[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 54 (Wednesday, April 30, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2060-H2067]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION AGENDA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 7, 1997, the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, tonight I want to talk about the Democrats' 
education agenda. Before I get into some of the details, however, I 
wanted to briefly touch on the evolution of our plan to expand and 
improve the Nation's education system. I think it is particularly 
important to keep the history behind our plan in mind as negotiations 
over the budget continue the next few days or the next few weeks.
  The Democratic Party has historically been the champion and defender 
of education in this country. The 104th Congress, in fact, illustrated 
this observation in very stark terms. Upon taking the majority for the 
first time in some 40 years, Republican leaders immediately set out to 
dismantle Federal education programs. Led by Speaker Gingrich and 
primarily the freshman Republicans who were elected for the first time 
in the 104th Congress, the GOP proposed the largest education cuts in 
history.
  A look at the record shows that on August 4, 1995, the Gingrich 
Congress christened its attack on education when 213 House Republicans 
voted for the largest education cuts in history, voting to slash 
education programs by 15 percent, or $3.6 billion. These cuts across 
the full spectrum of education were particularly heavy on student loan 
programs. But the proposed cuts left no stone unturned. They targeted 
Title I, Safe and Drug-Free Schools, Goals 2000, Head Start, vocational 
and adult education, as well as student

[[Page H2061]]

loans. Two times the GOP shut down the Federal Government because the 
President and congressional Democrats refused to allow the extremist 
Republican agenda to move forward. As we all know now in the face of 
mounting pressure from the American public, Republicans eventually 
relented and restored most of the billions of dollars that they were 
trying to cut in education programs.
  Democrats on the other hand did not just fight to prevent Republicans 
from gutting education programs, we developed positive plans to improve 
and expand Federal education. That is basically where we are today, 
trying to convince the Republican majority to incorporate our education 
agenda in their budget plans.
  One of the most important aspects of the Democrats' education program 
which I would like to dwell on for a few minutes is higher education, 
and particularly expanding access to college by making it more 
affordable for middle-class and lower income Americans to attend 
college. We are essentially trying to accomplish this goal through a 
combination of scholarships, grants and tax breaks. The President in 
his State of the Union Address talked about the HOPE scholarship 
program which has probably received the most attention in terms of 
higher education programs. This is based on a plan in Georgia and 
basically what the HOPE scholarship program offers is refundable tax 
credits of up to $1,500 to students in their first 2 years of college 
who maintain B averages and stay off drugs. Our agenda also includes a 
$10,000 tax deduction for families with college expenses for every year 
that they have such expenses. All told, taking the tax credits and the 
tax deductions for postsecondary tuition and the fees, it would provide 
$36 billion of tax relief for working families and students over the 
next 5 years.
  Another component of this higher education agenda that is extremely 
important is the proposed increase in the Pell grant program. Mr. 
Speaker, I have to say that the Pell grant program is really the 
cornerstone, or has been the cornerstone, for a number of years of the 
Federal student aid program. It provides a means for students who would 
otherwise be unable to pay for college to get a college education. The 
plan that the President proposed in his State of the Union address and 
that he is now pushing in his budget is in fact the largest increase 
ever in the Pell grant program which would provide $40 billion of 
assistance to needy students over the next 5 years.
  I just wanted to stress the importance of Pell grants and just bring 
it back to my home State of New Jersey if I could for a minute. At 
Rutgers University, which is in my home district and is the largest 
State university in New Jersey, approximately 20,000 students at 
Rutgers received Federal assistance in the 1996-97 academic year. Of 
that 20,000 students, 8,498 received Pell grants. In other words, close 
to half of all students who receive Federal aid at Rutgers to help pay 
their tuition costs are getting it through the Pell grant program.
  As we can see, Mr. Speaker, tax breaks and increases in the current 
programs are the foundations of our higher education agenda, but I want 
to stress that they are not the only elements. We are also proposing 
cuts in student loan origination fees that would save $2.6 billion over 
the next 5 years. We would continue our programming of injecting 
competition by expanding the direct lending program. In other words, 
rather than have the student loan industry, the banks and financial 
institutions, provide the loans, or as an alternative through 
competition, we would let the colleges and universities provide the 
loans directly. Our plan also includes a proposal to provide tax 
incentives to employers who provide tuition assistance to their 
employees, to expand those opportunities for higher education as well.
  I have to stress that most of these higher education proposals were 
developed by Democrats in the spring and summer of last year. The 
American public, I think, has essentially sent a very unequivocal 
message about education and even about these proposals. They have 
indicated that we need assistance in meeting the runaway costs of a 
college education, and I think people in general are eager to see these 
Democratic proposals become law. I know that in my own district when I 
talk to my constituents about what they would like to see us do on the 
Federal level, education and particularly higher education is one of 
the major priorities. It is my hope that the Republican leadership 
learns from its mistakes during last year's budget battle and includes 
some of these Democratic proposals in this year's plan.
  Working families, students and average Americans, I think, are 
counting on Congress to help. We are simply waiting for the Republicans 
to agree to help us make life a little easier and a little better for 
the average American.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. PALLONE. I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from New 
Jersey [Mr. Pallone] for organizing this special order on education. I 
believe it is one of the most important issues that we will cover in 
this session of the 105th Congress. Having spent a number of years at 
the State level as a legislator and the last 8 as superintendent of 
schools for the State of North Carolina, I know a lot about what we 
should do and a number of the things we should not do.

                              {time}  1645

  I happen to, as I said to some of my colleagues the other day, being 
the first member of my family to have had the opportunity to graduate 
from college, I happen to believe that everyone should have that 
opportunity, and today we see that college is becoming more and more 
difficult for more and more people as the cost of higher education 
continues to rise and the opportunity tends to be farther and farther 
away for those young people who have the greatest needs.
  I guess I might say that one of the reasons I got into politics and 
really into education, and I think both of them have some of the same 
things, was an opportunity to help people and really to help young 
people. I have had the opportunity to work, in the few short months I 
have been a Member of this Congress, with some outstanding members of 
the Democratic caucus, working on education, talking about those things 
that I think are important, and I think it is an issue that people on 
both sides of the aisle this year can come together on.
  Secretary Riley will be speaking with us and has spoken with us on a 
number of occasions, and I think the President deserves a great deal of 
credit for putting education at the top of his agenda in 1997. It is 
one of those issues that everyone can rally behind.
  Mr. Speaker, it is the issue that businesses are talking about, 
parents are talking about, everyone in the State and national level is 
beginning to focus on. We are talking about raising and having higher 
standards, that students do need to work harder and be responsible.
  Earlier this year my home State of North Carolina earned the 
distinction which I am quite proud of, and I have called it to the 
attention of my colleagues before, and I want to do it again today 
because the National Assessment of Education Progress released the 
data, and it is called NAEP and it is probably one of the more reliable 
standards in which students are measured across the country. And our 
fourth graders in mathematics gained three times the national average 
of growth in their mathematics scores, and our eighth graders doubled 
it, and North Carolina was ranked as one of only three States in the 
Nation to receive exemplary status by the Secretary of Education.
  Mr. Speaker, these are the kinds of things we are going to have to do 
for all children all across this country, set high standards, work with 
them, provide the resources, help our teachers, help our parents so 
that they can reach those standards.
  As we look to the new century technology is changing the way we work, 
we learn and the way we live. Here in this body we vote electronically. 
In our offices we have TVs and electronic machinery and computers. 
Every modern business office has a computer on their desk, and many are 
hooked into the Internet, and as we approach the 21st century it is a 
shame that we have classrooms that have no computers, let alone access 
to the Internet, and too few schools even have telephones that are 
accessible by the teachers.

[[Page H2062]]

  I have said many times as we talk about high technology there are 
many teachers who just like to have a telephone where they call a 
parent when they need them, when they have a problem in the classroom, 
and they have to go down to the office or stand in line for another 
phone. That is not acceptable in a nation that has the resources that 
we have, and we are asking our children to meet those standards. We can 
do better, and I trust that this Congress will do it.
  My district has high-technology firms because of the Research 
Triangle, an area that we are proud of in North Carolina, and it 
reaches all the way out to the heartland of our State, where we 
literally have high-technology firms in a field right next to tobacco. 
Now, that is a tremendous contrast in the Nation and in the State, but 
we must win in both those areas. We must win with our agricultural 
interests, and we certainly must win with our high-technology 
interests.
  High technology in North Carolina is now the second leading industry 
in our State. It is bigger than furniture, it is bigger than 
agriculture in terms of the number of people directly employed, with 
over 100,000 people, and in 1995 the average wage base for people 
working in technology in North Carolina was $42,166. Those are the best 
jobs around, the best paying jobs, and people must have the skills to 
fill those jobs, and just because a new industry moves in and provides 
that technology and those job opportunities, you do not automatically 
gain those skills. Those skills are required over a time, and they are 
acquired with education, and it starts long before a child shows up at 
the public schoolhouse door.
  We have to start earlier providing opportunities for enrichment for 
our children so that when they come to school they are ready to learn. 
We must invest in our children, get them ready to learn. According to a 
recent Rutgers University study, every dollar, every single dollar that 
we invest in early childhood education returns us $7, $7. What a 
tremendous return. That is a great investment, and yet we hear people 
talking about the expense of this and the expense of that. That is an 
investment with tremendous dividends for all of us.
  And then we have the standards of excellence, as I talked about a few 
moments ago, in math and reading, the basic foundations that we build 
everything else on, in my opinion, in public education. We have to have 
those standards of excellence so parents can know that their children 
are learning. They know after we adopt those rigorous standards, as we 
have done in North Carolina, we also need to do the same thing at the 
national level for every single child in this country so that we know 
the standards are there and the children are meeting them.
  But, more importantly, we no longer deal in an economy that is within 
the borders of the United States. We do not compete even with just the 
people at our borders to the north and south. We have an international 
economy, and money moves, and so do jobs, and we must have an educated 
citizenry if we are going to have access to the jobs of the 21st 
century. And as we do that, my colleagues, we must rebuild the 
crumbling infrastructure of our schools.
  Mr. Speaker, it is appalling to me that we will build prisons nicer 
than the schools we send our children to every day. I have seen 
multimillion-dollar prisons next door to crummy, crumbling, decaying 
public schools, and then we have the gall to tell our children that 
education is important. They can see the difference in where we put our 
money. Certainly, we need places to put people who need to be 
incarcerated. I am all for that.
  Last year in North Carolina I used that speech so many times, Mr. 
Speaker, that we put a $1.8 billion bond issue on the ballot in our 
State, the largest bond issue in the history of our State, and to the 
credit of the business community in our State, the parents, and 
everyone else, it was on the ballot from November of last year, and it 
passed by the largest margin that any bond issue has ever passed in our 
State. The people said enough is enough. We had roughly almost 6,000 
trailers where children were going to every day, and even with those 
trailers they were working toward excellence in academics. So we have 
to get our infrastructure in order not only in our State but across 
this country. And I commend the President for proposing resources in 
this budget to help provide for the process of beginning to deal with 
that crumbling infrastructure. Certainly it is not enough money, but at 
least the $5 billion investment, if we turn it into bonds, will provide 
about $20 billion in this country to help with it.

  Let me turn to one other issue that, as we talk about education, we 
cannot talk about it just in education without talking in other areas, 
and it is an area in a number of States we need to look at. It 
certainly may be right outside some of our purview, but I read an 
article recently that there are 63,000 geriatric inmates in our 
Nation's prisons. Those are inmates that are there because they 
committed a heinous crime, but they are so old we do not have them 
anywhere else, and they cost on average; according to the National 
Criminal Justice Commission, these elderly prisoners cost on average 
$69,000 per inmate to incarcerate: $69,000. We need to find a better 
way to deal with those elderly inmates than to spend $69,000 a year 
when our children have tremendous needs. We are spending it in the 
wrong place. We need to spend it in preschool, and we need to spend it 
in our educational system.
  Some reports estimate it costs taxpayers seven times as much to 
incarcerate as it does to educate. Now granted we have got people we 
need to lock up and keep there, but we need to look at where we are 
putting our priorities.
  Let me touch on one other issue, if I may, in this whole area of 
education because all of it is important, and when we talk about 
investment I happen to believe education is an investment. It is an 
investment in our future, it is an investment in this country's future, 
and it is really not an expenditure because it pays rich dividends. We 
do need to spend money on technology, but we need to make sure as we 
spend those dollars, and this is true in every State, and this becomes 
as much a State responsibility, I guess, Mr. Speaker, as anything else. 
Our teachers need to understand technology and be able to use it 
because, if we put it in the classrooms without them understanding it, 
it will not be used the way it should be used.
  I have said that time and time again. I recommended in our State 
several years ago that we give every teacher a laptop and let her take 
it home--him or her--and they learn to use it. Now some have done it, 
and it works because then it becomes integrated with their lessons and 
it gets used. No question that young people can adapt to technology 
much quicker than some of us 35 years of age. We have a little bit of a 
difficult time dealing with it. We do not want folks to see that we 
really do not understand it that well. But it is important and 
imperative, I think, that we provide Internet to our schools. It would 
be great if it were in every classroom, but certainly will not have 
that access in schools so that that information is readily available to 
the children who live in some of the poorest areas of this country, as 
well as those who live in the more affluent areas, because we are all 
part of one Nation, the United States of America, as we are of our 
individual States, and any child deprived of that opportunity, in my 
opinion all of us lose when that happens.
  And we need to help families who are struggling to pay for college. 
Today we have so many young people who are bright, who want to go to 
school, and if they borrow the money that is required for them to get 
through college, they come out with such a debt, and we are working on 
something, we have introduced a bill. As a matter of fact, the 
gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Price] and I introduced House bill 
553 called the Education Affordability Act which will provide for some 
student--allows the interest on the student loans to be deducted just 
like we do on the home loans. It seems to me that if we can allow the 
deductibility on a second home at the beach, at a minimum we can allow 
for that investment in a young person and their family makes in their 
children's education; and I want to again commend the President for his 
proposal to help those struggling families who are really reaching out 
and trying to help their children get an education because they 
realize, and there are many young people today who will be the first in 
their families to graduate from college, and there are

[[Page H2063]]

many who may be the second generation that because of the level of 
income of their families are going to have a difficult time. The 
President has proposed the HOPE scholarship for those who work hard and 
do well academically. They ought to have that opportunity and a $1,500 
tax credit expansion of the Pell grants.
  I talked today, Mr. Speaker, with a college president of a university 
where he said if there is one thing I could do for these young people 
and others we are recruiting, give us Pell grant moneys, raise that 
level because the cost has gone up and we have not kept up with 
inflation over the years.

                              {time}  1700

  Also, we ought to allow parents who have saved and been frugal to 
reach into their IRA's without penalty and apply those dollars to their 
children's educational opportunities. They saved that money for an 
investment. What better investment can you make than an investment in 
your child's future, in their education that will allow them to provide 
for their families in the years to come?
  We have to remember, and I remember growing up, people talked about 
education as if it were a destination: ``I received a high school 
diploma,'' or ``I graduated from X college with a degree,'' or ``I have 
a Masters or a Ph.D.'' Today, we cannot talk in terms of education as a 
destination. It is a journey that lasts all of our lives. It is 
lifelong learning, and it starts when a child is born and it is never-
ending until we cease to draw our last breath.
  If we are going to be involved in the economy of the 21st century, 
and it really does not matter whether we work for a high-tech firm in 
Silicon Valley or the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, or if 
we work in the tobacco fields of eastern North Carolina or the wheat 
fields in the Midwest, the technology of the jobs that we do, whether 
it be in textiles or wherever, requires education, education, 
education, and business firms in this country understand it. They have 
been investing for a long time.
  We all need to get together and make it an effort where we do not 
just talk about it. Preschool education, K through 12 education, 
university education, education on the job, it is an education of 
lifelong learning, and we need to work together so that we can make it 
happen. It is a journey, it is not a destination.
  I thank the gentleman for these moments, and let me thank the 
gentleman for organizing this time.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from North 
Carolina [Mr. Etheridge] for participating in this special order.
  The gentleman mentioned a number of things that I thought were really 
important. I just want to reiterate, if I could, two things that the 
gentleman mentioned, because I think they are so true.
  One is the juxtaposition, if you will, of the amount of money that we 
spend on prisons versus education. Of course, we all know we have to 
have prisons and the Federal Government, of course, has been providing 
funding to build more prisons. But the bottom line is that I think that 
our whole reason why we think education is such a priority is because 
it builds a foundation for the future and is essentially preventive.
  People that are well educated, it is less likely that they are going 
to have to be committing crime or going to prison. If we leverage the 
amount of money that we would spend, for example, on school 
construction and compare that to what would have to be spent on prison 
construction down the road, clearly there is no comparison. That is why 
it makes sense to spend Federal dollars on school construction and 
renovation.
  I yield to the gentleman again.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I think the point the gentleman is 
making, talking about an expenditure versus an investment, is a good 
one. Any good businessman wants to invest, any person does. Certainly 
when we invest in our children, the point the gentleman made about as 
young people get an education, we break a lot of cycles when the 
educational opportunity is there, because what we have done is enriched 
the next generation, allowing them to earn more money, obviously. They 
are better able to look after their children and the members of their 
family. They are less likely to follow a life of crime, and they are 
able to move up in society into the middle class.
  As we move people into the middle class, all of us benefit. So the 
gentleman is absolutely right. As we enrich and broaden that base, that 
is how we become a richer and a fuller Nation. We have done that over 
generations as a result of education.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, the other thing the gentleman mentions is 
the emphasis on early childhood education. I guess in the last couple 
of weeks we have heard a lot about that in the media. I think the 
President, and Mrs. Clinton in particular, have been going around the 
country talking about the need for early childhood education. The First 
Lady was actually at Princeton University in my State, I believe just a 
couple of days ago.
  Reading some of this material that has been coming out over the last 
few weeks, it is just amazing to me. I have two small children, one is 
2 and the other is 3\1/2\, and I have listened to what some of the 
educators are saying and I can just see how true it is, that we need to 
spend more time. A lot of it of course is just the family, that the 
family spends time reading to their children or spending time with 
their kids, but also in terms of resources as well, on very early 
childhood education, because so much happens in those formative years.
  That is why I think programs like Head Start, which really do not 
even start that early, but start fairly early, and that has been a very 
successful program. One of the things that we have been talking about 
as part of the Democratic agenda is expanding Head Start and early 
childhood education, because it is so crucial.
  I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. The gentleman's point is well made. They are now 
talking about that more has been learned in the development of the 
brain in the last 5 years than in the last 30, 35 years, and we are 
beginning to realize that zero to age 3 is such an important period for 
our children. But even with that, if we look at Head Start and the 
young people who need to be there, we are still serving less than half 
of the young people that need to be served in that area.
  I was in Durham just 2 weeks ago, and they served somewhere in the 
neighborhood of over 700 children in an old abandoned school that they 
moved out of several years ago, but they have moved into it and done a 
lot of work. Certainly they need new facilities. But if one meets with 
those children and sees what is happening in their lives, and I visited 
twice in the last 10 days and met with the children, the bright eyes 
and the flow of enthusiasm.
  I have often said to folks, if you really want to see where we are 
headed in this country, go into a classroom of little folks, 5-, 6-, 7-
year-olds, and ask them if they can dance and ask them to raise their 
hand, they will all raise their hands. If you ask them if they can 
sing, they will all raise their hands. Ask them anything, they will 
agree, they can do it.
  Then wait as they get older, into high school, and ask that same 
question, and they have qualifiers. I only slow dance, I can only sing 
this, et cetera.
  What I am saying is that we have the opportunity I think in 1997 in 
this Congress to link up all of these folks who are reaching out there, 
the business community and others, with the President's leadership, and 
make a difference as we move to the 21st century like we have never 
made in this country before, and provide a springboard for democracy to 
be here for our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren, if we do the 
right things in providing educational opportunities for our children.

  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield now to the 
gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. Jackson-Lee], who I know has been involved 
again with these education issues and promoting the need for the 
Federal Government to do more on education.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New 
Jersey [Mr. Pallone] for his leadership and raising the importance of 
this issue; and I thank the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. 
Etheridge], my colleague and friend, who made some very valid points.
  It was interesting to hear him speak about his visits to his 
respective

[[Page H2064]]

schools in his district. I too can attest to the fact that if you want 
to see America's promise, as has been discussed over these last couple 
of days, then you need to be in your schools throughout this Nation.
  How sad, in contrast to my visits. This past week I visited Turner 
Elementary, Cullin Middle School, and Pole Middle School, and will be 
visiting some others in my return to the district in the next couple of 
days. But there certainly was an excitement and a brightness in those 
children's eyes.
  We happen to have been visiting them and presenting them trees to 
plant. This month, of course, is the month that we celebrate Earth Day. 
It is a time to emphasize our environment. It happens to be beautiful 
outside today, at least in Washington, DC, and it is important to 
instill in children the reality of education, the real necessity of a 
tree and how you plant a tree. So I was very delighted to be able to go 
and meet with my students in my district and present to them in fact 
seedlings from Martin Luther King trees in Selma, AL.
  But I say that to point out that that joyous occasion was in sharp 
contrast to our Nation's Capital and the announcement of the closing of 
some 5 to 10 schools in Washington, DC.
  This is not to say or to have someone who might hear my voice, 
``Well, that is Washington, DC.'' No, that is a statement on education, 
that here we have in America in 1997 schools being closed because there 
are not sufficient enough dollars for their upkeep and the teachers and 
the educational programs.
  If I might just diverge for a moment, because I think all of this is 
intertwined, and the gentleman has been a leader on the issues dealing 
with Medicare and Medicaid. Many times we think that these are not 
issues that sort of impact on each other, and in particular, the women 
and infant children program that we have just discovered Republicans 
voted to eliminate some 130,000 women and children. That is a nutrition 
program. That is the early beginning of giving children the support 
basis that they need to begin the learning process.
  On the WIC program, as related to us by Robert Greenstein, executive 
director of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the WIC 
program is currently regarded by researchers as the single most 
successful social program the Federal Government runs, with an 
impressive array of medical evidence showing the program reduces low 
birth rate, infant mortality, and child anemia, all leading to the kind 
of healthy child we would like to have, taking them toward the 
educational system. I just wanted to add that because then that mounts, 
if you will, that creates additional problems.
  If we are to be serious about education, we must begin at the early 
stages. So I think it is extremely important that we look at WIC, 
because WIC ultimately impacts Head Start. We must, as the President 
enunciated in his State of the Union, we must come up to the bar, if 
you will, ante up and recognize that in fact Head Start, a healthy 
child coming into Head Start really sets the tone for the kind of 
vehicle, what that child will be, what you can put into that child, 
giving that child the kind of educational start that he needs. I hope 
that we will not overlook the value of Head Start.
  So I wanted to sort of take education from the very stage of birth, 
bring it to Head Start and then begin a very brief discussion on some 
crises that I see, and how it is important for this to be bipartisan 
and for Republicans to join us in emphasizing that this not be an 
education President or education Congress, but an education Nation that 
reinforces our commitment.
  We talk about tax cuts. I think I heard someone discuss the other day 
on the floor of the House, it was a Republican colleague, the 
percentage of increase in college tuition is unbelievable, unbelievable 
for the working family in terms of that cost that we have seen occur in 
our college increases, and not just our private institutions at the top 
level of rating but across the board.
  Therefore, bringing it to our attention that the HOPE scholarship is 
an important part of what we should be looking at to allow people to 
get their first step in the door, the first 2 years of college, help 
those working families counter some of these increases in college 
tuition. Pell Grants, that have been over the years a mainstay for many 
of our young people who are today now leaders in the Nation's Capital, 
leaders in industry, they should be on the front of our burner in terms 
of continuing.
  As I went to our different schools, I do not think there is one of us 
that cannot find an aging school in our district. Now we have talked 
and talked about school repair and school construction. I tell my 
colleagues, we have a problem. Schools are crumbling across the Nation. 
It is extremely important that we get down to the business of 
addressing school infrastructure.
  The President announced a program in his State of the Union. I am 
sorry that we are still, now April going into May, have not really 
attacked this problem head on. Would it not be shameful for our 
children and teachers to return in the fall to crumbling schools? This 
is something that we need to address almost immediately.
  I have heard the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] raise this 
question and this issue about school infrastructure. I am told that 
over 60 percent of U.S. public elementary and secondary school 
facilities need major repairs. The gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. 
Etheridge] started citing different regions. That means in Alaska, in 
the Silicon Valley, that means in Houston, TX; in parts of New Jersey, 
it means in parts of Pennsylvania; it means down in the deep South, 
Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia; it means in the Midwest. Wherever we 
go, there is not a you problem, your problem, not my problem; it is an 
us problem.

                              {time}  1715

  The average school nationwide needs $1.7 million to repair and 
upgrade its facilities to an acceptable overall condition. Last fall I 
had one of my schools collapse, so the children had to be dispersed. 
One of the ceilings collapsed. They had to be dispersed through other 
schools.
  Do we understand what it means to have a neighborhood school, and the 
feeling of community; even in times when our children have been bussed 
there is a sense of community and familiarity with the school you go 
to. How distracting to have you dispersed throughout other schools when 
your school is not functioning.
  I think we need to put at the top of our responsibility educational 
infrastructure. Then we need to be assured that our teachers have the 
right kind of training, that our reading teachers have the right kind 
of training for them, so we need to provide dollars for programs that 
would enhance the Opportunity to Learn Program, to enhance those 
standards.
  I think it is likewise important, coming from the community that I 
have, to not taint bilingual education in a negative fashion. We have 
been successful with bilingual education. What that simply means is to 
allow those students who come in speaking only their language to be 
able to be taught while they are learning the English language.
  Can we simply understand what bilingual education is? It has worked 
in Texas, and I think it is extremely important that we not abandon 
that because of misconstruing and characterizing bilingual education in 
the context of English only. That is a tragedy and a shame and a sham 
on what it actually is.
  Let me also say that we have seen such progress with our work with 
individuals with disabilities, from President Bush signing, and the 
Democratic Congress then, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the 
work that has transpired with helping those with disabilities reach 
their full promise. Let us not, in this educational effort, abandon 
those individuals and not provide them with the resources that they 
need to in fact become independent, to transition from dependence into 
independence.
  We have a crisis in education. There are a myriad of things that we 
need to confront. I believe that we will get nowhere by holding hostage 
the budget, by refusing to recognize that there will have to be some 
major sacrifices. The defense spending has to be closely looked at, 
because we will not have a Nation, in essence, to defend. We will not 
have the kind of qualified men and women rising up to join the Armed 
Forces, with their intellect, without

[[Page H2065]]

providing the basic necessities of education.
  Then I would like to say that out of education comes training for 
dislocated workers, and most of all our young people. How do we get 
young people to see the advantage of staying in school? We fully fund 
the summer youth program, the jobs program that I have heard some of my 
Republican colleagues call a babysitting job. It is not. It translates 
academics, education, to our young high school students to 
understanding what work is all about, going on these summer jobs and 
being able to get the gratification of translating book knowledge into 
work knowledge.
  The summer jobs program has been an eye-opener. It has been a divine 
intervention, if you will, for those individuals that want to give up, 
that come from neighborhoods that might not encourage perseverance. The 
summer jobs program has changed lives.
  I tell this story frequently, when I was in local government 
participating in the summer youth program, hiring one of those students 
and having them call me to say that they did not have the proper 
clothing to wear downtown to an office building; and telling that 
youngster, regardless of what you wear, come down to this office, let 
us work with you; and seeing that youngster go on to greater and bigger 
things because they were able to be exposed in an office setting and 
develop the confidence and the appreciation for work.
  I would simply say to the gentleman who has organized this very vital 
special order that hopefully that will be the lightning rod to get us 
moving on supporting education for our Nation, and in fact in restoring 
the WIC funding to not deprive 180,000 women and children from that 
first start, and then of course making it so very, very crucial and 
such a very, very strong commitment to educating our youngsters.
  I might inquire of the gentleman from New Jersey, we make a good 
pair, because he is on the East Coast, far to the east of me, and I am 
here in Texas, and it would be certainly presumptuous to suggest that 
all my problems are the gentleman's problems. I tend to think they are 
the Nation's problems.
  Must we not confront this infrastructure crisis in our country that 
so many preceding the gentleman, and I remember the gentleman from 
Illinois, Mr. Dick Durbin, I remember Senator Carol Moseley-Braun on 
the other side has been a leader on this issue, Cleo Fields, who used 
to be in this body, so many have spoken about this issue.
  When will we address this question of infrastructure, for our 
children to be in safe and secure places of learning? Is that a problem 
in New Jersey, or is that a problem that is a national problem?
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I would say to the gentlewoman, there is no 
question that it is a national problem. I know in my district in New 
Jersey we have a variety of schools, inner-city older schools, growing 
communities that are operating with portable classrooms because they 
cannot find the funding to build new schools. In the last few years in 
many of the communities in New Jersey there has been an expansion, a 
huge expansion in school enrollment. I guess there is sort of a new 
baby boom that is coming along now. The school districts simply cannot 
afford to spend the money on renovations or new construction.
  I do not know that we actually brought it out tonight, but the 
gentlewoman and I are certainly aware, as well as the gentleman from 
Massachusetts, that the President has called for this $5 billion to be 
spent over the next 4 years to help pay for up to half the interest 
that local school districts incur on school construction bonds, or for 
other forms of assistance that will spur new State and local 
infrastructure investment. Basically this financing assistance, this $5 
billion, can help to spur $20 billion in new resources for school 
modernization, a 25 percent increase above current levels over the next 
4 years.
  What we are saying basically is that we want the Federal Government 
to get involved with the school infrastructure, which they have really 
not been in a significant way, and even though $5 billion may not sound 
like a lot over 5 years, it can really be leveraged with what the State 
and local governments can do to make a difference to address some of 
these needs. But it is clearly national, it is not just in New Jersey 
or Texas, it is all over, and there is plenty of information from the 
General Accounting Office to verify that.
  Mr. Speaker, I notice the gentleman came on the floor, and I would 
like to yield some time to the gentleman from Massachusetts.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to. That 
would certainly be a sparkplug for getting the infrastructure built. I 
think the President is certainly on track on these leadership issues. I 
am delighted to see the gentleman from Massachusetts has joined us on 
this issue.
  Mr. PALLONE. I want to thank the gentlewoman for being here.
  I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. McGovern].
  Mr. McGovern. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from 
Massachusetts for organizing this special order on education. As the 
gentleman knows, no other issue before this country, in my opinion, is 
as important as the education of our children.
  Like a number of my colleagues, a couple of weeks ago I attended the 
conference at the White House on early childhood development. As the 
gentleman knows, this conference focused on new scientific research 
that confirms what many parents have suspected for a long time, that 
those very first few years of a child's life are critical to that 
child's social and intellectual and emotional development. I think the 
President and the First Lady deserve enormous credit for taking a lead 
on this issue, and raising awareness on this issue.
  I have taken to this well many times to speak of my support for 
improving the scope and quality of American education. But we must 
never forget, as I said, that a child starts learning long before they 
enter the first classroom. If one believes, as I do, that education is 
truly the key to this Nation's economic future, we must begin early.
  I would just like to highlight the fact that I have joined with the 
gentlewoman from Connecticut, Ms. Rosa DeLauro, and the gentleman from 
Maryland, Mr. Steny Hoyer, in introducing a bill that kind of addresses 
some of the concerns that were raised at that White House Conference on 
Early Childhood Development. The bill specifically would increase 
funding for Head Start and the Early Start Programs. It would also 
expand the Family and Medical Leave Act, and it would provide 
competitive State grants for child care and family support services.
  I think it is vital and it is crucial that this Congress address this 
issue of early childhood development. Again, anybody who attended that 
conference at the White House could not help but be moved by the 
testimony from scientists and academics and parents who talk 
specifically about how important some of these programs are.
  Earlier today I joined with a number of my colleagues at a gathering 
that was entitled a ``Head Start Day Hearing'' in the U.S. Congress. I 
sat down and had lunch with a bunch of Head Start kids. I am convinced 
more than ever that this is a very important program and deserves the 
support of this institution. But supporting those kinds of programs I 
think is vital if we truly are serious about education.
  Mr. Speaker, I might add one more issue that I think is very 
important for this Congress to address. That is the issue of expanding 
the amount that we grant currently for Pell grants and the eligibility. 
The cost of higher education continues to go up, and yet State and 
Federal grants continue to go down. The way people right now tend to 
finance their education is almost exclusively on loans. The idea of 
providing more money for Pell grants, I think this is the time to do 
it. I think parents would appreciate that kind of movement. Certainly 
college presidents and those associated with various universities and 
colleges would appreciate it.
  I get concerned when it appears that many people who would like to go 
to college do not go to college simply because they cannot afford to go 
to college. I think anybody in this country who wants a college 
education should be able to get one, regardless of where they are in 
terms of economic status.
  If we are truly serious about building that bridge into the 21st 
century that the President talks so eloquently

[[Page H2066]]

about, if we truly want this Nation to continue to be the economic 
superpower in the next century, then education is the key. Education 
really is the key to almost everything: Economic stability, economic 
development, as well as dealing with so many of the social and economic 
problems that we talk about often on this floor.
  I want to commend the gentleman from New Jersey for organizing this 
special order, and I will certainly join with him and the President in 
the initiatives that he has outlined here today.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's comments. I 
just wanted to mention, if I could, and develop a couple of things the 
gentleman has mentioned. When he talked about the Pell grants, one of 
the things we need to stress, and the gentleman did so, is that the 
Democratic education initiative does put a lot of emphasis on the need 
to expand the Pell grants, as does the President's.
  I think a lot of the media focus or attention has been on the HOPE 
scholarships and the tuition tax credits, but I think we all understand 
that if we do not expand Pell grants then the neediest, if you will, of 
students that really depend on Pell grants in order to finance their 
college education will not be able to continue.
  Throughout this debate about whether to provide tax credits versus 
scholarships or Pell grants, we just need to continue to focus on the 
fact that if we do not expand these Pell grant programs, then the 
needier students will not be able to go to college, because I know that 
the cost of tuitions and fees has gone up so much, and that Pell grants 
basically have not kept up with it, even though the Democrats have 
continued to stress the need to expand those Pell grant programs.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's comments. I 
would just point out that the bill that I have introduced would 
actually increase the maximum Pell grant award to $5,000 from a current 
level of $2,700, bringing the award to the level at which it was 
created, adjusted for inflation. I think this is the kind of bold 
measure the American people would appreciate.
  I applaud the President for adding or increasing the amount of Pell 
grants in his proposal. I think we could even do better, quite frankly. 
I think Pell grants, from when I talk to parents, when I travel 
throughout my district, grant money is something they would very much 
appreciate. I would also say it is a wise investment of our Federal 
resources.
  After World War II we had something called the G.I. bill of rights, 
which educated a whole generation of veterans coming back from World 
War II. I do not think anybody today would argue that that program was 
misguided or not a proper use of Federal resources. One of the reasons 
why this country is as powerful as it is today, and continues to be an 
economic superpower, is because of the fact that we made a commitment 
to education. We need to make a similar commitment now to education for 
this new generation, and I think Pell grants is one way to do that.
  Mr. PALLONE. I agree, and I thank the gentleman for his comments and 
for the legislation he has introduced.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York [Mr. Owens].
  Mr. OWENS. I, too, want to commend the gentleman for this special 
order on education, Mr. Speaker. I have been listening and heard us 
cover a lot of territory, as is the case with the President's 
comprehensive program, this little booklet that came out, ``A Call to 
Action for American Education,'' which ranges all the way from early 
childhood education to higher education and lifelong learning.
  That is as it should be. I have served on the Committee on Education, 
and the name has changed lately, but it has been the education 
committee, basically, for the 15 years that I have been here.

                              {time}  1730

  This is a time for great rejoicing among people who care about 
education, and that includes the overwhelming majority of Americans. 
Most Americans care about education. Most Americans, every adult 
American, thinks he or she is an expert on education, too. That is part 
of the problem and also part of the strength of trying to bring about 
improvement in our schools. Everybody cares, and I think we ought to 
hunker down and understand that we have a President that is ready to 
take a comprehensive approach, he is ready to cover the whole spectrum, 
and that in covering that spectrum, he has made a quite a number of 
commitments.
  I think when we add up the commitments over the next 5 years, we are 
talking about $50 billion at a time when everybody is afraid of being 
accused of being a tax-and-spend liberal. The commitment is there for 
education because it is absolutely necessary.
  I commend the President and I commend everybody involved. I am very 
optimistic about the bipartisan spirit that is available to help push 
this education agenda. I think it is real. I think that both 
Republicans and Democrats want to see education improved in some 
significant way as we go into the 21st century.
  I just want to take this opportunity to talk about one piece of this 
comprehensive approach. It is a piece that is bound to generate a 
considerable amount of controversy. It is a large amount of money. It 
involves expenditure for public works. And already I fear that we have 
some divisiveness setting in, even among Democrats, and disagreement on 
the construction part of the package.
  Construction a lot of people feel should be left up to the States and 
the local areas and the Federal Government should not even get 
involved. But I am here to tell you, we have a real emergency. In our 
big cities, we have a great emergency with respect to the basics of 
providing a safe place, a conducive place for young people to study, a 
safe and conducive environment for study. That ought to be the first 
and most basic thing that we are concerned with, just to have them have 
a place to sit with decent lighting, with enough comfort to be able to 
concentrate on their studies, with no fear of asbestos contamination, 
no fear of lead poisoning.
  It is amazing how old some of our schools are in the big cities. This 
is a plea for the construction component. It is a plea for us to be 
very broad-minded and understand that a proposal for $5 billion at the 
Federal level, with the hope that it will stimulate additional money at 
the State and the local level, is not an extreme proposal at all.
  Let me just give an example of New York City, which many people will 
say, well, New York City should take care of its own needs. But that 
has not been the case. And why penalize children. We had a bond 
initiative that passed, I am happy to report, on the environment. And 
in that initiative it talked about providing money to rehabilitate some 
schools' boilers in New York, boilers that were still using coal, were 
still burning coal in a city that has one of the highest asthma rates 
in the country.
  The asthma rate, number of children with asthma, is a scandal. Coal 
burning in schools is not the only contributor. There are other 
factors. But that is one we should eliminate. Now I am a public 
official in New York, and I thought, great, this bond issue talks about 
putting gas burning boilers in 39 schools to eliminate the coal burning 
boilers; and I thought, well, that is wonderful and that solved the 
problem.
  In a little more digging, I found we do not have 39 schools that have 
coal burners, we have 200 and some schools, almost 300 schools that 
still have coal burners. I know when we start throwing statistics, 
people outside of New York get dizzy. We have approximately 1,000 
schools. One-third of those schools are still burning coal, one-third.
  That is a shock to me. So I am sure it is hard to understand when you 
get outside of New York that New York City has one-third of its schools 
still burning coal. We have schools that have asbestos problems to the 
point where we cannot wire the schools. If you start boring holes, the 
costs go up astronomically because when asbestos is present, you have 
to have a certified contractor, you have to have a place for that 
contractor to store the asbestos, and it is very costly to transport it 
and store it and we run into all kinds of problems with our net day 
because of the physical condition of the schools.
  We need a massive program to renovate churches and schools to make

[[Page H2067]]

them safe. We need a program just to build new schools because some are 
so old that you cannot do anything with them. It is more efficient to 
just tear the schools down and build new schools.
  Now this is the big city of New York that has this problem. I am here 
to talk about it. I assure you it does not take much imagination to 
know that Chicago, St. Louis, Los Angeles, the problem exists in most 
of our big city districts. Large numbers of young people, we have a 
million students in New York City, and as of last September, 91,000 of 
those students did not have a place to sit.
  So I thank the gentleman and I just wanted to highlight, we are 
moving into the process now where we are going to talk in detail about 
this comprehensive agenda of the President. Construction is on the 
agenda. I understand certain proposals have been made that a certain 
percentage of the money go to inner city districts. Some people are 
worried about too much going into inner city districts. It cannot be 
too much. The problem is grave. The problem is an emergency.
  If we are going to do anything about young children, the first thing 
we should do is think about safe places that are conducive to learning. 
Physical facilities are basic, and I hope they get a lot of support 
from the President's construction program in his comprehensive 
education program.
  Mr. PALLONE. I want to thank the gentleman from New York [Mr. Owens], 
and I again assure him that what he is talking about in New York City 
is throughout the country. We had some statistics about the General 
Accounting Office that says one-third of the Nation's schools needs 
major repair, outright replacement, 60 percent need work on major 
building features, sagging roof, cracked foundation, 46 percent lack 
even the basic electrical wiring to support computers, modems and 
modern communication technology.
  My colleague talked about the magnitude in New York, but it is true 
throughout the country. I think that is why the school construction 
program the President is talking about has so much appeal because it 
really affects every district, every congressional district in this 
country, as do so many of these proposals the Democrats have put 
forward on education.
  So I am just hopeful that our colleagues on the other side, the 
Republican leaders, who are in the majority, take heed of this because 
I think there is no question that education is a priority and that 
there is a lot more that can be done on the Federal level, and we as 
Democrats have put forward those proposals and we would like to have 
our Republican colleagues join us in passing those in this Congress 
before we adjourn. So thank you again, I appreciate the gentleman's 
comments.

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