Full Text of HJR0129 95th General Assembly
HJ0129 95TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, There is compelling evidence that persons with low | 3 |
| education face diminished opportunities and inferior economic | 4 |
| and personal well being; compared to high school graduates, | 5 |
| dropouts earn less, pay less in taxes, and rely more on public | 6 |
| health, criminal justice, and welfare services; and
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| WHEREAS, Less educated workers are more likely to suffer | 8 |
| from heart conditions, strokes, hypertension, high | 9 |
| cholesterol, depression, and diabetes, as well as from a range | 10 |
| of behaviors that contribute to ill health, such as smoking; | 11 |
| and
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| WHEREAS, The probability of incarceration for black male | 13 |
| dropouts is at least 60%; and
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| WHEREAS, High school graduation reduces crimes by 20% for | 15 |
| murder, rape, and other violent crimes; by 11% for property | 16 |
| crime; and by 12% for drug related offenses; and
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| WHEREAS, Black adolescent males in the United States face a | 18 |
| far more dire situation than is portrayed by common employment | 19 |
| and education statistics, a flurry of new scholarly studies | 20 |
| warn, and it has worsened in recent years even as an economic | 21 |
| boom and a welfare overhaul have brought gains to black women |
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| and other groups; and
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| WHEREAS, Several recent studies by experts at Columbia | 3 |
| University, Princeton University, Harvard University, and | 4 |
| other institutions focusing more closely than ever on the life | 5 |
| patterns of young black men show that the huge pool of poorly | 6 |
| educated black men are becoming ever more disconnected from | 7 |
| mainstream society and to a far greater degree than comparable | 8 |
| white or Hispanic men; and
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| WHEREAS, In the country's inner cities, the studies show, | 10 |
| finishing high school is the exception, legal work is scarcer | 11 |
| than ever, and prison is almost routine, with incarceration | 12 |
| rates climbing for blacks even as urban crime rates have | 13 |
| declined; and
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| WHEREAS, In the year 2000, 65% of black male high school | 15 |
| dropouts in their 20's were jobless, that is unable to find | 16 |
| work, not seeking it, or incarcerated; by 2004, the share had | 17 |
| grown to 72%, compared with 34% of white and 19% of Hispanic | 18 |
| dropouts. Even when high school graduates were included, half | 19 |
| of black men in their 20's were jobless in 2004, up from 46% in | 20 |
| 2000; and
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| WHEREAS, Alvin Poussaint, a professor of psychiatry at the | 22 |
| Harvard Medical School in Boston and author of several books on |
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| African-American issues, links the problems of joblessness and | 2 |
| violence to education; further, he associated that with an | 3 |
| increase in the number of black men who are in prison; with | 4 |
| unemployment, many look for alternative ways for making money, | 5 |
| and unfortunately that leads to a lot of anti-social and even | 6 |
| criminal behavior; and
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| WHEREAS, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. established the | 8 |
| "Go-to-High-School, Go-to-College" program in 1922, which | 9 |
| concentrates on the importance of completing secondary and | 10 |
| collegiate education as a road to advancement; and
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| WHEREAS, Statistics prove the value of this extra impetus | 12 |
| in making the difference in the success of young | 13 |
| African-American men, given that school completion is the | 14 |
| single best predictor of future economic success; and
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| WHEREAS, It is through the Go-to-High-School, | 16 |
| Go-to-College educational initiative that young men receive | 17 |
| information and learn strategies that facilitate success; | 18 |
| Alpha men provide youth participants with excellent role models | 19 |
| to emulate; and
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| WHEREAS, The Go-to-High-School, Go-to-College educational | 21 |
| initiative is a program counseling youth on the importance of | 22 |
| post-secondary education while introducing them to promising |
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| professions; through the program, students and their families | 2 |
| are provided information about college entrance and financial | 3 |
| aid; the counseling thrust is augmented by a vigorous | 4 |
| scholarship program for college-bound youth; and
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| WHEREAS, The members of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., | 6 |
| both current college students and college graduates, many of | 7 |
| whom are professional educators, are uniquely positioned to | 8 |
| give the proper insight and perspective to the problem of high | 9 |
| school dropouts and can play a leading role in developing | 10 |
| solutions to reduce the skyrocketing high school dropout rate; | 11 |
| therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE | 13 |
| NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE | 14 |
| SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, | 15 |
| Inc. Go-to-High-School, Go-to-College Task Force is created to | 16 |
| study the causes and effects of the high rate of high school | 17 |
| dropouts and the low college retention rates among | 18 |
| African-American males; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That the task force shall consist of 5 members | 20 |
| appointed by the Speaker of the House and 5 members appointed | 21 |
| by the President of the Senate, all of whom shall serve without | 22 |
| compensation but shall be reimbursed for their reasonable and | 23 |
| necessary expenses from funds appropriated for that purpose; |
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| and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That the task force shall meet initially at the | 3 |
| call of the Speaker and the President, shall select one member | 4 |
| as chairperson at its initial meeting, shall thereafter meet at | 5 |
| the call of the chairperson, shall receive the assistance of | 6 |
| State Board of Education staff, and shall file a report of its | 7 |
| findings and recommendations for legislative action with the | 8 |
| General Assembly on or before January 1, 2009; and that upon | 9 |
| filing its report the task force is dissolved; and be it | 10 |
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| RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 12 |
| delivered to Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and the State | 13 |
| Board of Education.
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