DELAINE EASTIN'S PLANS FOR PREPARING
YOUNG PEOPLE FOR WORK
(exerpts from speech delivered at UCLA, April 24, 1994)

I also want to focus a great deal of my time and attention
on non-college bound young people. My father was a machinist.
My brother repairs commercial air conditioning and refridgeration
systems. I have a deep appreciation and respect for the skilled
trades.

We must develop a technical curriculum that prepares young
men and women for work in the information age. And we cannot do
that with programs and equipment that are mired in the 1950s.

We must modernize not only our equipment, but our approach
to learning -- by linking school more closely to the workplace.

We face an additional challenge presented by the downsizing
of the military. We didn't just lose military jobs. We lost one
of the best training programs in America. And we've got to make
up for it.

Right now in California, we have a patchwork of 23 different
programs for non-college bound kids. They have a total budget in
excess of $3 billion. But there is no comprehensive school to
work transition system. There is a great deal of overlap --
and no clearly articulated learning program with standards,
modern curriculum and skills certificates.

Again, we are getting some help from the federal government.
The Senate passed the School to Work Transition Act just last
week -- which will give California 18 million dollars in new
funding next year.

We've got to use that federal money to develop curriculum
frameworks and assessment measures for non-college bound
young people -- in much the same way we've done for college bound
over the last decade.

We have successful models for such a system -- in the 45
"partnership academies," where business works in partnership with
schools to provide students with job skills.
The Printing Industry Association in Pasadena, for example,
prepares kids for jobs in the printing industry. There is a
health care academy in Fresno. A computer academy in San Diego.
Partnership Academies provide an excellent model. But we need
more of them as well as an articulated program between high
school and post-secondary training.

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