00:00:47.040 - 00:01:26.480

mhm? Uh huh. Okay. Uh huh, Uh huh. Mhm. Mhm, Yeah, you. Hi, I'm Senator Lawton Child's, and I want to welcome you to the Lawton Child's update. Today we'll pay a special tribute to the millions of men and women who have served in our country's armed forces.

00:01:27.040 - 00:01:47.160

We'll also take an in depth look at another issue raised in our last program, the growing problem of high school dropouts. But let's begin with a visit to a remote and beautiful part of our state. The Florida Keys. Florida's warm weather and beautiful beaches attract millions of visitors to our state each year, and there's no place where it's more evident than in the keys.

00:01:47.700 - 00:02:07.450

The islands that make up the keys stretch 100 and 28 miles. The area is home to half of our countries, mangroves and over 600 kinds of fish. But a proposal by the Department of Interior could change all that. The administration has given the go ahead to the Department of Interior to move ahead with offshore oil leases within sight of the key.

00:02:08.640 - 00:02:23.260

If this were to happen, it could be a disaster for the fragile marine life in the area and a catastrophe for the only living Carl Reef in North America. Key Largo, one of the many islands that make up the keys, is home to the National Marine Sanctuary.

00:02:23.840 - 00:02:42.210

Last year, more than a million visitors came to this area. It's a small community with some of the best diving mortars in the world. It doesn't take much imagination to realize what effect an oil spill could have here. Mhm. For many centuries, Carl Reefs have been thriving in these warm, shallow water.

00:02:42.840 - 00:03:00.540

The reef itself is four miles wide and runs parallel to the keys Just a few miles offshore. On a summer day, as many as 60 dive and sport fishing boats can be seen anchored here. What draws visitors to this area can be seen from above. You've got to look below the surface.

00:03:10.940 - 00:03:38.870

Yeah, yeah, this is Molasses Reef, perhaps the most popular dive spot in the area, brief Carl's or delicate animals. They depend on nature to provide them with the water quality they need to survive water temperature below 60 degrees. An increase in the sand or silt or change in the salt content of the water could prove fatal to all aquatic life on this reef.

00:03:38.880 - 00:03:59.450

Carl's needs plenty of sunlight and moving current to survive and grow hard. Stony structures that make up the Carl were once home to small marine polity. These animals protected themselves by covering their fragile bodies with limestone over many years that Carl's expanded and the limestone deposits began to form a reef.

00:04:00.340 - 00:04:18.960

No, there are about 50 different species of Carl's living on the reef, and thousands of other marine animals call this area home and depend on the reef for food. All drilling could not only disrupt the work of nature, but also could affect the people who make their living as fishermen and dive master.

00:04:20.140 - 00:04:35.260

If oil derricks were constructed, they would be anchored just a few miles from the reefs, well within sight of the land. I wanted to see for myself what areas would be affected by drilling, So I invited several people who really know the area to join me on a tour.

00:04:35.380 - 00:04:53.000

Bill Harrigan is the past manager of the National Marine Sanctuary in Key Largo. He told me the reef is already under stress and doesn't need the added burden of oil drilling. This reef is probably one of the most famous reefs in the world. We get most of our visitors here, this region.

00:04:53.010 - 00:05:12.660

How many visitors? Well, we get about a million and a quarter. So visitors to the sanctuary every year. Probably almost half of those get to this reef at one time or another. In the summertime, there'll be 60 boats. So here at one time during the day, on a nice, calm day like we have today.

00:05:13.040 - 00:05:35.080

Yeah, and it gets a tremendous amount of use, this beautiful place. This is the southern part of the sanctuary. And then, of course, it goes another 20 miles in that direction particularly. And some of the things we already talked about. The natural stress that the reefs already and being just at the northern end of the natural distribution reason and there is no live north of here.

00:05:35.310 - 00:05:54.360

That's right. Once you get north, Peters out gradually as you get up toward Miami, and that's gone. And Bill told me some of the Carl in the more shallow areas would suffer the most from an accident. It's fairly deep reef. It's about a foot deep over there at low water, where that boat is sitting that's a shallow as this gets most of the corals down there about five.

00:05:54.740 - 00:06:06.460

We've got a lot of reefs here and in the Florida Keys. In general, that show and the water actually stick up out of the water, and that could be a problem with pollutants that float on the water. They ripped right into the live world and get it right directly.

00:06:07.640 - 00:06:20.420

But this one here, we're coming up on this is one of the girls spurs where the girls built up here. This is about 10 or 12 ft high up the water and then drops down into the sandy Channel again. Here's another one. Another spirit like that.

00:06:20.420 - 00:06:51.250

There was about 20 spurs in this range. Lucchese, the other sanctuary. That's if you've ever been done. It's just fantastic. The Spurs are instead of being 10 or 12 ft high there, 15 18 ft high, spectacular. But this Clearwater is from actually having that tremendous Gulf stream water spilling over onto the some Carl's take many years to grow a branch of elkhorn coral that we're gonna look at branches bottles on my arm takes about 60 or 70 years to grow.

00:06:51.840 - 00:07:11.260

Wow, each piece is It's pretty slow growing in general. Please don't touch the living for percussion it again. You're gonna kill wherever you can. Once we got to the reef, we suited up for a look below. It had been a while since I last visited the sanctuary, and I couldn't help but think the damage and oil spill would call.

00:07:12.640 - 00:07:36.150

Yes, it would not only threaten the reef, but the shoreline as well. Believe this. It's just so beautiful. Boy. All right, people have broken. Take it. What over on Key Largo mangroves lining the shore. They protect the island from erosion caused by wind and high water.

00:07:36.840 - 00:07:55.520

Their root system anchors them firmly into the sand, and this helps prevent a hurricane from ripping a canal through the island. The mangroves also are a key source of food for many small animals. Basis of the Rick Farron is from the statewide Professional Guides Association. Well, these are red mangroves.

00:07:55.520 - 00:08:10.130

They power the system. The Seminoles called them the walking trees because they look like they're walking down from the ground from the land. They protect the islands from the storms and from the high waves and wind conditions. the mangrove leaves drop into the water and provide nutrients to the water.

00:08:10.130 - 00:08:25.350

There, The basis of the food chain they bring the sunlight into the system is what they do. They nourish the microorganisms, which in turn nourish the larvae. The small fish feed off the larvae and the crabs feed off larvae. They're really the power source for the entire system.

00:08:25.350 - 00:08:38.540

Down here, when you lose the mangroves, you lose everything. Well, when they're small like this, they pretty well withstand a hurricane. They protect the land from it. When they get large, hurricanes will knock them down, but they come right back. The roots reproduce, they anchor the sand.

00:08:38.540 - 00:08:57.330

So if a hurricane came in here without mangroves, it would just push the channel right through the keys. The heavy equipment needed for drilling would not only damage the mangroves, but the seagrass as well. Probably the biggest danger to the sea grasses are turbidity. Brought up from the drilling process is the drilling muds, the major boats that have to run back and forth the crew boats and supply boats.

00:08:57.340 - 00:09:16.760

All that just increases the turbidity. You don't get the sunlight down. The grasses will tend to die off after a few days without the direct sunlight they get, they start to get set back. The Florida Keys are a treasure for all Americans to enjoy. That's why Senator Bob Graham and I have launched a petition drive to stop the drilling.

00:09:17.540 - 00:09:37.060

We want the Department of Interior to realize as widespread public opposition to its oil drilling plan everybody's concerned environmentalists, business and whole communities. The drive is just a way that you can voice your opposition to offshore drilling petitions can be picked up in any of our state offices.

00:09:38.430 - 00:10:01.360

I've also introduced legislation in the Senate to force the Department of Interior to speed up its environmental impact study. I'm confident the report will prove that the Keys and other sensitive Florida coastal areas should be off limits to oil exploration. Common sense tells us that drilling in the environmentally sensitive areas near the Keys the Apalachicola Bay near Cape Canaveral should be prohibited.

00:10:01.810 - 00:10:25.630

This is one battle were determined to win. We've got to if we want to protect the quality of life here in Florida in in a situation when we return, we'll meet Betty Castor, Florida's commissioner of education. Mhm no Children are born learners. They love to discover things, and that's where reading comes in.

00:10:25.720 - 00:10:44.680

When kids read, they think they learn look a gastro partnership. But when they don't read, a lot of their natural curiosity goes untapped, which puts them at a real disadvantage both in school today and the world tomorrow. That's why there's risks are I am reading is fundamental.

00:10:45.030 - 00:10:58.860

That's right. Riff is a nationwide nonprofit program that gets kids into reading, not by making it something they have to do by making it something you want to do. You see what the right encouragement kids do like to read, and kids who grew up to be adults will read.

00:10:59.240 - 00:11:21.360

Find out how you can help bring rift to your community or if your kids not reading, find out how we can help you in your own home, right? Right. Are I up? That's when the kid starts to read the world. An open book. Last year, more than 40,000 students dropped out of high school in Florida.

00:11:21.940 - 00:11:43.450

In fact, only six out of 10 eligible students graduated from our state's high schools. In all of 1985 dropouts can expect to earn about $80 a week less than those who graduated from high school, and they're more likely to be involved in crime. Worse yet, it's an ever downward spiral drop outs more likely to parent Children who become dropouts.

00:11:44.140 - 00:12:05.720

Many educators believe. If we don't do something about this growing problem, we could see our dropout rates skyrocket to 50%. I've been meeting statewide with students, teachers and administrators to see what can be done about the dropout situation. As Florida commissioner of education, Betty Castor is our state's top educator Commissioner.

00:12:05.720 - 00:12:27.440

Castor, a former teacher herself, entered government in 1972 when she was elected to the Hillsborough County Commission. 1976. She was elected to the state Senate, where she became a member of the Education Committee. She was the first woman to serve as president pro TEM in the Florida Senate and was also chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on education.

00:12:27.740 - 00:12:48.260

Commissioner Castor was elected to her Cabinet level office last year, and she's quickly made dropout prevention a top priority. She and I recently talked about the problem. Uh, Betty, I know you've been working very, very hard on this problem. I've introduced a bill in Congress to try to deal with the problem.

00:12:48.540 - 00:13:05.430

And basically, I would like to say, I wish we knew all the answers. We don't one thing that I found out from the hearings that I have There is no common reason. There's no one reason that you can say it's a number of reasons. I think we can pinpoint a few.

00:13:05.430 - 00:13:33.210

We know that where they're disadvantaged kids and they don't get to them by the time they're the three or four year olds and start, uh, supplementing their knowledge and bringing them up. We know that those people are are going to be brought house. And I guess the one theme that I heard two was that I dropped out because nobody cared or I came back because I found somebody did care so that caring seemed to be a common theme.

00:13:33.220 - 00:13:52.110

But then it's across the gamut of the use of drugs or, uh, frustrations or parent problems, so they're all kind of problems there. But the bill I've introduced is not trying to say we know the solution, but to start off really cataloging how we make the statistics up.

00:13:52.120 - 00:14:18.570

We're concerned as to whether the numbers are totally right the way Florida is reflected, Uh, then also to look at some states, uh, and see who has model programs and see how we transfer some of that ability, uh, to other states and and so that we can do a job better and to put some seed money out there, Uh, so states will begin to, uh, to focus on this problem.

00:14:18.580 - 00:14:36.280

I'm delighted to say that, uh, we don't need this seed money for Florida. I think we certainly will qualify. But you've been taking the lead in kind of moving Florida first. And so I wanted to ask you What do you think? Uh, do you find the problem is the same across the state?

00:14:36.280 - 00:14:56.260

Or does it vary from city to city or town to town? How do you find that? Well, it is a It's a complex situation. We have, of course, our statistics that that guide us. So we have some idea. Certainly, in the in the urban areas, the problem of dropouts increases in direct proportion to the to the size of communities.

00:14:56.740 - 00:15:25.700

We've been working in Florida recognizing our high dropout rate. Most of the large states New York, California, Texas that also have large minority populations have higher dropout rates. In Florida, our situation is complicated, a little more by the transient nature of our population. When we were as a state senator, I worked on the legislation to create the dropout prevention program in Florida.

00:15:25.710 - 00:15:46.360

At that time, we recognized five groups of students. It is a complex. The problem is complex in origin, but chiefly at the top of the list. Of course, our students, who are not doing well academically. So you find I was going to ask you, What do you see?

00:15:46.360 - 00:16:19.950

Are those common reasons, or or the reason academic failure or the threat of failing leads many students to simply drop out of school? Then you have a situation with where social conditions and the economic and social background of families. If a child comes from a poor neighborhood where parents, uh, sometimes single parent households most often single parent households where parents didn't graduate themselves not many role models, not many institutions outside of the school.

00:16:19.950 - 00:16:37.110

One of the things that we've found is that the schools are being asked to solve a problem that in which every other institution has failed, from the family to the church, to the community, to the larger neighborhood. There aren't many support systems out there for young people today.

00:16:37.110 - 00:17:00.360

I found. I thought it was interesting in Jacksonville that when I was there, where our statewide figures show that much higher percentages of blacks that are dropped out and that nationally is true, too. In Jacksonville, it's not true. And it seems that the black community churches, uh, civic groups and families have decided they're going to do something about this problem.

00:17:00.360 - 00:17:17.350

And so they have been doing something about it. It's amazing to me that they could change those works. Uh, if we target programs and we target resources, Uh, and we deal with the population and the problems where we know it exists. We're having very successful programs.

00:17:17.740 - 00:17:38.570

One of the most successful programs that I've seen is the peer counseling, which they also used in the Jacksonville program, and they use it in some other places in Florida, where young students eighth grade students can count to seventh grade students, Uh, those kind of programs become effective.

00:17:38.570 - 00:18:03.050

A student who is who has who goes home to a somewhat tough, rough life and is not doing well academically. Finds a friend. Yeah, and someone that that can be a companion. Someone who cares their own age group. Uh, that really builds a relationship, which is one in which the student can rely on something A couple of the city's I was in where they had through.

00:18:03.050 - 00:18:34.070

I guess the legislation identified some, uh, potential dropouts and then sort of brought them together into some counseling sessions. And all of them kept identifying sort of one councilor, one teacher, and whether it was either one of these schools, they would always be one individual. And it was amazing to me, uh, the kids that said for the first time I found there was someone that listened to me, Uh, you know, uh, they always were in trouble with their teachers or they were in trouble.

00:18:34.070 - 00:18:53.960

Where else But what they said For the first time, someone listen to me. It was interesting. Someone went on and said, I found out after a while, you know, that I wouldn't always right, so to speak. But there was it was just a listener made such another factor in all of This is the relatively large size of Florida schools.

00:18:53.970 - 00:19:17.710

When you're dealing with students in an environment of 3000 students 2500 students in high school, it's easy for students to to get lost in that environment. That's why one of the areas that we've targeted is a concept called alternative schools. Take those students who we know cannot operate in that large environment and put them in a smaller program.

00:19:17.710 - 00:19:38.620

Put them in a smaller school, a school that they can select. We have several alternative schools in Florida and our school districts, and that is a movement that is spreading, uh, nationally where you can, where you can allow the students to select a school with a smaller environment and smaller number of students.

00:19:38.690 - 00:19:58.060

They're going to get more attention, and that is the key. Tell us about your new initiative that you're that you're sort of getting sponsors for. I think that's very exciting. Well, we are trying. We have recognized for a long time that, uh, we can do just so much within the four walls of the school and within a school district.

00:19:58.070 - 00:20:21.250

We have to reach out to the business community and we have to say ultimately to a student, especially that teenager who is about to drop out if you will stay in school. If we can find an employer who will take an interest in you if you will stay in school, we'll get that employer to hire you on a part time basis to reward you financially for staying in school.

00:20:21.520 - 00:20:37.850

If you get that high school diploma, that employer will hire you in a permanent position. There'll be somebody there on the job based in a job based area who has an economic interest in your well being and who will stay with you and promise you a job if you'll just complete your high school.

00:20:37.860 - 00:21:01.510

And, of course, it has implications beyond high school. But today our primary focus is getting these students to the 12th grade and getting them a diploma. Well, our experts tell us that finding that at risk students is one of the most important things because, of course, then you can marshal resources, and you can try to target, uh, how do we go about doing that?

00:21:01.510 - 00:21:21.140

Or how How are we doing that in Florida? Well, we have to, uh, we have to assess the students needs. It's not always easy if we can get the business community involved, and I think we can. As far as identifying what the students needs are what the business needs are and putting those together we have.

00:21:21.150 - 00:21:46.750

We're not going to reinvent the wheel here. We have some good programs that exist that we can go out and copy. The one that we're looking at as far as a business partnership, is the Boston compact. It's been very successful. We can see the students that have come out, a student who for the first time might like to be involved in the retailing area, Uh, low level skills, relatively low level skills.

00:21:46.760 - 00:22:15.850

And yet getting that student involved in that environment and in a situation of trust and support is the most important factor. So we're looking at other programs, and we're saying, Well, what do we have here? As I mentioned to you at the offset, one of the things that I've noticed is this early intervention, that it seems to be such a key, and I'm about trying to turn around some of our appropriation process here.

00:22:16.240 - 00:22:42.780

We added some money to head start. We're you know, we're looking and trying to see how we change some of the programs to make sure that we're getting on the front end of this. This problem because it seems like to me the most effective dollars that we can spend and and in a climate in which we have limited dollars, we've got to try to target those dollars, and so, trying to spend them at the front end well, absolutely.

00:22:42.780 - 00:23:01.450

The best investment we can make. Well, I congratulate you so much what you're doing. I think it's exciting now to have you leading this fight and recognize it in Florida. I know you've got the Legislature behind you, and I'm looking to see how we're going to climb and decrease that drop out.

00:23:01.450 - 00:23:46.650

Well, we appreciate your help and and the ability to work together to solve this very important problem. Let's go. I'm driving. Don't drive. No, no, no, no, no. Try. That was my belt. Live. Wohlers again. Strong drivers mad. Wait. Nice. Look. Give him the keys. After this joyride, I'm out of the crash dummy business for good.

00:23:46.660 - 00:24:03.080

But Vince, it's a great job. They'd have to pry me away from it. Anybody home, Larry? They do pry you away from Oh, yeah. For years I've been eating steering wheels. For what? To prove how safety belts save lives. But thousands die every year in car accidents because they don't buckle up, Vince, we're dummies.

00:24:03.090 - 00:24:21.160

We don't wear safety belts. Larry, you really know how to hurt a guy. Hit it. Yeah, You gotta learn a lot from a dummy. Buckle your safety belt. Washington is a city of tributes to men and women who have one and kept our freedom. John Paul Jones, the naval hero of the American Revolution, is here.

00:24:22.040 - 00:24:49.160

We honor the CBS, The men of the Construction Battalion, who gave such gallant service in the Pacific during World War Two. Virtually next door is to the White House is an 80 ft column. It honors the 10 0 soldiers of the first Division who gave their lives in World War One and World War Two and not far away as a tribute to the more than 17,000 members of the Army Second Division who died in our two world wars.

00:24:50.630 - 00:25:12.170

In their separate ways, these and other tributes to heroism are just as majestic as the one to George Washington, the founder. First in war, first in peace or to Lincoln, the Great Emancipator. Or to Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence. These are national symbols of our commitment to liberty.

00:25:12.740 - 00:25:39.270

America's newest tribute, the Vietnam Memorial, quickly became the most visited memorial in Washington after its unveiling two years ago. Four million people will visit it this year. Many of the visitors or relatives or friends of the 1939 Floridians whose names are cut into these stones. They're among the 58 0 113 Americans who died in Vietnam.

00:25:40.240 - 00:26:05.860

Think of that sacrifice 58,000 people. That's like having a city the size of Lakeland wiped out from the summer of 1964 to January of 1973 each year on Veterans Day, we remember those who have fallen in the service of freedom. The nation's official Veterans Day ceremony is held here across the Potomac River from Washington.

00:26:06.440 - 00:26:37.360

This is Arlington National Cemetery, where more than 200,000 Americans from all of our wars are buried. A reef laying ceremony takes place at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the exact time when the World War One armistice was signed. This is the Tomb of the Unknowns, the remains of unknown soldiers from World Wars one and two, the Korean conflict and Vietnam rest here.

00:26:38.740 - 00:27:02.690

It's guarded every day, 24 hours a day by the Army's old guard to pay tribute to their fallen comrades in this solemn patrol. All right, what's really being honored here are the thousands of brave Americans who died without a gravestone. No one will ever know who rests here, but none of us will ever forget why they die around the nation.

00:27:02.690 - 00:27:21.350

There are more than 100 veterans cemeteries, three of them are in Florida, and 1/4 1 in the with the Coochie State Forest in Sumpter County is due to open in 1988. No more than 600,000 Floridians have answered the call to arms for more war one to Vietnam.

00:27:22.140 - 00:27:42.660

15,000 of them have died, and today more than 1.4 million veterans live in Florida. To them and to all the other men and women who have fought for our freedom, we all say Thank you. That's our report. I hope you'll join me again. Next time for the Lawton Child's update.

00:27:43.540 - 00:29:13.830

Mhm. Mm hmm. Okay. Mhm. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. Uh huh. Mhm. Yeah. And love. Do you do? Yeah, you? Mm. Due to the Lawton Child's update focuses on the Florida Keys and what a group of concerned citizens are doing to save this area from offshore oil drilling.

00:29:13.930 - 00:29:19.560

I'm Senator Lawton Child's. I hope you'll join me. Let's go right into it.