7/26/2019 Tucker Letter Pg3

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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Ext ensi ons of Remarks E1821

three years of acquiring the general edu-cation cert ifi cate, so, for most postsecondarystudents, coll ege wil l be free. These profes-sional and technical degree programs will bedesigned to link to programs leading to thebaccalaureate degree and higher degrees.T here wi l l be no dead ends in th is system.Everyone who meets the general educationstandard will be able to go to some form ofcollege, being able to borrow all the moneythey need to do so, beyond the first freeyear.

T hi s idea of post-secondary professionaland technical certificates captures all of the

essentials of the apprenticeship idea, whileoffering none of i ts drawbacks (see below).

But it also makes it clear that those en-gaged in apprentice-style programs are get-ting more than narrow training; they arecontinuing their education for other pur-poses as well, and building a base for moreeducation later. Clearly, this idea redefinescoll ege. Pr oprietary schools, employers andcommunity-based organizations will want tooffer these programs, as well as communitycoll eges and four-year insti tut ions, but thesenew entrants will have to be accredited ifthey are to quali fy t o offer t he programs.

Employers are not required to provideslots for the structured on-the-job trainingcomponent of the program but many do so,because they get first access to the most ac-complished graduates of these programs, andthey can use these programs to introduce thetrainees to their own values and way ofdoing thi ngs.

T he syst em of ski l l standards for technicaland professional degrees is the same for stu-dents just coming out of high school and foradults in the workforce. It is pregressive, inthe sense that certificates and degrees forentry level jobs lead to further professionaland technical education programs at higherlevels. J ust as in t he case of the system forthe schools, though the standards are thesame everywhere (leading to maximum mo-bility for students), the curricula can varywidely and programs can be custom designedto fit the needs of full-time and part-timestudents with very different requirements.Government grant and loan programs areavailable on the same terms to full-time andpart-time students, as long as the programs

in which they are enrolled are designed tolead to certificates and degrees defined bythe system of professional and technicalstandards.

T he nat ional system of professional andtechnical standards is designed much l ik ethe multistate bar, which provides a na-tional core around which the states canspecify additional standards that meet theirunique needs. There are nati onal standardsand exams for no more than 20 broad occupa-tional areas, each of which can lead to manyoccupations in a number of related indus-tries. Students who quality in any one ofthese areas have the broad skills required bya whole family of occupations, and most aresufficiently skilled to enter the workforceimmediately, with further occupation-spe-cific skills provided by their union or em-

ployer. Industry and occupational groups canvoluntarily create standards building onthese broad standards for their own needs, ascan the states. Students entering the systemare first introduced to very broad occupa-tional groups, narrowing over time to con-centrate on acquir ing t he sk il ls needed for acluster of occupati ons. T his modular systemprovides for the initiative of particularstates and industri es whil e at the same ti meproviding for mobility across states and oc-cupations by reducing the time and cost en-tailed in moving from one occupation to an-other. In this way, a balance is establishedbetween the ki nds of generic ski ll s needed tofunction effectively in high performance

work organizations and the skills needed tocontinue learning quickly and well through alifetime of work, on the one hand, and thespecific skills needed to perform at a highlevel i n a part icul ar occupation on the other.

Institutions receiving grant and loan fundsunder this system are required to provide in-formation to the public and to governmentagencies in a uniform format. T his informa-tion covers enrollment by program, costsand success rates for students of differentbackgrounds, and characterist ics, and careeroutcomes for those students, thereby ena-bling students to make informed choices

among institutions based on cost and per-formance. L oan defaul ts are reduced to alevel close to zero, both because programsthat do not deliver what they promise arenot selected by prospective students and be-cause the new postsecondary loan systemuses the IRS to collect what is owed fromsalaries and wages as they are earned.

E D U C A T I O N A N DT R A I N I N G F O R E M P L O Y E D A N DUN E M P L O Y E D A D U L T S

T he nat ional system of ski l ls standards es-tablishes the basis for the development of acoherent, unifi ed training system. T hat sys-tem can be accessed by students coming outof high school, employed adults who want toimprove their prospects, unemployed adultswho are dislocated and others who lack thebasic skills required to get out of poverty.But it is all the same system. There are nolonger any parts of i t t hat are exclusively forthe disadvantaged, though special measuresare taken to make sure that the disadvan-taged are served. I t is a system for every one,just as al l the part s of the system alreadydescribed are for everyone. So the peoplewho tak e advantage of thi s system are notmark ed by i t as damaged goods. T he ski ll sthey acquire are world class, clear and de-fined in part by the employers who willmake decisions about hi ri ng and advance-ment.

T he new general educati on standar d be-comes the target for all basic education pro-grams, both for school dropouts and adults.Achieving that standard is the prerequisitefor enrollment in all professional and tech-nical degree programs. A wide range of agen-cies and institutions offer programs leading

to the general education certificate, includ-ing high schools, dropout recovery centers,adult education centers, community col-leges, pri sons, and employers. T hese pro-grams are tailored to the needs of the peoplewho enroll in them. All the programs receiv-ing government grant or loads funds thatcome with dropouts and adults for enroll-ment in programs preparing students tomeet the general education standard mustrelease the same kind of data requi red of thepostsecondary institutions on enrollment,program description, cost and success rates.Reports are produced for each institutionand for the system as a whole showing dif-ferential success rates for each major demo-graphic group.

T he system is funded in four dif ferentways, all providing access to the same or a

similar set of services. School dropoutsbelow the age of 21 are entitled to the sameamount of funding from the same sourcesthat they would have been entitled to hadthey stayed in school. Dislocated workersare funded by the federal governmentthrough the federal programs for that pur-pose and by state unemployment insurancefunds. The chronical ly unemployed are fund-ed by federal and state funds established forthat purpose. E mployed people can accessthe system through the requirement thattheir employers spend an amount equal to112 percent of their salary and wage bill ontraining leading to national skill certifi-cation. P eople in pri son could get reducti ons

in their sentences by meeting the generaleducation standard in a program provided bythe pri son system. Any of these groups canalso use the funds in their individual train-ing account, if they have any, the balancesin their grant entitlement or their access tothe student loan fund.

L A B OR M A R K E T S Y S T E M S

T he Employment Servi ce is greatly up-graded and separated from the Unemploy-ment I nsurance F und. A ll avail able front-li ne jobs whether publi c or pri vate mustbe listed in it by law. This provision must becareful ly designed to mak e sure that em-

ployers will not be subject to employmentsuits based on the data produced by this sys-tem if t hey are subject to such suits, theywill not participate. All trainees in the sys-tem looking for work are entitled to be list-ed in it without a fee. So it is no longer asystem just for the poor and unskilled, butfor everyone. The system is full y computer-ized. It lists not only job openings and jobseekers (with their qualifications) but alsoall the institut ions in the labor mark et areaoffering programs leading to the general edu-cation certificate and those offering pro-grams leading to the professional and tech-nical college degrees and certificates, alongwith all the relevant data about the costs,characteristics and performance of thoseprograms for every one and for special popu-lations. Counselors are available to any citi-

zen to help them assess their needs, plan aprogram, and finance it, and once they aretrained, to find an opening.

A system of labor market boards is estab-li shed at t he local, state and federal levels t ocoordinate the systems for job training,postsecondary professional and technicaleducation, adult basic education, j ob match-ing and counseli ng. The rebuil t E mploymentServi ce is supervi sed by these boards. Thesystems clients no longer have to go fromagency to agency filling out separate appli-cations for separate programs. It is all takencare of at t he local l abor mark et board officeby one counselor accessing the integratedcomputer-based program, which mak es i tpossible for the counselor to determine eligi-bility for all relevant programs at once, plana program with the client and assemble the

necessary funding from all the availablesources. T he same system wi ll enable coun-selor and cli ent to array al l the relevant pro-gram providers side by side, assess their rel-ative costs and performance records and de-termine which providers are best able tomeet the clients needs based on perform-ance.

S OM E C OM M O N F E A T U R E S

T hroughout , the object i s to have a per-formance-and-client-oriented system to en-courage local creativity and responsibilityby getting local people to commit to highgoals and organize to achi eve them, sweepingaway as much of the rules, regulations andbureaucracy that are in their way as pos-sible, provided that they are maki ng realprogress against t heir goals. F or thi s towork , the standards at every level of t he sys-

tem have to be clear: every client has toknow what they have to accompli sh in orderto get what they want out of t he system. Theservice providers have to be supported in thetask of getti ng their clients to the finish li neand rewarded when they are mak ing realprogress toward that goal. We would sweepaway means-tested programs, because theystigmatize their recipients and alienate thepublic, replacing them with programs thatare for everyone, but also work for the dis-advantaged. We would replace rules defininginputs with rules defining outcomes and therewards for achieving them. Thi s means,among other things, permitting local peopleto combine as many federal programs as