[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 134 (Wednesday, October 1, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S10282]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              RETURNING MORE FREEDOM TO OUR LOCAL SCHOOLS

  Mr. GORTON. Madam President, yesterday, President Clinton assailed my 
proposal to give more money to schools all across the country and 
restore authority for directing those funds to parents and teachers and 
school board members. The debate about the future of our public schools 
is vitally important to the future of this country. A front-page 
Washington Post article today notes: ``. . .more parents than ever are 
choosing alternatives to public education for their children. . .'' and 
are doing so in such great numbers that the phenomenon is starting to 
resemble a revolution. We should read this as a warning signal that 
parents are beginning to lose faith in their public schools. We must 
act decisively to restore that faith, improve education, and prepare 
our children for their future. More of what we are doing now is not 
enough.
  On one point, the President and I do agree: We can improve public 
education. We part company, however, on who can best make decisions to 
improve our public schools. I believe that parents and teachers and 
local school board officials will make the greatest strides in 
improving education because they are in our homes and classrooms and 
high schools with our kids. But with his remarks yesterday, President 
Clinton says to parents and teachers: I don't trust you.
  I find it remarkable that the President believes that restoring 
decisionmaking authority to parents and teachers and our elected school 
board members is somehow dangerous. The Gorton education reform 
amendment increases the amount of money school districts have to work 
with, thus, expanding the programs they can target to both 
disadvantaged and high-achieving students.
  A recent study found that if Federal education funds for kindergarten 
through high school are sent directly to school districts, as the 
Gorton education reform amendment proposes, school districts would 
receive an additional $670 million. Why would they receive more? 
Because the funds would bypass the Department of Education and State 
educational bureaucracies and save that amount in administrative 
application and compliance costs. Washington State school districts 
would receive $12.5 million more to target to their most needy 
students; Arkansas schools would receive $7 million in increased 
education funds; Mississippi would get $9 million to target 
disadvantaged students and other school programs.
  President Clinton and opponents of giving parents and teachers a 
larger role in our children's education presume that local school 
districts will act irresponsibly if Federal strings disappear. This 
adds insult to injury. How can the President say with a straight face 
that programs would be ``abolished'' just because a bureaucrat does not 
direct them? Those who share the schools and classrooms with our 
children every day are not going to squander an opportunity to use an 
increase in Federal funds to address the problems they see every day.
  It is also extremely disingenuous to state that my proposal would 
somehow ``close the Department of Education,'' as President Clinton 
suggested yesterday. Higher education and dozens of functions relating 
to education in general will remain in the Department--perhaps too many 
such functions--but hundreds of bureaucrats who now write rules and 
regulations to inflict on every school in America will go, and their 
salaries will be used to hire new teachers and provide better education 
in every school in our Nation.
  Just on Sunday, Madam President, the Columbus Dispatch, in an 
editorial, summarized the dispute in this fashion:

       It's hard to see what the U.S. Department of Education has 
     accomplished in its 20 years of existence to improve this 
     country's system of schooling. The Senate's block grant 
     approach is worth a try.

  The will to change and improve our public school system and restore 
parents' faith in the quality of education it can provide to our kids 
is there. It is at home in our cities and towns and communities. Will 
we untie parents' and teachers' hands and let them do their jobs? The 
biggest point I believe today's Washington Post article makes clear is 
that parents are not turning to the Federal Government to improve their 
kids' education--parents and teachers are coming up with alternative 
solutions because they want the best possible education for their kids.
  We must return and restore more freedom, not less, to our local 
schools, so that we can restore the public's faith in public education.
  Mr. GLENN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Faircloth). The Senator from Ohio.

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