Clinton to Focus on Students Who Pass Up College

Bill Clinton’s Administration plans to focus much of its education program on what it calls “the forgotten half,” the huge population of high school students who do not go to college, according to transition officials.

A key component of the concept may be a proposal under consideration by President-elect Clinton to create 300,000 youth apprenticeships--at an estimated cost of $1 billion over the next four years--in which on-the-job work experience would be combined with the last two years of high school and two years at community colleges.

“Apprenticeships will be a high priority,” said Michael Cohen, co-director of the transition team on education, which presented the proposal to Clinton and an official of the National Center on Education and Economy.

The plan is loosely patterned after programs in Europe, particularly in Germany, where, experts say, the world’s most effective apprenticeships have been in effect for decades.

The concept espoused by Clinton differs from the traditional approach of most federal and state education programs, which are aimed at the college-bound. Not only do high schools offer counseling services to help students find the right college, government aid programs provide them with grants or loans to help pay for their schooling.

Clinton hopes to focus his Administration’s efforts on the more than 50% of students who choose not to pursue a traditional college education and who, aides say, have been largely ignored by school programs even though they face the most daunting obstacles in attempting to find well-paying jobs.

“We do far too little for the ‘forgotten half’ that do not go to college, a group that other nations take care to train and retrain throughout their lifetimes,” Clinton said during his campaign.

The President-elect has been spurred to zero in on those who do not go to college for reasons both of economics and of fairness, his aides said.

In 1988, his wife, Hillary, served on a national commission, funded by the W. T. Grant Foundation, which examined the plight of young people leaving high school. Its report, entitled “The Forgotten Half,” found that the median incomes of people age 20 to 24 who headed a household had fallen 27% between 1973 and 1986. Since then, the recession almost certainly has made matters worse.

“As these young Americans navigate the passage from youth to adulthood, far too many flounder,” the report concluded. “Their lives as adults start in the economic limbo of unemployment, part-time jobs and poverty wages. Many of them never break free.”

Clinton has cited the report frequently and did so again at his meeting of economic leaders in Little Rock, Ark.

In addition, business leaders have encouraged the President-elect to focus more attention on these young people. They contend that such international competitors as Germany and Japan do a better job than the United States in preparing most young people--not just the academically talented--to move into skilled jobs in a technologically oriented economy.

Germany has the best system of youth apprenticeships, labor experts say, with as many as half of its students receiving help to enter one of more than 300 distinct occupations.

But while Clinton often has talked admiringly of the German system, education and training experts say there are questions about whether a similar approach could work here.

In Germany, business and industry leaders play the key role in designing the training programs and assume much of their cost.

By contrast, American business officials usually have not seen education or job training as their duty, at least not for preparing new employees.

“There is a real question whether (American) employers will see this as being in their self-interest. They certainly don’t want to run a social welfare program,” said Samuel Halperin, director of the Grant Foundation study.

But since Washington cannot create apprenticeships alone, it will have to find ways to foster cooperation among cities, counties, educators, business leaders and union officials to create them, Clinton aides say.

To that end, the new Administration may opt to offer federal funds to help initiate city or county councils that could plan and monitor school-to-work programs. A few “demonstration projects” could be funded to showcase this approach.

While estimates of the potential cost are hazy, transition aides said the new Administration may seek to spend up to $1 billion during the next four years.

The trick to making such programs effective for students, Cohen said, is to link academics closely with the work experience.

The apprenticeship program envisioned by Clinton’s advisers would begin during the final two years of high school and extend for two more years in a community or technical college. Educators have dubbed it the “2 plus 2 option.”

To be sure, the concept is not entirely new. For decades, high schools have permitted some students to work part time as part of their academic program. By some accounts, about 3,000 students nationwide are now participating in apprenticeships.

But typically, students get menial jobs--often in large facilities such as a hospital or a city agency--that do not broaden their abilities or lead to real careers.

“Simply putting them behind the counter at a fast-food restaurant is not it. Those kinds of programs have been roundly criticized,” Halperin said. “But what if those students were taught all aspects of the fast-food industry: inventory, food preparation, personnel, advertising, building and leasing of new restaurants and so on . . . and that was combined with a rigorous academic program?”

The Clinton Administration also plans to pursue other approaches, such as bringing business counselors into schools, upgrading technical training in community colleges and improving job market information for young people.

Transition aides caution that there are many unanswered questions, including whether the youth apprenticeship program will be housed in the Education Department or the Labor Department.

That decision, like others, rests with Clinton.

“We just presented him with some options,” Cohen said. “Bill Clinton will make the final decisions, including how fast to move on this.”