[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 4 (Tuesday, January 21, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S137-S138]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          EDUCATION IN AMERICA

  Mr. GREGG. Madam President, I want to speak briefly here to the 
second item on the agenda, which is education. Obviously, we all 
recognize the significance and importance of education. We also 
recognize, those of us who have been involved in the issue for a while, 
that the issue of education is, for the most part, settled at the local 
school level, at the local community level, especially as it involves 
elementary and secondary education, and that the Federal role is narrow 
and one which is focused on specific areas. It is not the Federal 
Government's obligation nor is it appropriate that the Federal 
Government step into the designing or the curriculum or the choosing of 
the proper activities for school systems.
  Rather, it is the Federal Government's role to pick areas where it 
can assist the local school districts and can assist parents in helping 
their children to get a better education. The proposal that has been 
put forward by the Republican Senate today, Republican Members of the 
Senate, as the second item on our list of 10, is a very strong proposal 
on behalf of the parents of America and the students of America.
  It is an effort to identify a number of areas where we think the 
Federal Government can assist parents in helping their children get a 
better education. We all recognize that education is the core activity 
that we must undertake if we are to have a competitive society.
  We especially recognize this in New England where we depend so much 
on brainpower because we have no great natural resources. Our natural 
resource is the intelligence of our citizenry, which is extraordinarily 
high and depends on a strong education system.
  In this area I want to highlight two activities that have been 
pointed to by our proposal. The first is that we understand that there 
is this huge baby-boom generation--of which Bill Clinton happens to be 
the most visible individual--which happens to also have children. And 
all those children of that baby-boom generation, people like Chelsea, 
people like my own children, are moving into the college-age years.
  There are a lot of parents who are very concerned about how they are 
going to pay for the high cost of higher education. This proposal gives 
parents an option. It gives them an opportunity, sets up the Bob Dole 
grants, which are the specific vehicle that allows parents to invest 
for their children's education, to save for their children's education, 
and be able to plan ahead so that they can use the vehicle of, 
basically, a designated savings account which will receive significant 
tax benefits to assist them in getting ready for their children's 
college education.

[[Page S138]]

  In addition, it supports prepaid tuition plans that many of our 
States are now pursuing, where parents can actually choose a college or 
group of colleges within a State and pay the tuition early and thus 
avoid the cost of inflation and put themselves in a position where they 
can better afford the cost of education as their children get older and 
the costs go up.
  In addition, it expands the deduction for student loan interest, a 
very important element in having the ability to go to college or go to 
graduate school and to be able to get a loan and still be able to pay 
it back. This expansion of the deduction will have a positive impact in 
that area.
  It expands study awards and assists employers who are assisting their 
employees in higher education. It is a very significant effort to make 
higher education more affordable for the families of America.

  In addition, the bill has another major element which is absolutely 
critical, especially in New Hampshire. That is, it says that the 
Federal Government is financially going to step up to its obligation to 
special ed children. A long time ago we passed something called 94142, 
which was an excellent bill, the purpose of which was to make special 
education more readily available to children who needed it.
  The concept was that the Federal Government would pay 40 percent of 
the cost and the States would pay 60 percent of the costs. Today, 
unfortunately, the Federal Government is only paying about 6 percent of 
the costs that are borne in order to care for a child who has special 
requirements in education.
  As a result, this has put a huge burden on the local communities and 
the local school systems. States like New Hampshire, which rely heavily 
on real estate taxes to support their schools, or even States that rely 
on State government income taxes or sales taxes, find that a large 
percentage of the tax dollars they are raising for education are going 
to support what should have been the Federal obligation to help out 
with the special education child.
  As we all know, the special education child can, in instances, cost 
$100,000 or more as compared with a child going through the system in 
an average school system which may cost $4,000. So it can skew 
dramatically the ability to apply resources to benefit other children 
in the system because of the fact that the Federal Government has 
shirked its obligation to come forward with its 40 percent, as it said 
it would when it initially passed this bill a long time ago.
  So what we have proposed as Republicans is that the Federal 
Government will finally step forward and fund special education at near 
the 40-percent level. We are talking about a $10 billion increase in 
funding for special education, which increase will be met by ramping 
up, over a series of years, 7 years, and thus allowing the States and 
the communities to free up those education dollars which they are now 
using in order to support the Federal obligation to care for the 
special ed child, to educate the special ed child, to free up those 
dollars to use them to expand education activity for other children in 
the school system.
  If you want to look at it in its cleanest sense, it is actually going 
to be the largest block grants to local education the Federal 
Government has ever pursued. It should have occurred earlier, but it is 
going to occur now as a result of the commitment that has been made by 
the Republican majority here in the Senate.
  The sign that it is going to occur is the fact that we already made 
the downpayment. In the last session--and this did not get much 
attention unfortunately; it should have gotten a lot more attention; I 
do not know why it did not get a lot more attention; maybe it was 
because of a national election and people wanted jinglese on their 
positions-- but in the last budget process last September we, as 
Republican Members of the Senate, put $730 million more into special 
education than the present funding was. We increased it by that amount 
of money.
  It was a downpayment on this effort to try to fully fund the 40 
percent that the Federal Government originally said it was going to 
fund. As a result, a State like New Hampshire will receive an increase 
of approximately $3 million. That is a lot of money to help out with 
the special education issues.
  So we are not talking in rosy scenarios here. We are not using words. 
We are not trying to create perceptions. We are talking in terms of 
deeds. We have already made the downpayment on this effort to expand 
our commitment to special education. And now with the putting forward 
of the Republican list of initiatives for this Congress, we are making 
it very clear that we are going to follow through on that commitment.
  This will be positive for the children across this country and for 
the educational systems across this country. I think Republicans can 
take great pride that we at least have been willing to step up to this 
very critical issue of first educating our children in college and 
relieving the pressure on parents who are trying to send their children 
to college; and, second, helping out with the special ed needs which 
the States have for so long borne but which the Federal Government has 
for so long said it would bear.
  Madam President, I yield back my time.
  Mr. FORD addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky.
  Mr. FORD. Madam President, I want to use the 5 minutes that has been 
assigned to the minority, and I ask unanimous consent I have such time 
as I need beyond that.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. FORD. I thank the Chair very much.

                          ____________________