[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 129 (Wednesday, September 18, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H10571-H10572]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 EDUCATION IS THE BRIDGE TO THE FUTURE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Hoyer] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, we do have to be real when we deal with 
financial questions, with investment questions, and what America is 
going to be like in the future.
  President Clinton talked about a bridge to the future. Every one of 
my constituents believes that the bridge to the future is education. 
Almost every American believes that one of the reasons we have 
opportunity in America is because we have educational access for every 
American.
  This year, however, when we passed the Labor-HHS-Education 
appropriation bill out of the House, we cut education very 
substantially. Democrats wanted to add education funds at the 
subcommittee makeup. I offered an amendment to add $2.1 billion so that 
we would not lose Head Start slots, we would not lose Chapter 1 slots, 
we would not lose Goals 2000 dollars for investment in education.
  Today there was an article in the Post written by David Broder, one 
of Washington's most respected columnists and political observers. It 
is entitled, ``Empower Qualified Teachers.'' His point is that we are 
not spending sufficient sums on education.
  I want to quickly add that I do not believe that money is the only 
answer or particularly the answer to solving the educational problems 
that confront our Nation. Nor, however, do I delude myself--nor should 
we delude the public--that not spending money, not paying teachers 
properly, not having Head Start slots, not having Chapter 1 slots,

[[Page H10572]]

not doing Goals 2000, not having objectives that will empower our young 
people to be competitive in a world marketplace, that not doing those 
things will enhance education in America.
  We came to the subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations and I 
offered the amendment to essentially keep education even. Even then it 
would fall behind the very sharply growing numbers of students in our 
school systems. There are more students in school in America today than 
ever before in history.
  And what did we do in the House of Representatives when we passed the 
education bill? We sounded retreat. Terrel Bell, the Secretary of 
Education under Ronald Reagan, did a report on the status of education. 
The result of that was ``A Nation At Risk,'' in which the Reagan 
administration said that we were at risk of becoming a nation of 
mediocrity because our education system was not up to speed.
  Very frankly, in the Subcommittee on Labor-HHS appropriations, by a 
straight party-line vote, the Republicans rejected increasing 
education. When the bill came to the House floor, which is the process, 
subcommittee, full committee, and House floor, David Obey, the ranking 
member of our committee, again offered my amendment. He said, ``My 
friends, on both sides of the aisle, let us not abandon our children,'' 
because they are our bridge to the future.
  On an almost straight party-line vote, that amendment was again 
rejected, notwithstanding the fact that I had a chart that showed that 
education funding was going down in an era when student population was 
going up.
  Mr. Speaker, that legislation then went to the Senate. And just 
yesterday, having, I presume, read the polls and figured out what the 
American public really wants, and talking not about their policies and 
principles of 1995 but their policies of 1996, Senate Republicans now 
suggested adding $2.3 billion to education. That is $200 million more 
than I suggested was necessary to keep education even, that David Obey 
suggested was necessary to keep kids from falling through the cracks.
  I am pleased that the Senate has seen the light. I hope that the 
Republicans in the House have done their homework and that this 
amendment will be accepted when this bill again comes to the floor of 
the House of Representatives.

                          ____________________