|
Congressional
Record
PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 102d
CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION
Vol.138 WASHINGTON, FRIDAY, OCTOBER
9, 1992 No 145
PORTABLE PRACTICAL EDUCATIONAL PREPARATION
TRAINING FOR EMPLOYMENT CENTERS [PPEP TEC]
HON. ED PASTOR
OF ARIZONA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Monday, October 5, 1992
Mr. PASTOR, Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to share with
my colleagues the excellent work being done by Portable
Practical Educational Preparation Training for Employment
Centers (PPEP). I wish to recognize PPEP TEC as a national
model for providing job training for hard-to-serve rural
clients in Arizona.
Twenty-five years ago, Portable Practical Educational
Preparation, or Project PPEP, began its services to
the rural residents of Arizona from a single green,
rusted school bus called La Tortuga, by local residents.
The bus driver and founder of Project PPEP, Dr. John
Arnold, had essentially rediscovered a riding model
for delivery of social services which had been used
some 300 years earlier by Father Kino, the great mission
builder of the Southwestern area later to become the
United States. In La Tortuga, Project PPEP traveled
from Indian village to farm laborer camps providing
services that other citizens of our great Nation take
for granted-education, rudimentary health care, assistance
in obtaining suitable housing, and clean water to drink.
The primary thrust of Project PPEP was and still is,
to provide job training. It's 12 major programs, administered
by 250 employees, dealt with helping rural residents
obtain and maintain unsubsidized employment. In 1980,
Project PPEP became, and continues to be, the Arizona
grantee for the education and training of migrant and
seasonal farm workers through the Department of Labor's
JTPA program.
In order to share some of the training concepts developed
over years of trial and error, Project PPEP has published
extensively through the U.S. Department of Education
and the National Institute of Education. In 1986, Project
PPEP's Training for Employment Centers, or PPEP TEC's
were accredited by ACCET, a nationally recognized accredited
agency, and approved by the Department of Education
by ACCET in 1990 resulted in their awarding of the maximum
limit of reaccredidation until 1995.
As a nonprofit postsecondary institution, PPEP TEC
is dedicated to reaching out to those persons whom the
public system has failed and society has let fall through
the cracks and given up.
Such clients include single parent mothers, farm workers,
off-reservation Native Americans, other minorities and
rural poor. The school serves these clients with opportunities
which are creative, economical and comprehensive.
PPEP TEC has repeatedly demonstrated its resourcefulness
in leveraging Department of Labor funds, direct student
financial aid fro the Department of Education, and local
funding sources. PPEP TEC specializes in training for
employment, utilizing very affective approaches. This
is a successful program that meets the need of a population
that would otherwise be ignored by the system.
Besides the successful human transition from the ranks
of the unemployed to skilled workers and economical
self-sufficiency, PPEP TEC has saved the American taxpayer
in the millions of dollars. Therefore, I wish to recognize
the important mission of the PPEP Training for Employment
Centers in providing education and training to rural
residents of Arizona.
Futhermore, I wish to recognize PPEP TEC for, in the
word of John Florez, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary
of Labor, for "responding to needs and making the
connections to remove barriers" in the education
and training of rural residents.
National leaders, local community leaders, employers,
and former students have demonstrated that the PPEP
TEC model for delivery of education and training works
and works well, and is hereby offered as a model which
may be replicated in neglected rural areas throughout
the Nation.
And last, I wish to commend the informal partnership
of the Department of Labor and The Department of Education
culminating in the much-needed PPEP Tec program, which
has saved the taxpayer unfold dollars in public welfare
payments to those rural residents who are now employed
taxpayers themselves. PPEP TEC has carried out its mission
of successfully serving people form disadvantaged backgrounds.
It is with great pleasure that I submit PPEP TEC as
a national model for the education and training of disadvantaged
rural residents.
|
