[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 5 (Wednesday, January 22, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S666-S667]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         MAKING EDUCATION A TOP PRIORITY IN THE 105TH CONGRESS

  Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, I was very pleased that at the end of 
the last Congress, we finally did the right thing by education. We 
increased funding for education. It was a bipartisan effort. We got 
good support in the waning days of that Congress for improvements in 
education.
  This time I believe we should not wait until the end of the Congress. 
I believe that education needs to be a top priority of this Congress 
beginning now and continuing on through the rest of the first session 
and, of course, the second session as well.
  For this reason, I think it is timely that Education Week, which is 
perhaps the preeminent weekly publication dealing with education issues 
at the national level, issued its report card on the condition of 
public education in the 50 States just as this new Congress is 
beginning.
  The report is entitled ``Quality Counts.'' It is a very 
comprehensive, thorough look at the issue, and it goes through great 
detail in trying to assess how each State is doing in providing 
education to its young people.
  I recommend this report to all of my colleagues and anybody who is 
watching. I think it does a good job. It focuses where we need to be 
focused. I think it needs to be taken very seriously by this Congress.
  In the area of quality of teaching, which I am sure we would all 
agree is essential to a strong education, this report finds that 40 
percent of high school teachers lack a college degree in the subject 
area that they are teaching in. There are too many unlicensed teachers 
being used in our classrooms today. Ongoing training is still not a 
reality in most of our States. So the national grade that we received 
for quality of teaching was a C, which I think all of us who have been 
through the educational system know is not a stellar performance.
  A second finding is about ``school climate.'' Here the findings were 
that nearly half of elementary teachers have classes of 25 or more 
students. More than half of high school teachers see in excess of 80 
students per day. Almost 70 percent of students attend high schools of 
900 or more.
  The reason that this last statistic is important is that we have 
several studies now that conclude that the quality of education and the 
quality of student performance goes down as the size of the school 
increases. When you get a high school of more than 900 students the 
quality and level of student achievement goes down. So it is 
unfortunate that a majority of our students are in schools which our 
own experts tell us are too large. That is something we need to focus 
on nationally, and we got a C-minus on school climate because of those 
facts I just cited.
  Third, on ``overall spending,'' the States received a C-plus. The 
report found that most of the increases in spending have gone toward 
rising enrollment and special education and salaries for an aging work 
force. And we are not putting the resources into education that we 
should be, considering the growth in the school population.
  Fourth, on ``equity of funding'', which means the disparities between 
the rich school districts and the poor school districts, the States got 
a B-minus. This is a little better than we have done in some of the 
other areas, but the report finds that the quality of the child's 
education still depends too greatly on skin color, on family income, 
and on which school district they happen to reside in.
  The fifth indicator is the effective ``allocation of funds.'' 
According to the report, classrooms still receive only 61 percent of 
total resources that go into our educational system. Too many of those 
resources get stopped at the administrative level. On average, there 
are still over 35 students for each multimedia computer in our school 
system. Thirty-three percent of districts have at least one serious 
school construction need. So in that area of allocation of funds, the 
States received a C-minus.
  The sixth area is ``standards and assessments.'' There the States got 
a B because the conclusion was that this is the area perhaps where we 
are making the most progress. However, in most States standards have 
not yet found their way into the classrooms. Even if tests were 
developed, we do not yet know how rigorous they are, and few States are 
ready to hold either the schools or the students sufficiently 
accountable.
  The final indicator is ``student achievement,'' which of course is 
the bottom line, the ultimate goal of our educational system. They did 
not give a grade there. They said that in student achievement our 
``results were disappointing.'' That was the phrase which was used. The 
report finds that only 28 percent of fourth graders nationwide ranked 
as being proficient in reading, which is not an adequate level of 
performance. Even the highest scoring States in the Nation have fewer 
than half of their elementary students scoring proficient in reading 
and in math.
  Madam President, let me put this in some perspective. Many of us who 
try to follow education-related issues know that we have a national 
test that is given around the country periodically called the National 
Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP for short. This is a chart 
that shows trends in NAEP reading scores from 1971 through 1994. You 
don't need to look at this chart long before you notice that all of 
these lines are not going up. These lines are flat. That means that we 
essentially are seeing no significant improvement in reading scores by 
students in this period from 1971 to 1994. Madam President, we are 
stuck on mediocre, or perhaps stuck on even worse than that. I think 
this is a cause for concern.
  When I look at my own State and read this report there are three 
areas in which New Mexico performs above the national average. We get 
an A for standards, compared to the B that most States get. We get a B 
for overall educational spending, versus the C that is given nationally 
by this report. And we get a B-minus for classroom resources, versus a 
C-minus nationally.
  There are three other areas, however, in which my State of New Mexico 
performs worse than the national average. First, the State's test 
scores still are near the bottom in this National Assessment of 
Educational Progress test in almost all areas. Only 21 percent of the 
fourth graders in my State were judged to be at the proficient level in 
reading, and only 11 percent were judged proficient in math. Also we 
received a C-minus for teaching quality, compared to a C nationally. 
And we received a D-plus for school climate compared to a C-minus 
nationally.
  S. 12, the Democratic leadership education bill, does address several 
of the key issues that are raised by this report. I think they are very 
important issues. Let me very briefly summarize what this bill is 
trying to do.
  To address the low literacy rates that I described, S. 12 creates a 
program to increase the efforts of over 1 million teachers, parents, 
and volunteers in literacy training.
  To lower financial barriers to college, including tuition that rose 
over 100 percent over the last 10 years, S. 12 proposes a $1,500 tax 
credit and a $10,000 deduction for students with a B average.
  To help schools build and repair seriously deteriorating facilities, 
which 33 percent of all school districts report having, S. 12, provides 
$5.75 billion in bond interest subsidies.
  And finally, to help schools address the fact that over 70 percent of 
the computer equipment available is outdated and cannot provide 
adequate instruction and there are roughly 35 students for every modern 
computer, S. 12 calls for $1.8 billion in funding for the 1994 
Technology for Education Act, which was funded at the level of $200 
million in the current fiscal year.
  In conclusion, let me say that this report needs to be looked at by a 
great many people here in the Congress and elsewhere. It clearly 
reinforces other findings and reports that have raised these same 
issues in recent months.

[[Page S667]]

  Second, it is clear that nothing has changed since the end of the 
last Congress, when we finally gave education the attention it deserved 
and began to really do what should be done at the national level to 
support education. We need to keep that up, and maintain that momentum 
in this new Congress. I do believe we can renew our efforts to improve 
education, renew our efforts to put resources where the people of this 
country want them, and that is in the education of their children. 
There should be no letdown in the efforts of Congress in this regard.
  Mr. President, I look forward to the additional opportunities in the 
coming weeks to focus on some of these issues, and I hope we can pursue 
this set of issues on a bipartisan basis and make real progress for the 
American people.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coats). The clerk will call the roll.
  Will the Senator withhold his request?
  Mr.ENZI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 5 minutes in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming is recognized to 
speak for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ENZI. I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mr. Enzi pertaining to the introduction of S. 180 are 
located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and 
Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. ENZI. I thank the Chair, and I yield the floor.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The absence of a quorum has been suggested. 
The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Alaska.

                          ____________________