On July 31 the House passed and sent to the President H.R. 69, The One section of the bill, Section 122, extends the program for migratory children under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The amendments to that act direct the Commissioner of Education to make use of the Migrant Student Record Transfer System to determine the actual number of migrant students. Since this is an important step in the migrant program under Title I, I would like to request that the GAO audit the MSRTS to determine its accuracy, its efficiency, the degree of participation, and other relevant information. OVERSIGHT HEARING ON MIGRANT EDUCATION PROGRAMS FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1975 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURAL LABOR OF THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:45 a.m., in room 2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon, William D. Ford (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Members present: Representatives Ford, Meeds, and O'Hara. Also present: Thomas R. Jolly, subcommittee counsel; Patricia R. Morse, subcommittee clerk; Toni J. Grant, research assistant; James J. Soran III, research aid; and Christopher T. Cross, minority legislative associate. Mr. FORD. We will call the hearing to order. Congressman O'Hara is about to join us. We seem to have an uncanny ability with these hearings to run afoul of the dynamics of the operation of the House. There is a big meeting taking place, I believe tomorrow, in Paris between a group of our colleagues and the North Vietnamese to try to finalize some discussions on the missing-in-action problem still hanging over from the unfortunate events that we were involved in in Southeast Asia. That, in part, is why there is going to be a pro forma session of the House today, which dictates that people head for their commitments in their districts as quickly as they learn that that is going to be the case. So we are going to be able to go through until noon, I take it. During hearings in Washington last month we heard from and questioned at some length representatives of the Office of Education with regard to the Federal responsibility and the role they are playing in the area of education for migrant children. Today we have an opportunity to get a broader picture of the success and failures of the program; I hope more success than failure. I am very pleased that we will finally be able to hear from the National Education Association, who should get some kind of award for attending hearings and being cut off by something else happening before we get to them on the program. I want to apologize once again for the events, certainly not within the control of this committee, that have made that necessary in the past. We are especially happy that we were able to schedule this hearing to take advantage of the presence in Washington of people who are involved with the migrant education programs, directors and coordinators from the State level who have actually been working with (97) the program, and I am particularly happy to see my own State represented here today by Jesse Soriano. I expect Congressman O'Hara very shortly, Jesse, and as you know, when he was chairman of this committee, he was at the bottom of the plot to add migrant education to the education programs. So that we can hear from all of them, we will get started at this point, and I would like to call representatives of the National Education Association, Roy O. Fuentes and Lance Lujan. If you will come up. We have a prepared statement pursuant to the rules, presented by Mr. Fuentes in behalf of the National Education Association. Without objection that statement will be inserted at this point in the record. and you may proceed to add to it, to amplify it, highlight it, comment in any way you feel most productive. [The information referred to follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF ROY O. FUENTES, DIRECTOR, MIGRANT PROJECT, NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee, I am Roy Fuentes. Director of the Migrant Project for the National Education Association. The National Education Association represents some 1.7 million educators in the U.S. Thank you, Chairman Ford and members of the Subcommittee, for the oppor tunity to express the National Education Association's concerns about the prob lems of migrant farmworkers and their children. These hearings also afford me the opportunity to personally commend you, Chairman Ford, for your genuinde concern and leadership in finding solutions to the problems of migrant farmworkers. There is no question that migrant farmworkers need strong advocates in Congress. As advocates for migrant farmworkers, we need to be cognizant of the differ ences between migrants and the general population. Legislation is written with the assumption that the population is stable. Permanent residency facilitates the ciitzen's access to benefits of the legislation. Migrant farmworkers are denied this access because of the highly mobile patterns demanded by their employment of because they have been specifically excluded from legislation, policy, and regula tions at all levels of government. The National Education Association joins you and others in working for one of America's most neglected populations, the migrant farmworkers. The National Education Association's support of migrant farmworkers was most recently arte ulated last July by the Representative Assembly, the Association's chief gover ing body, in Resolution 75–27, which states: "The National Education Association is concerned with the plight of migrant workers, particularly with the education of those migrant children who are pushed out of school because of the system's failure to provide needed educational opportunities. "The Association urges its local affiliates to negotiate provisions that will guarantee protection and full rights for teachers of migrant children. The Association supports legislation to insure equal educational opportunities for migrant children, appropriate programs for migrant families, and the right of migrant workers to be represented in collective bargaining by an organization of their choice. "Mini-Corps, as defined by federal legislation, should be instituted in every state that has migrant children in its school system." As you know, Mr. Chairman, the problems of migrant farmworkers include low wages and seasonal work, unemployment, limited coverage under labor legislation, job displacement caused by mechanization in agriculture, low skill levels, undereducation, and critical health and housing needs. These problems are further complicated by the high mobility of this population and in many instances by language and cultural differences. In assisting a migrant family. all of these problems must be dealt with simultaneously. They cannot be permanently isolated from each other. They aggravate one another. The National Education Association is sympathetic to each of these problems. Our main con |