[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 100 (Wednesday, July 27, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 27, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                                 RECESS

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the hour of 12:30 
p.m. having arrived, the Senate will now stand in recess until the hour 
of 2:15 p.m.
  Thereupon, at 12:38 p.m., the Senate recessed until 2:15 p.m.; 
whereupon, the Senate reassembled when called to order by the Presiding 
Officer (Mr. Feingold).
  Mr. WELLSTONE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I wonder whether I can inquire of the 
manager of the bill whether I might have 10 minutes to speak on the 
bill.
  Mr. KENNEDY. We are under no time limit. We thank the Senator for his 
active participation in this legislation. We look forward to his 
comments.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, there is so much that I could say. I am 
going to try to be relatively brief.
  This piece of legislation, or education in particular, Mr. President, 
is dear to my heart. I was a college teacher for over 20 years, and I 
have seen education really work. I have seen the spark of learning take 
a child from any kind of background to a life of accomplishment and 
creativity.
  I view education as kind of being the foundation. We have a lot of 
discussion about how education is key to economic competitiveness. I 
agree. You have to have a skillful, literate, productive work force. 
But I think even more fundamental than that, education is key to a 
working democracy. We just simply have to have women and men who can 
think on their own two feet, who understand the world and the country 
that they live in, who have conceptual tools that will enable them to 
understand this world and this country and who really are empowered by 
education so that they, as citizens, can really be full participating 
members in a democratic society. I just do not think there could be a 
more important topic or a more important piece of legislation on which 
the U.S. Senate should be focused.
  The Improving America's School Act, S. 1513, does a lot to move us in 
the right direction. Senator Kennedy and Senator Pell deserve a 
tremendous amount of praise for their fine, fine work.
  Among other things, the bill provides funds to help disadvantaged 
students reach the same high standards as all students. It concentrates 
funds in those areas that need the funds the most. It expands the 
Eisenhower Math and Science Training Program to support teacher 
training in all subjects, and it expands the national writing projects 
to other core subjects as well. That is an amendment that I worked on 
that I am very excited about, because I have seen as a teacher the way 
in which these teacher institutes work. It is so important for teachers 
to have high morale. I have seen when teachers come together for a 1- 
or 2-week period during the summer and can exchange notes, compare 
notes, energize one another, build off one another's experience. It is 
really quite important.
  I think this piece of legislation is a step in the right direction. 
It authorizes $12.5 billion for fiscal year 1995. I might also state 
that this is only 6 cents on the dollar of what our country spends on 
education.
  So I commend Senator Kennedy and Senator Pell for their fine work. 
But I am also really disappointed. I am not disappointed in my 
colleagues, Mr. President, but I am disappointed in our failure as a 
nation, with the Senate being part of the Nation, to really invest in 
children and education. I do not think it is enough just to have the 
goals and to talk about rigor and to talk about excellence if, in fact, 
we do not do anything to really change the concerns and circumstances 
of children's lives so that each and every child, each and every young 
person is going to have the same opportunity to reach those goals.
  Quite frankly, Mr. President, given the huge disparity in resources--
again I think of Jonathan Kozol's book, ``Savage Inequalities.'' If I 
am not mistaken, Jonathan Kozol's facts are something like this. You 
walk out of the front door of this Chamber, you go downstairs, or just 
really from the top of the steps, if you look to Bethesda--and this is 
not an indictment of the people in Bethesda--I think the community has 
the capacity to spend something like $13,000 per child per year. That 
is about a mile away in one direction.
  If you look to Anacostia, I do not know, it is $4,000 or $5,000 per 
pupil per year, Anacostia being, in the main, poor children of color, 
mainly African-American black.
  Mayor Schmoke, Mr. President, when he testified before our committee, 
the Labor and Human Resources Committee, really was eloquent, and I 
just want to quote:

       I will just start by saying that defending and reinforcing 
     public education has once again become a matter of national 
     security. I say once again because in the early days of the 
     cold war, President Eisenhower cited national security as the 
     justification for the National Defense Education Act.

  By the way, Mr. President, now that I think about it, it was the 
National Defense Education Act that enabled me--and I am sure Senator 
Pell was probably involved in really the drafting of this legislation--
that enabled me to afford my higher education, that enabled me to go 
into teaching.
  Mayor Schmoke goes on, and he pointed to the disparities in his own 
area, and I quote:

       In Maryland, the difference between what we in the city are 
     able to spend per classroom and what the wealthiest 
     jurisdiction is able to spend is $60,000 per classroom. 
     [$60,000 per classroom.] What does this mean in real terms? 
     It means for us the inability to provide basic supplies and 
     maintenance to the buildings and thus to provide an inviting 
     environment for our young people to stimulate their minds. It 
     means that we have a shortage of supplies and other basic 
     resources. It means for our teachers in particular that we 
     lose our best teachers, those who have 8 to 10 years of 
     experience, to surrounding jurisdictions.

  Mr. President, there are those who say, ``Well, do not throw money at 
the problem. I do not think money is the answer.''
  But I will tell you one thing, adequate resources is the key to 
recruitment and maintaining good teachers. It is the key to support 
services. It is the key to good lab facilities. It is the key to 
textbooks. And just simply building on what the mayor had to say to us, 
I find it to be just outrageous and unconscionable that children should 
have to go to schools where the physical infrastructure is decaying, 
where we still have not done the renovating, where it is still unsafe 
in terms of asbestos, where it is dreary, where the toilets do not 
work. When are we going to make a commitment to education and children? 
This piece of legislation just is but the smallest step forward.
  Now, Mr. President, some will say, ``But our appropriations 
committees are under strict budget constraints this year.''
  I know you, Mr. President, are a Senator who is very focused, and I 
think justifiably so, on sound fiscal management, on deficit reduction, 
but once upon a time, Mr. President, we were talking about two 
deficits. We were talking about a budget deficit, and we were talking 
about an investment deficit.
  It does seem to me that if we are going to continue to find the money 
for S&L bailouts, if we are going to continue to build the space 
station, if we are going to continue to find the moneys for B-2 
bombers, if we are going to continue to build prisons, and if we are 
going to continue to find the money for star wars, we ought to be able 
to do a better job of investing in education and our children. And by 
the way, Mr. President, Children's Defense Fund pointed out that every 
5 seconds a child drops out of school in the United States of America.
  I would like to point that out again. Every 5 seconds, a child drops 
out of school in the United States of America.
  Mr. President, I had a judge from Minnesota, Hennepin County district 
judge, who sent me a copy of a report, and the statistic I remember is 
that there is a higher correlation between high school dropouts and 
incarceration, being in prison, than between cigarette smoking and lung 
cancer. We are talking about the need to reduce violence. If every 5 
seconds a child is dropping out of school in this country, then we 
ought to start examining why children are dropping out of school and we 
ought to start making a commitment of resources to do something about 
it.
  Another witness at these hearings was Representative Becerra from 
California and I wish to quote. He said:

       The United States now ranks 13th among the 23 wealthiest 
     industrialized nations in public spending on education. We 
     need to shift the paradigm, and we need to begin working 
     toward providing children with the resources they require 
     based on their relative need. We would define equity as the 
     allocation of funding to meet individual education needs, not 
     just matching dollar amounts for students in poor and wealthy 
     districts. This is what makes the issue of opportunity-to-
     learn standards so critical. If we cannot agree on the 
     measurement of what a school must input in order for students 
     to succeed, how can we establish national standards to 
     determine the students' level of success?

  Mr. President I have to tell you, I met with a group of 20 educators 
today in my office--they just happened to be here--counselors, 
teachers, principals. Every single one of them said--it surprised me. I 
said to them, ``Please tell me if I am wrong.'' Then I went on to say 
to these educators, ``I am really discouraged because we keep focusing 
on these national standards but I do not see the commitment of 
resources to make sure that children in our country have the same 
opportunity to reach those standards. I feel as if the emphasis has 
become on rigor and we are not dealing anymore with the whole issue of 
equality of opportunity.''
  All of them agreed. They want to see rigor; they want to see higher 
academic standards. They think it is important not to give up on that. 
They do not see them as being mutually exclusive goals, I would say to 
my colleague from Connecticut, but each and every one of them said to 
me there is no way that a lot of the children that we teach are ever 
going to be able to succeed, not given the inadequate resources we have 
to look at, not given the failure to fund early childhood development, 
not given the failure to fund child care.
  They said it even goes further than that. And they argued women 
expecting children have to have an adequate diet in the first place.
  I just had a grandson yesterday. I would like to see every child born 
in the same way my grandson was born, with a real opportunity to be 
everything he or she can be. But I know that my daughter-in-law had an 
adequate diet. I know that they could afford that. But a lot of women 
cannot. And the children that are born are not going to be all they can 
be.
  When are we going to make a commitment to children? When are we going 
to make a commitment to early childhood development? When are we going 
to make a commitment to education? We have reports of a decade ago, it 
seems way to me, of a ``nation at risk.'' Well, if the Nation is at 
risk, and we are talking about national security, why do we not start 
investing in the health and skills and intellect and character of young 
people? We do not need as much for S&L's. We do not need star wars. We 
do not need the B-2. We do not need the space station. Let us invest 
more in education and children.
  So, Mr. President, I said I would not speak too long. This is not an 
amendment. I think an amendment that would attempt to transfer funds or 
to spend more money would not succeed. And I know my colleagues are 
operating within budget constraints. I know that Senator Pell and 
Senator Kennedy have done all they can to bring a good piece of 
legislation to the floor.
  Mr. President, this piece of legislation takes steps in the right 
direction. I am going to support it. I am proud of what they have done. 
But I wish to go on record today in saying we can do much better, and I 
hope soon we will.
  I really believe that what candidate Bill Clinton talked about--the 
investment deficit has been put in parentheses--I really believe that 
all these issues of race, gender, and poverty, and children, and 
opportunity, and how to reduce violence, and how to do it at the 
community level, and how to invest in education, and how that can be 
part of national security--I feel there is a huge disconnect between 
the words we speak and the legislation we introduce.
  I hope that during my tenure in the U.S. Senate we will end up doing 
it much more. I will tell you one thing--and I am not doing it to 
ingratiate myself to him--I look forward to working with Senator Dodd, 
who is very committed, along with Senator Kennedy.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. MITCHELL addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader is recognized.

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