Every Child Achieves Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Maryland, and I second the comments she has made about the status of our employees who have been jeopardized. I am excited to work together on the legislation introduced last Friday to provide them some protection.

AMENDMENT NO. 2118

Mr. President, I do rise on behalf of an amendment that will be voted on within the next hour, Kaine amendment No. 2118, which is a bipartisan amendment to the Every Child Achieves Act. It is an amendment to promote career readiness indicators and make sure our students, when they finish high school, are not just ready for college but they are ready for careers.

This is part of a series of amendments I have worked on in a bipartisan basis, some of which have been included in the underlying bill and one of which was passed as a floor amendment last week.

I thank the managers, Senators ALEXANDER and MURRAY, for working together to support this bipartisan amendment. We need to work to make sure we help all of our students graduate from high school ready for postsecondary education and the workforce.

Over the past 40 years, the percentage of jobs that require some form of postsecondary education has doubled from 29 percent to now nearly 60 percent, but the education system hasn't kept pace with the demand for a more highly educated and skilled workforce. More importantly, we need to define what that is--highly educated and skilled--to incorporate career and technical training, which, for a variety of reasons in the last generation or so, was sort of an undervalued part of the spectrum of American public education.

Within a very few years--by 2020, when our pages are now going to be out in the workforce--two-thirds of jobs will require at least some form of postsecondary education. But projections demonstrate that as a nation we will fall short by nearly 5 million workers. We are already seeing these shortages and having to deal with them, for example, through specialty visas. That is fine for the economy, but wouldn't it be better if we could train those in school right now to be skilled in the areas where the jobs are needed?

The career readiness amendment addresses this problem by encouraging--not requiring but encouraging--States to include in their accountability systems the types of indicators that demonstrate students are ready for postsecondary education and the workforce. These indicators would include State-designed measures to integrate rigorous academics, work-based learning and career and technical education, or technical skill attainment and placement. That will be the core of this bill.

By doing this, we send a strong message to schools, businesses, parents, and students that it is critical to be prepared for the workforce of the 21st century regardless of postsecondary education plans. As I have talked to educators, counselors, and parents, they have often commented upon the degree to which career and technical training has sort of been downgraded and that students aren't encouraged in that area, even though there are great professions to achieve in this area.

Under the amendment, schools and districts would have an incentive to partner with businesses and industries to provide career pathways for students. It is important for State accountability systems. I say this as a Virginian who is very proud of the Virginia accountability system. It is currently kind of managed by my wife, who is the secretary of education in Virginia. But it is important for these systems to measure and reward schools for helping students earn industry-recognized credentials or earn credit for college while in high school.

Just as an example, if you are a Virginia student and you take the Virginia Standards of Learning Test and you pass, that doesn't necessarily mean anything in North Carolina, and much less Oregon. But if you are a Virginia high school student and you pass a Cisco Systems administrator exam, you can take that credential, move to Oregon and get a job tomorrow. These industry credentials are, in many ways, more known, more valued, and more portable than high school credentials State by State.

Schools across the country are providing this kind of important learning opportunity. Here are just two examples, and then I will conclude. In Alexandria, just across the Potomac, the Academy of Finance at T.C. Williams High School instructs students in money management skills, financial planning, and business development. Students complete a 3-year sequential program, start working at an on-site credit union in the school, and they get early college credit for that financial literacy.

At the other end of the State--in southwest Virginia, in Vinton, near the city of Roanoke--William Byrd High School, after struggling during the 1990s to prepare students for college and career, sought input from nearby businesses and implemented programs in engineering, communication, business, and marketing to match local job needs. These partnerships are helpful in helping students find jobs, and they have also engendered student interest in the curriculum. The school has a 90-percent graduation rate, and 83 percent of students go on to postsecondary education.

I want to thank Senators PORTMAN and BALDWIN--I think Senator Portman was planning on speaking, and may still--for their involvement and working together with me on this particular amendment and on the Senate CTE Caucus.

I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan initiative, and again, I thank the bill managers for working together with us.

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