[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 105 (Wednesday, July 17, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S7987]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          EDUCATION IN AMERICA

  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, earlier this afternoon the Senator from 
Massachusetts, Senator Kennedy, spoke on the floor indicating his 
concern and expressing his criticism of remarks that Senator Dole made 
today in Minneapolis. I want to take just a few moments to respond to 
those remarks. I thank the Senator for yielding the time for me to do 
that.
  What Senator Dole said today in Minneapolis was that this country 
needs education reform, not education reform as defined by this 
administration and by some in this Congress, but real education reform. 
Education reform that ensures that parents have authority to be 
involved in their children's education, and in their curriculum, and in 
the formation of educational programs for their children. Education 
reform that would break up the monopoly that dominates public 
education. Education reform that gets money into the classroom instead 
of the bureaucracy. Education reform that rewards teachers, and rewards 
the Governors who run effective programs, and rewards mayors and school 
boards. Education reforms that try new approaches, and education reform 
that loosens Washington's grip on this country's schools.
  For a decade or more now, the Congress and the public have been 
debating how we can improve our public education system, and a number 
of proposals have been made. But there is an entrenched bureaucracy 
that insists on making no real changes, on perpetuating the status quo. 
What Senator Dole was talking about was shaking up that status quo and 
bringing about reform that brings real results.
  One of the issues that was discussed and was criticized earlier is 
the question of choice for low-income students. This is an issue that I 
have been involved with for some time. I have offered amendments, on a 
bipartisan basis with Senator Lieberman, allow test programs, or pilot 
programs, for vouchers for low-income parents which would allow us to 
test the concept of school choice.
  It seems hypocritical for those of us who have the means to afford 
school choice, whether by moving to another school district because we 
are unhappy with the public school where we currently are situated, or 
by enrolling our children in private schools or parochial schools, to 
deny that freedom of choice to those families who do not have the 
resources to send their children to a private school.
  The voucher demonstration program is an attempt to understand the 
impact of enabling families choice over their children's educational 
opportunities. Many of these families have children who are consigned 
to some of the most violence-prone, educationally challenged schools in 
America. Mothers and fathers know that the only way to successfully 
give their children a chance to escape a lifetime of these difficult 
environments is to get a better education. Yet the Congress and this 
administration have repeatedly blocked attempts at even the most minor 
of reforms to allow low-income children to escape their poor-
performing, violent schools.
  The reform Senator Lieberman and I proposed was a 3-year 
demonstration grant. We proposed trying it in 10-20 school districts 
around the country--costing a very modest amount of money--to see if it 
works. Even that small of a reform effort is rejected, time after time. 
My Project for American Renewal includes an expansion of that concept 
to provide experiments in up to 100 school districts. By trying a 
demonstration program, we'll be able to see if what the opponents of 
school choice say is right, but the only way to test their arguments is 
to get some objective evidence to evaluate school choice. I fear, Mr. 
President, that the opponents know that school choice would work: they 
know it would pose a challenge to the existing system.
  I suggest that that is exactly what the existing system needs--a 
challenge, a challenge to improve its educational efforts. That 
challenge will come through competition. Public schools and private 
schools and parochial schools can exist side by side. The competition 
among the three of them provides better education for all students 
involved. This has been demonstrated in my hometown of Fort Wayne, IN, 
on a number of occasions. We ought to move in that direction.
  To criticize Senator Dole for calling for education reform because he 
has failed to support the status quo initiatives provided by this 
administration that make no major change, efforts of the Clinton 
administration and the status quo that is perpetuated by Members of 
this body and call that educational reform--I think the American people 
know better. Call this what it is, and that is an attempt by a 
Presidential candidate to bring about some change in our educational 
system that will benefit the children--not the bureaucracy, not the 
unions, not the administration--the children that are actually 
receiving the education, or would like to receive the education. I 
commend Senator Dole for his remarks, for his initiative in this area. 
I hope he has the opportunity to carry it out.
  I regret we cannot seem to get beyond the status quo of what in many 
cases is a failed education system, particularly in areas where 
children live in poverty, the District of Columbia being the prime 
example. We have struggled and struggled and struggled to try to give 
the young people opportunities that others of us have and they do not 
have. It is regrettable that we cannot discuss this on a rational basis 
and cannot support the efforts of someone trying to bring about this 
change.
  I thank the Senator from Alaska for his patience and his time on 
this. I yield the floor.

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