particularly pleased that this bill includes my amendment to encourage schools to develop individual graduation and career plans for students in career and technical education programs.  Including graduation and career planning as an allowable activity under Perkins is one small step in addressing the pressing issue of our low graduation rates.  These plans will help ensure that high school students graduate prepared for postsecondary education and the workplace. 

“Action is urgently needed to improve our high school graduation rates.  The Manhattan Institute, the Harvard Civil Rights Project, and the Urban Institute have analyzed the data and come to the same conclusion -- roughly 30 percent of all students who should be earning high school diplomas aren’t. For African American and Hispanic students that number jumps to nearly 50 percent.

Furthermore, only a fraction of students leaving our high schools are prepared for college. The Manhattan Institute found that nationally only 34 percent of students left high school prepared to enter a four-year college.   Only 23 percent of African American students and only 20 percent of Hispanic students left high school prepared for college.  We must mobilize our efforts across all of our education programs to turn this situation around.  This legislation can be an important component of what I hope will be a national strategy to improve high schools.

“I would also like to commend the House and Senate conferees for reaching an agreement to protect the integrity of the Tech Prep Program.  This program has been tremendously successful in my district and across the state of Texas.  Tech Prep programs have provided countless opportunities for our students to gain access to a rigorous academic curriculum, cutting edge technology, and college credit while still enrolled in high school.

“I congratulate all of the members of the conference committee for their fine work, especially the committee chairmen and ranking members.  This is legislation that we can all be proud to support.”