[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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