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                           THE WHITE HOUSE

                    Office of the Press Secretary
_____________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                     May 4, 1994


                            PRESS BRIEFING
                                  BY
                 SECRETARY OF EDUCATION RICHARD RILEY
                                 AND
                   SECRETARY OF LABOR ROBERT REICH


                          The Briefing Room


11:04 A.M. EDT


      SECRETARY RILEY:  Good morning to everyone.  It's a real
pleasure for us to be here today for this signing of the School to
Work Opportunities Act.  And I want to, first of all, thank Secretary
Bob Reich, whom I've worked closely with in this effort and really
side by side, and thank him for his tremendous leadership in getting
the legislation passed and being so involved with his department in
shaping it; and thank all of my people who have worked closely with
his people in a spirit of cooperation.

      And I think the President's Cabinet has indeed
demonstrated a unique ability to work together.  And I think this is
a good example of it.  When the President was first elected, he knew
that we needed to do more in preparing children for this emerging
global economy.  And the first step, then, was to develop a method of
coming at world class standards and learning.  And he knew that
without high standards the rest of the system would fail.  And that's
kind of the building block to build education upon.

      Goals 2000, that the President signed a little over a
month ago, was that first step.  And it created a framework then for
implementing the high academic and skill standards that were called
for in Goals.  And it allows local communities then to create
innovative ways to reach these high standards.

      So this School to Work Opportunities Act is a natural
complement to Goals 2000.  And it uses innovative means of teaching
to help students make the connection between school and the workplace
and to really enjoy the learning process.  Learning to those same
high standards, but doing it in a different way connected a broad
career range that they're interested in.

      When young people enjoy learning and they know why
they're learning, they learn more.  And too many of our schools have
failed our children and failed to challenge them even with the most
basic skills.  School to Work can end that kind of boredom.  So from
an education standpoint, I'm very excited about it.  And we are so
pleased that school to work has become, once signed, a welcome
reinvention of the American high school as we know it.

      And this is really the first stage of that, a way to
catch the attention of students who otherwise would drift away
perhaps and move them into this lifetime of learning that the
President talks about.  It's an educational program that makes sense
for the students and the nation.  And I am so proud to be here with
Secretary Reich for this signing today. Bob --

      SECRETARY REICH:  Thank you, Dick.  I want to echo a
couple of things that Dick said from the side of the school-to-work
continuum which is the work side.  You can't really separate school
from work these days and that's why the Education Department and the
Labor Department are working so hard together.

      I want to compliment Dick Riley and his staff and the
work that they have done.  This is unprecedented, I am told.  When we
came to the Cabinet, we were told that the Education Department and
Labor Departments were worlds apart.  Well, we have made them one
world.  Again, you can't separate education, the world of education
from the world of work any longer.

      The School-to-Work Opportunities Act is one foundation
stone, one more foundation stone in the structure of lifelong
learning that the President is creating.  We have Goals 2000; we have
the National Voluntary Skills Standards as part of Goals 2000.  We
have the school-to-work opportunities program which helps people,
young people who may not be going on to a four-year college gain the
skills they need and stay in school and then move beyond school for
at least a year getting the skills, the foundation skills they need
in industry in an area of competence.  And then the Reemployment Act
which the President has introduced several weeks ago to make sure
that that lifelong learning continues.

      Over the past year, Secretary Riley and I have traveled
across the country and seen again and again the importance to young
people of tying work-based learning to school-based learning.  Now,
let me tell you specifically what I'm talking about.  Yesterday I was
in Los Angeles, met with a large number of young people many of whom
would have dropped out of high school were in not for this kind of a
program.

      Many young people today simply don't see the relevance
of what they're doing in the classrooms, the world of work.  They
don't have models around them of the world of work.  When you break
down the barrier between academic learning and vocational education,
when you link work-based learning and school-based learning, these
young kids not only stay in school, but they do better.  When you
give them a year or more beyond high school, even if they're not
going on to college, to extend the classroom and work-based learning
that they've got, then they do have the basis for continued learning
thereafter.  And again and again I've heard from these kids, and I've
heard from employers, both sides, kids and employers, how important
this kind of program is.

      The federal government is going to be establishing
through this piece of legislation a venture capital pool, we might
call it.  A hundred million dollars we have in 1994; we are seeking,
the President is seeking $300 million in 1995, hopefully more
thereafter.  States can compete, localities can compete for this
money.  And all we're requiring -- this is not a one size fits all;
this is not a top-down federal bureaucratic program.  We're simply
asking them that they have, in the 11th and 12th grade, a school-
based program that fits in with a work-based program; there be
mentors at the work base that connect what's learned at school to
what's learned at work; and that at least a year beyond high school
those kids can go on and perfect an area of competence.

      We've seen it work.  This is tried and tested.  We're
building on what several states and localities are already doing.
This is a very important investment in America's future.  It's a
critical investment in the vast majority of our kids who do not go on
to finish a four-year college.

      Let me say one final thing.  The good news is that we've
created 2.5 million new jobs, net new jobs, in this country over the
past 15 months.  And as you know, that's more than twice what was
created over the previous four years.  The not-so-good news is that
we continue to see a widening of the gap that started 15 years ago
between people who are well educated -- their wages and benefits --

and people who are poorly education and relatively unskilled.  That
skill gap continues to widen.

      Two weeks ago, three weeks ago, I think it was, the
Bureau of the Census came out with a very frightening statistic -- 18
percent of full-time workers are not earning enough to keep a family
of four out of poverty, 1993.  Same as 1992.  In 1979, it was 12
percent.  The gap is widening; and it's widening because skills are
become more and more important.  We must not let a college degree
become the parchment that divides the haves from the have-nots, the
winners from the losers in our economy.

      And this program, that the President is signing into law
today, is one vital component of a lifetime learning system that will
help prevent that from happening and help reverse that trend.

      Now, let me -- let us take any questions that any of you
has.

      Q    That's the money involved, the $100 million for the
first year?

      SECRETARY REICH:  For 1994, based on present authority,
it's $100 million.  We are seeking -- the President is seeking $300
million in 1995 budget, and hopefully we'll continue to have
increases thereafter.

      Q    And exactly where does that money go?  I mean, does
it go to the students as payment for this work?  Does it go to
implementing the programs?  Exactly where --

      SECRETARY REICH:  States and locales can compete.  This
is a competitive program.  And they compete on the basis of some very
simple criteria.  That is, they have to have a work-based learning
system tied closely to school-based learning.  They've got to have
mentors there at the work site working with teachers.  And they've
got to have at least a year beyond high school that caps that two
years, from 11th and 12th grade, and provides students with a skill
cluster, potentially enabling them to continuously learn thereafter.
That money would go to the state or to the locale to develop those
programs.

      And, again, I want to emphasize, we have seen programs
like this work all over the country.  Many states, many cities have
been trying them out.  But the entire effort has momentum, we want to
give it more momentum.  We want to add to the momentum that is
already there and provide resources that many states and cities don't
have for this.

      Q    But the students themselves are not getting money
in a payment form?

      SECRETARY REICH:  The students themselves would not
directly be getting money.

      Q    Is there any move towards making this more
technologically oriented versus service oriented in terms of the kind
of training?

      SECRETARY REICH:  The states and locales have discretion
as to how they shape the program.  This is one a one-size-fits-all
program.  And that's one thing -- one thing that's unique about it,
not only is it unique that the Education and Labor Departments are
getting together, not only is it unique that we're not creating a
bureaucratic structure here in Washington, it really is seed capital.
But we're also setting performance standards that are very simple.
And we're having a competition among states and localities to
actually get that money.  And depending upon their creativity, their
energy, how they envision their local needs, they will be eligible
for these kinds of grants.

             Q    How many students do you anticipate would be
profiting from this program?

             SECRETARY REICH:  Well, it could be a very large number.
It depends entirely on how these are structured at the state and the,
even the local level.  That 100 million this year, which we're
already -- we've already provided under current authority some
planning grants and some implementation grants.  All states have got
planning grants already this year, and a few are going to get
implementation grants on a competitive basis, and the same with some
locales.

             But the multiply effect could be very large depending
upon the participation of the business community and the
participation of other layers of government.  And one of the criteria
is how actively engaged the business community is.  You know, I met
yesterday with employers in Los Angeles.  We've met with employers
all over the country who are eager to get involved with something
like this.  This depends not just on educators, it also depends on
the employer community.

             SECRETARY RILEY:  The general number that, of course,
you hear is around three-fourths of the high school kids who don't go
on to a four-year college program.  So we're looking at a large body
that very likely would be candidates for this program.  And I think
the reference to the planning and the development grants is very
important.  And while the competition for the implementation grants
is out there.  Every state already is in the process of planning and
developing and looking at technology and looking at the other aspects
of the program that they want to emphasize and bring forth.

             Q    What sort of an environment are these extra one or
two years -- a classroom environment or a workplace environment?  And
is this akin to -- can it in any way be described as an apprentice
program?

             SECRETARY REICH:  It is a kind of apprenticeship program
in the sense that after the two years, after 11th and 12th grade,
employers are actively engaged in developing the curriculum.
Employers within an industry, employers within a region working with
the schools, often community colleges in developing that final year
or two of curriculum.  So we're really talking about a potential
three or four years beginning in 10th grade that integrates school
and work.

             Q    So if someone is thinking, for example, of becoming
an electrician, in this final one or two years, what I think I'm
hearing is that people who are electrical contractors are involved in
this process and actually train this person to become an electrician.
Or is it not that specific?

             SECRETARY REICH:  It could be that specific.  But let me
give you some other examples.  Not too long ago I was in Boston and
visited a program in which young people were being taught in the
afternoons how to apply construction skills on the job.  They were
building a homeless shelter and in the morning, they were learning
mathematics, geometry and other relevant mathematics.

             A young girl came up to me with a big smile on her face
-- and these were young people in danger of dropping out -- and she
said, "I love geometry."  Nobody had ever said that to me before.
And I asked her why.  And she said because she's learning in the
morning geometry, and she can actually apply it in the afternoon.
This is the 11th and 12th grade.


             Another example -- to be a car mechanic these days,
you've got to understand the electronics underneath the hood of a
car.  The old days of being a car mechanic are long gone.  The old
vocational education track which was completely separated in some
cases from the academic track no longer is applicable to many of
these jobs.  You do need some extra training and skills.

             In Chicago not long ago I talked with a group of
employers in the plastic injection molding business.  They couldn't
get young people because  they needed, those young people needed
extra skills to get into that business to understand statistical
process control and other dimensions of that business.

             But again, we in this country do not have presently a
system for helping young people get from school to work into
technical occupations, technician occupations.  All we have
essentially is a college program, a four-year college program which
often is unnecessary to many of the jobs of the future.  We should
not shoehorn every young person who wants a good job in America.  We
should not shoehorn them into a four-college program.  Only 25
percent of our young people graduate from college.  And many of the
good jobs do not need a four-year college degree

             SECRETARY RILEY:  Let me say a word about the whole
spectrum of education from Head Start and early childhood on into K
through 12 with Goals 2000 high standards all the way through capital
assessment.  All of that, then the high standards -- what a young
person should know in the 11th grade in terms of science or algebra
or whatever.

             Once we have those goals there that the whole systemic
part of education would drive young people towards learning.  Then
when you get into the high school years, of course, you had all of
that hopefully strong background, and then young people who want to
get into career learning have no lesser standards.  I think that's an
important factor.

             We're talking about the same high standards all the way
through the system, the same knowledge about math and science and
foreign language or whatever.  Those young people who decide to go
into career learning, then in the 11th or 12th grade would learn
about algebra and geometry and whatever in a different way, perhaps.
Not all of their classes would be totally different.  But if a young
person was interested in finance, then they would spend time in a
local bank, and bankers would be in the class meeting with them, or a
stockbroker or whatever.  And through that process would learn higher
levels of math and how to use the math, the basic math that they had
learned in algebra and geometry.

             So I think if you see this is a very different kind of a
process.  This measure really puts together a collaboration.  That
is, it gets the business leaders, the industrial leaders, the
educators, the government leaders, parents, and all together in a
community and develops for that community, with this industry and
that business that's out there, real and relevant in that community,
how then should you develop this classroom in the school, as Bob
described it, and then in the work base and then the connecting the
two.

             So I want you to understand we're talking about raising
standards for all children, all the way through the system and this
just brings in this exciting way for them to deal with reaching those
standards in those last couple of years, and then on into higher
education.

             Q    Secretary Reich, as you may know, this morning the
Federal Reserve in consertation with some other central banks were
involved in supporting the U.S. dollar.  Is the Clinton

administration concerned that the weaker dollar -- the dollar current
levels is inflationary?

             SECRETARY REICH:  No.  No.  We are on a steady,
sustainable, noninflationary course.  The economy is in good shape;
it is not over-heating; it is not under-heating.  We are seeing
continuation -- and I'm not going to make any predictions because the
new employment numbers are coming out this Friday -- but with regard
to last month, the months before, we have seen steady, solid
employment growth, and we expect that to continue.  There is no
inflation on the horizon at all.  Incomes are growing, but they are
not growing in any ways that would signal inflation, inflationary
concerns.

             Q    So there is no concern then with the dollar at
current levels that that might in and of itself be inflationary?

             SECRETARY REICH:  No, because, again, the dollar
currency valuations are relatively short-term phenomena.  Currencies
go up, they move up, they move down, and that is dependant upon
expectations of holders of any individual currency as to what another
currency is going to do in the short-term.

             We're talking not about the paper economy; we're talking
about the real economy here.  And Secretary Riley and I are talking
about the heart of the real economy, which is the skills of our work
force.

             Q    Quick question.  They areas -- do you have -- does
the federal government have specific job areas that it wants to
promote in this whole plan?

             SECRETARY REICH:  No.  It would be inappropriate for the
government to indicate which skills are necessary for the future
economy.  We want employers to come together with educators and plot
that future.  In fact, as part of Goals 2000, there is a national
voluntary skills standards process so that employers and community-
based organizations, educators, labor leaders can come together and
analyze the trends; see what kinds of skills are going to be in
demand; what kind of certification programs, voluntary certification
programs, are most useful for kids who do not go on to a four-year
college.

             Again, the four-year college degree has become a proxy
for employers too often, signaling that here is a person who is worth
investing in for lifelong learning.  That should not be the case.
Seventy-five percent of our kids don't graduate from a four-year
college.  They are on a downward escalator right now, and we have got
to reverse that trend.  This is part of an effort, along with Goals
2000, the voluntary skills certification process, and the school-to-
work process, that seeks to reverse that trend, as well as the Re-
employment Act; these all fit together.

             THE PRESS:  Thank you.

                                 END11:30 A.M. EDT

-------**********======================================**********--------
Gene V Glass                                         Glass@ASU.BITNET
College of Education                                 Glass@ASU.EDU
Arizona State University      602-965-2692           Tempe, AZ 85287-2411