Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 5, 1994 TAG: 9405050153
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The law, intended to address the gap in income between the college-educated and the rest of the work force, is aimed at training the 75 percent of young Americans who move into the workplace without a four-year college degree.
Students generally would enroll in the programs in the 11th grade and continue in them for one or two years after graduation.
"We must not only create more jobs, we have to make it possible for people who work hard and do the right thing" to become members of the middle class, Clinton said at the signing ceremony in a large tent on the South Lawn of the White House.
The new law is part of Clinton's overall education program, aimed at "lifetime learning" and symbolized by the Goals 2000 bill signed into law earlier this year in an effort to raise education standards nationwide.
"If we don't give our own people the chance to reap the rewards of economic progress, we will have failed," Clinton said as he addressed educators, members of Congress, and business and union leaders.
He said the legislation will bring together educators and business employers to provide school and post-school job training.
Under the legislation, the departments of Education and Labor will distribute $100 million this year to help states, communities, schools, employers and labor unions start building a school-to-work network.
Education Secretary Richard Riley and Labor Secretary Robert Reich said they hope Congress will make $300 million available next year and larger amounts in the future.
Clinton said the aluminum and smoke-colored plexiglass desk, made by students in the Manufacturing Technology Program in Flint, Mich., "symbolizes what this is all about." He said the students were told the desk had to be inexpensive and easy to move and reassemble.
by CNB