ESEA: Educating the Forgotten Half. Hearing of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on Examining Various Strategies for Transforming the Forgotten Half into the Indispensable Foundation of the 21st Century Workforce and for Making Secondary Education the Centerpiece of Those Strategies. United States Senate, One Hundred Sixth Congress, First Session.

This document records the oral and written testimony from a 1999 Senate Committee hearing on "the forgotten half"--young people who do not continue their education past high school and, in many cases, do not finish high school. Witnesses testified that there is a great need for persons with technical skills to fill existing and projected jobs in the United States, but that young people with the appropriate skills cannot be found. In response to this need, some witnesses suggested that more attention should be paid to high schools when Congress re-authorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Current legislation directs only 8 percent of the funds authorized by the act to high schools, although 28 percent of students are in high school. The witnesses asked for more funding for programs to improve high school teaching in technical areas and for minority and disadvantaged students, and to create innovative programs. Several witnesses profiled the programs in which they are involved, which have been successful in helping low-achieving students to acquire basic and technical skills and to advance to postsecondary education and to higher-wage employment. (KC)