[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 36 (Friday, March 25, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
             GOALS 2000: EDUCATE AMERICA--CONFERENCE REPORT

  The Senate continued with consideration of the conference report.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I am sure those people watching C-SPAN 
wonder why are we here. Why is the U.S. Senate in session at 10:30 on a 
Friday night, debating a variety of issues--whether it is health 
insurance reform, whether it is rafting the whitewaters of presidential 
bashing? Why are we here? Mr. President, I believe the pending business 
is a legislation called the National Educational Goals For The Year 
2000. I would like to get back to why we are here.
  Tonight, pending before the U.S. Senate, is a legislative framework 
that would establish eight goals that the United States of America 
should achieve by the year 2000, to get our young people ready for the 
21st century, to make sure our young people are fit for duty in this 
new world, and particularly the new world order of economic 
competition.
  What are those goals?
  The No. 1 goal is that all children in America will start school 
ready to learn, meaning all of the kinds of things that go on in the 
home and in the family and in daycare, to make sure kids are ready to 
learn.
  We also have as goal No. 2 that the high school graduation rate will 
increase by exactly 90 percent, to make sure those who are being left 
out or left behind will be included in a high school education, which 
is a threshold education in order to be able to seek a job in the 21st 
century.
  Our third goal is that kids will leave grades 4, 8 and 12, having 
demonstrated competency in challenging subjects like English, math, 
foreign language, government, history, geography, and that every 
student will ensure that students learn to use their minds so students 
will be prepared for citizenship, further learning, and productive 
employment in our Nation's economy.
  Our fourth goal is that the Nation's teaching force will have access 
to programs for the continued improvement of their professional skills, 
and the opportunity for the knowledge and skills needed to teach the 
kids. We have a national goal of teaching the teachers to teach the 
kids.
  Our fifth goal is that the U.S. students will be the first in the 
world in mathematics and science achievement.
  The last couple of weeks we watched Americans out there win the gold 
and the silver in the Olympics of athletics, and yet when we look at 
our scores in math and science we are scoring at Third World levels. 
Our national goal would move us to world-class standards.
  Our sixth goal is that every adult will be literate. Every adult will 
be literate and possess the skills necessary to compete in a global 
economy. If we left the Senate tonight and went out to the shelters of 
the homeless, we would find that many adults are illiterate. That is 
why First Lady Barbara Bush led the literacy campaign that was not only 
for children but for adults, another important goal.
  The seventh goal is that every school in the United States will be 
free of drugs, firearms, alcohol, and violence, and will offer a 
disciplined environment conducive to learning. Well, that should also 
be a threshold goal for the United States of America.
  And eighth, every school will promote partnerships that increase 
parental involvement and parental participation in promoting the 
social, emotional, and academic growth of American children.
  Those are the goals. Why are we on this floor tonight? Is it not true 
that everybody in the United States of America would agree with these 
eight goals? Whether you are a Republican, a Democrat, a libertarian, 
an anarchist--I do not know about an anarchist--would not you support 
these goals? So why are we here?
  I will tell you why we are here. We are not here about the Goals 
2000. We are here because we are conducting a rolling filibuster about 
an amendment to offer prayer in the schools.
  Mr. President, I respect every religion that is practiced in the 
United States of America. I am a Roman Catholic of John XXIII and the 
Pope John school of thought that believes that worship is an integral 
part to a person's life and to the life and vitality of a community.
  I believe in the power of prayer. I know what it has meant in my own 
life. It has been a source of inspiration, and it has been of great 
emotional support in personal problems like when my own dear father 
struggled with Alzheimer's, when my mother was in intensive care with 
heart bypass surgery and not only calling upon a higher power from 911 
but for 411 on the information to show there is more to a person than 
just memos, and so on. We have to have a sense of purpose, and a sense 
of higher purpose.
  I believe in prayer. I also understand the power of prayer in the 
school. I went to a Catholic religious day school. I prayed every day 
in school. So I know the power of prayer, and I understand the power of 
voluntary prayer in schools.
  Mr. President, I am from the school of thought that believes that 
church and State should be separated but certainly not divided. And in 
here within the U.S. Senate if we are going to vote on prayer in the 
school, then we should vote on prayer in the school.
  But, Mr. President, I believe that we should not use the tools and 
tactics of the U.S. Senate to prevent something else called prayer in 
the home. You might say why am I saying the Senate tactics would 
prevent prayer in the home? Mr. President, there is a certain number of 
our colleagues who are Members whose faith preference is of the Jewish 
tradition. We are on the eve of Passover of a very sacred holiday, and 
it is commemorated in the Book of Exodus as well as through a series of 
other things that occur in the home.
  Mr. President, I think we ought to let our friends from the Jewish 
community be able to vote on Goals 2000, these eight goals and be able 
to go home to be with their family to worship in their synagogue, to 
worship in their home, and stop the delay and dilatory tactics that has 
kept us in here at great taxpayer's expense on a Friday night. We need 
to be able to vote on this legislation. We will be able to do it in a 
few short hours, and I believe we need to acknowledge what is going on 
here. It is a rolling filibuster.
  It is a rolling filibuster over these national goals, and I respect 
the Senator who is so committed to prayer in the school but, Mr. 
President, I believe we have to stop the delaying and dilatory tactics 
so not only does the Senate go home but that so people who I happen to 
respect and admire have a chance to go home, to be with their family, 
to practice the Passover tradition and not be sitting in the U.S. 
Senate wondering if we are going to have votes at 12:01, missing 
planes, missing opportunities, missing to be with their families, and 
so on.
  I believe that we need to be able to respect that people who honor a 
4,000-year tradition be able to be with their own family practicing 
their own faith and be able to do that.
  One week from tonight is Good Friday. I would not want to be in the 
U.S. Senate on Good Friday. That is my tradition. I want to respect the 
tradition of my colleagues.
  I will tell you, Mr. President, tonight is March 25. It is Maryland 
Day. It is the commemoration of the founding of the State of Maryland. 
It was, as the Presiding Officer, a great student of history knows, 
that Maryland was the first State to grant religious toleration. It is 
the hallmark of the State of Maryland, so that we could be free without 
a State religion, without State mandates on religion, so that according 
to whatever was your faith preference, whether you worshipped the Bible 
or you worship in your heart individually, a Quaker, a Catholic, a 
Moslem, a Buddhist, or whatever, you could do that.
  Mr. President, to be able to keep us in session so that we would be 
voting on this legislation I respect, but there comes a time when we 
need to vote. We need to be able to bring this session to an end. We 
need to be able to allow our colleagues to go home and while we debate 
prayer in the school to allow them the opportunity to practice prayer 
in the home and prayer according to a tradition that has been here for 
4,000 years.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Idaho [Mr. Craig].

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