[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 11 (Tuesday, February 8, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: February 8, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
GOALS 2000: EDUCATE AMERICA ACT
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, the Senate will
return to consideration of S. 1150.
The Senate continued with the consideration of the bill.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Who yields time?
Mr. JEFFORDS. Madam President, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
At 10 o'clock, we will vote on five outstanding amendments to S.
1150, the Goals 2000: Educate America Act. Senator Grassley's
amendment, on which we had considerable discussion last Friday, has
been modified to reflect an agreement reached by all sides. The other
four amendments were debated at length during Friday's session and we
will vote on them later.
I hope that upon disposition of these amendments and those related to
the school-to-work bill, we can move expeditiously to consideration and
disposal of the Levin amendment, which will be controversial.
Final passage on this critical piece of legislation has been delayed
long enough. It has been 10 years, by my count, since the report
``Nation at Risk'' brought the public's attention to the serious state
of our Nation's schools.
Today, we will have an opportunity to design and go forward to
establish a program to eliminate the serious deficiencies in education.
Whether or not it will be a success, we do not know. But I am hopeful
that, rather than just pass another bill which will outline all the
wonderful things we would like to do, it will turn into a meaningful
path to get to where we want to be.
Last week's debate proved that interest in education reform remains
high. While we may argue about the best method to achieve reform, there
is no debate that reform must occur. Indeed, some of the amendments
offered by my colleagues reflect the differences of opinion about how
to achieve the goal of school reform. Though not all of the changes
were accepted, those amendments included in the final package will
improve and strengthen this legislation, and I praise my colleagues for
their efforts in so doing.
S. 1150 represents a bipartisan consensus and reinforces the notion
that States and towns are responsible for education and restructuring.
We have not tampered with that basic American belief. Thanks, in part,
to the amendments offered by Senator Gregg, the bill makes clear that
the Federal role in education is limited to financial incentives and
replication of model programs. The bill also includes regulatory
flexibility, grants to schools to prevent violence, and other changes
to improve the legislation.
We have a strong bill and something to be proud of. But let us not
make this bill a hollow promise. The future of our next generation
depends upon the education it receives from our schools. We cannot, in
good conscience, codify these goals without providing the adequate
resources to achieve them.
I think it is an investment and one that we simply must make. I stand
ready to make education a higher priority in the Federal budget than it
is now and to provide the resources that will produce the tangible
results for our young people. This is what Goals 2000 means to me--the
start of real action to improve America's educational system.
Madam President, I want to take a few moments to thank all of the
Members and their staffs that made passage of this bill possible.
First, let me thank and commend my colleague, Senator Kennedy.
Passage of this legislation could not have been possible without his
leadership. And let me thank his staff, in particular, Ellen Guiney,
Clayton Spencer, Matt Alexander, Ron Weich; Senator Pell and his staff,
David Evans and Michael Dannenberg; Senator Kassebaum, and her staff,
Lisa Ross and Wendy Cramer; and I thank my own staff, especially Pamela
Devitt and Katie Henry.
Madam President, at this time, I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Who yields time?
Mr. KENNEDY addressed the Chair.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, we are on the threshold of an important
moment for education reform in this Nation. When we pass this bill
today, with strong bipartisan support, we will be changing the way that
the Federal Government supports the revitalization of local schools in
every school district in America.
We will also have ended congressional gridlock on education reform,
for not only will we pass Goals 2000, the education reform legislation,
the first such legislation that has successfully made it through the
Congress since the national goals were set in 1989, but today we will
also act on the Safe Schools Act that was put forward by our friend and
colleague Senator Dodd; the School-to-Work Act, which I will talk more
about later and which was really energized by our good friend Senator
Simon and others; and the Office of Education Research and Improvement
legislation, which will represent the first time that we have really
ensured that this agency will be equipped to do the kind of research
that it was initially set up to do, and which is a bill that has been
awaiting passage for over 3 years. In a single day, we will lay much of
the foundation for lifelong learning in this country.
In passing Goals 2000, we will also have successfully responded to
the challenge of Eileen Shakespeare, a dedicated teacher at the Fenway
School in Boston, who told me, ``If I could ask you to take a single
message back to Washington it would be this: Please have a sense of
urgency about what we are doing here with students, and help us.''
This bill responds to that plea. It is a major step toward meeting
the urgent needs of hundreds of thousands of innovative teachers and
students and school administrators in every community in America. We
are seeding a new and different partnership to support innovative and
creative educators in classrooms across the country.
Goals 2000 will establish new standards informing schools about what
every student should know in core subjects like English, history,
mathematics, and science.
It provides new leadership and a new blueprint for school reform by
moving Federal, State, and local governments in the same direction on
education.
It increases flexibility for States and school districts by waiving
regulations that impede reform.
It emphasizes the importance of quality teaching.
It supports expanded involvement of parents and communities in local
school reform.
It assures accountability by emphasizing results and the importance
of assessing school and student progress.
It keeps education decisionmaking where it belongs, at the local
level, with parents and teachers and local educators.
It will bring lasting improvements to the quality of the work force
by promoting the development of occupational standards intended to
ensure that workers are the best trained in the world.
Above all, it promotes bottom-up school reform by supporting
activities at the local school level. If the Pentagon can conduct a
Bottom-Up Review to get its house in order, so can education.
I commend my colleague from Vermont, Senator Jeffords, for his
impressive leadership on this bill. He has worked skillfully and
tirelessly in this bipartisan effort. I thank the chairman of our
Education Committee, Claiborne Pell, who, as I mentioned at the opening
of the discussion and debate, has had a lifelong commitment to
strengthening education, at the elementary and secondary level, as well
as at the postsecondary level, including the transition from school to
work. I also thank Senator Kassebaum, and I thank Senator Mitchell as
well, for moving this legislation so expeditiously at the beginning of
this year.
This has been a long and deliberative process. In 3 days we have
adopted 50 amendments, 46 by voice vote. We have rejected only one. I
think we have made this a better bill but have left its essence intact:
A framework for high academic standards, locally developed, and
implemented with our support.
I want to thank in particular the members of our staffs that have
worked so well on this. My own staff, Ellen Guiney, Clayton Spencer,
Matt Alexander, and Ron Weich; David Evans and Michael Dannenberg of
Senator Pell's staff; Pam Devitt and Katie Henry of Senator Jeffords'
staff; Lisa Ross and Wendy Cramer of Senator Kassebaum's staff.
Madam President, I will mention briefly again what we really hope
will be accomplished with Goals 2000. Effectively, this legislation
does eight things.
First of all, it sets into law the six national education goals and a
bipartisan National Education Goals Panel to report on progress toward
achieving the goals. The goals have been adopted unanimously by the
Governors. This legislation writes the goals into law, and it will
allow us to assess what progress we are making toward achieving those
goals in a way that the country can see and understand.
Second, we will establish a process to certify, through the National
Education Standards and Improvement Council, voluntary academic
standards in core subjects that are meaningful, challenging, and
appropriate for all students.
We will identify the conditions of learning and teaching necessary to
ensure that all students have the opportunity to meet high standards.
We also will approve new assessments that are voluntarily presented
to the National Education Standards and Improvement Council,
assessments that can accurately measure performance on the new and
challenging content standards. So we are establishing world class
standards and also creating effective kinds of assessments so that
parents and children, teachers, members of the education community, and
the entire country, will understand, really for the first time, what
progress we are making in education at the elementary and secondary
level.
We will establish the National Skills Standards Board to promote the
development and adoption of occupational standards to ensure that
American workers are among the best trained in the world. We are
establishing world class standards for elementary and secondary
education, and we are also setting high standards in terms of job
skills. Later in the day we will pass the school-to-work legislation
which complements Goals 2000.
We will provide resources to help States and local communities
initiate their own local reform measures to create innovative schools
and to ensure that students reach the standards. We emphasize moving
resources down to the local level as soon as possible to ensure that
there really is bottom-up reform, with support from the top.
We will increase flexibility for States and school districts by
waiving regulations and other requirements that might impede school-
based reform. We believe that this will encourage a lot of energy and
creativity at the local level. I think most of us who have had the
opportunity to talk with teachers and parents will understand the
importance of supporting this kind of effort.
We will also create an Office of Technology within the Department of
Education, which will give States grants to develop technology plans.
We will have follow-up legislation, S. 1040, which will help our
neediest schools by giving them grants to provide technology in the
classroom, give loans to those school districts which are more
affluent, and establish training programs for teachers. We not only
need new technologies, but we also need to improve training efforts for
teachers, so they can utilize these new technologies to enhance
academic achievement for our young people.
Madam President, I think we have a good program here. We are grateful
to all of our colleagues for their support and for their efforts and
for the consideration which they have given to this legislation.
I know Senator Exon wishes to address the Senate, so I will withhold
further comments at this time and yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Who yields time?
Mr. EXON. May I ask the Chair, are we under controlled time?
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator is correct. The Senator
from Massachusetts controls 11 minutes, the Senator from Vermont
controls 11 minutes 53 seconds.
Mr. EXON. I would like 5 minutes to discuss the matter before us and
other matters I could take up in that time.
Mr. KENNEDY. I yield 5 minutes.
Mr. EXON. I thank my colleagues and I thank the Chair. Let me start,
Madam President, by saluting the Senator from Massachusetts and the
Senator from Vermont for this particularly excellent job I think they
have done on this piece of legislation, Goals 2000. I will support the
legislation. It is not a perfect piece of legislation but seldom do we
pass perfect legislation in this body.
I really, firmly believe that education is so important. Through the
efforts of these two Senators and their staffs and others we are making
an important step in the right direction to improve education in the
United States of America while assuring the decisionmaking process is
maintained at the local level, with the local school board. I think
that particular position cannot be overemphasized.
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