[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 53 (Tuesday, April 29, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3800-S3801]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. KENNEDY (for himself, Mrs. Murray, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. 
        Levin, Mr. Cleland, Mr. Inouye, Mr. Glenn, Mr. Dodd, Mr. 
        Wellstone, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Sarbanes, Mr. Daschle, and Mr. Ried):
  S. 664. A bill to establish tutoring assistance programs to help 
children learn to read well; to the Committee on Labor and Human 
Resources.


                    the america reads challenge act

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, it is a privilege to introduce President 
Clinton's America Reads Challenge Act. Today is the closing day of the 
President's summit for America's future. The summit's organizers and 
participants have sent a clear call about the importance of 
volunteerism and community involvement. The America Reads Challenge Act 
responds to that call and will provide volunteer tutors to help all 
children read well by the end of the third grade.
  Reading is a fundamental skill for learning, but too many children 
have trouble learning how to read. If students don't learn to read in 
the early elementary school years, it is virtually impossible for them 
to keep up later. According to one study, 40 percent of fourth grade 
students don't attain the basic level of reading, and 70 percent don't 
attain the proficient level.
  Research shows that reading skills are developed not only in the home 
and in the classroom, but also in communities and libraries. Sustained, 
quality reading experiences outside the regular school day and during 
the summer can raise reading levels when combined with high quality 
instruction. Only 30 minutes a day of reading aloud with an adult can 
enable a child to make real gains in reading. Adults also serve as role 
models for young children.
  The America Reads Challenge Act is intended to help all students 
learn to read--and read well--by the end of the third grade. It would 
provide Parents as First Teachers challenge grants. Recognizing that 
parents are the best first teachers, it supports programs and 
activities that help parents increase the reading skills of their 
children.
  In addition, the act will provide America's Reading Corps grants to 
States and communities to help them establish or enhance literacy tutor 
programs. Some 25,000 reading specialists and tutor coordinators, 
including 11,000 AmeriCorps members, will participate in programs to 
mobilize 1 million volunteers to tutor 3 million children.
  The America Reads Challenge Act will provide $1.7 billion over the 
next 5 years to the Department of Education. It will also authorize the 
appropriation of $200 million a year from fiscal year 1998 through 
fiscal year 2002 to the Corporation for National Service. The act also 
builds on efforts of pre-school and elementary school programs, such as 
Head Start and title I, to help improve children's basic skills.
  I strongly support President Clinton's America Reads Challenge Act, 
and I hope it will receive the broad bipartisan support it deserves. 
Every child can learn to read, and every child deserves a chance to 
learn how to do it. No child should be left out or left behind.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I join my colleagues Senators Kennedy 
and Murray in cosponsoring this important new initiative.
  The goal of this legislation is to launch a campaign to ensure that 
every child in our Nation can read independently by the end of the 
third grade. I believe that this is a worthwhile goal, which will have 
a wide-ranging impact on our Nation.
  We need to help our young children learn to read. It's the 
responsibility not only of parents but of schools, communities, civic 
groups, libraries, and business leaders. Some 40 percent of all 
children are now reading below the accepted level on national reading 
assessments.
  This is a national crisis. Tens of thousands of students cannot read 
at the basic level. If students can't read well by the third grade, 
their chances for later success fall dramatically. These same students 
are likely to drop out of school; they will have problems with 
delinquency; and they will have fewer job options.

[[Page S3801]]

  I believe that the America Reads initiative will go a long way in 
providing much needed resources to parents, schools, and State and 
local communities to help our children learn to read.
  This bill would establish a corps of 1 million volunteer tutors and 
give States additional resources to hire 30,000 reading specialists to 
coordinate the corps volunteer tutors who will work with teachers, 
principals, and librarians to help children succeed in reading.
  I support mobilizing thousands of volunteers, but I also believe that 
the training and screening must be adequate, especially when we place 
anyone in our Nation's classrooms. These are issues that my colleagues 
and I will be addressing.
  We also want to help parents. This bill establishes Parents as First 
Teachers challenge grants, which invests in success by 
supporting effective and proven local efforts that assist parents who 
request help to better work with their children.

  The President has also called upon colleges and universities across 
the country to dedicate half of their new work study funds to support 
100,000 college students to serve as reading tutors. Already hundreds 
of colleges and universities across the country have pledged to have 
their work study students help children learn to read. In my State of 
Maryland, Anne Arundel Community College, Bowie State University, 
Frostburg State University, and the University of Maryland at College 
Park have all committed to the America Reads initiative.
  We also want accountability. This legislation will use the 
improvements in the National Assessment of Educational Progress [NAEP] 
to provide an annual measure of the reading performance of 4th graders 
and their progress toward meeting the reading challenge.
  Both the Corporation for National Service and the Department of 
Education will oversee and manage this program. The Corporation for 
National Service has the expertise to pull together the AmeriCorps 
volunteers and has the infrastructure in place to help mobilize the 
volunteers. The Department of Education has the knowledge and resources 
to really make this program accountable.
  I support utilizing the resources that we already have in place with 
AmeriCorps. I know that thousands of AmeriCorps volunteers across the 
country are already in the schools tutoring children. In Maryland, 
AmeriCorps volunteers are already in public schools tutoring and 
mentoring students.
  And, companies too are leading the way with innovative methods of 
teaching our children to read. Sylvan Learning Center, which is 
headquartered in my State of Maryland, is a company that has been 
having great success with its methods to help children learn to read. 
Sylvan operates tutoring centers across the country. The centers have 
produced measurable results with children. The centers are community-
based facilities. The student to teacher ratio never exceeds 3:1. 
Sylvan's approach consists of individualized instruction, variety, a 
creative motivational system, and parent and teacher involvement. It is 
an approach that works and can be one of the models that we use for the 
America Reads Program.

  Why does this approach work? Because specialists can tailor a program 
to meet an individual student's needs. In many overcrowded classrooms 
across our country, it's simply impossible for a teacher in charge of 
30 or 40 students to give one student who's having problems extra 
attention.
  I don't believe that America Reads is a substitute for in-school 
instruction nor is it a substitute for parental involvement.
  What we're talking about providing is individualized after school, 
weekend, and summer reading tutoring for nearly 3 million children a 
year from kindergarten through third grade [K-3] who want and need 
extra help. This will supplement the learning that is taking place 
during classroom hours. What's more important is that this tutoring 
will take place at no cost to parents and students.
  I know that there has been criticism about having a literacy program 
directly aimed at children in K-3. I have to disagree with this 
criticism. Schools cannot do it alone. Many public schools simply do 
not have the resources to give students the one-on-one attention they 
need.
  We have to launch a large-scale effort to tackle our Nation's youth 
literacy problem. I believe we need to mobilize and train volunteers to 
come into the schools to help our children learn to read. I believe we 
need to hire reading specialists to help our Nation's children. 
Teachers cannot do it alone. And parents need our help.
  When 40 percent of our Nation's children cannot read on level by the 
third grade, we must ask ourselves as a nation what we're doing wrong 
and how we can correct it. This is a widespread problem that crosses 
gender, racial, and religious lines.
  As the Nation begins to enter the 21st century, we cannot have our 
young people--our future--lagging behind in basic skills. This affects 
our Nation as a whole. It affects our Nation's productivity. It affects 
our work force. When these children become adults, they will not have 
the basic skills needed to survive.

  Reading is an ongoing activity. And, if we want our children to 
succeed, if we want to promote work force readiness, and if we want to 
raise academic standards in our schools, then we have to reach our 
children in their early stages of development.
  I hear from teachers, administrators, and counselors in my State 
about the dismal crisis in public schools. Many children come to school 
from impoverished backgrounds. Many children come to school either 
abused themselves or the witness to domestic abuse in the home. With 
all of these obstacles, it's even more difficult for teachers to teach 
and for students to learn to read.
  That's why I am supporting this bold, new initiative. The idea is to 
use the resources that our Nation already has--libraries, volunteers, 
students, businesses, and civic organizations--to help our most 
precious resource--our youth. I urge my colleagues to support this 
legislation.
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