[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 143 (Wednesday, October 22, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H8993-H8995]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          EDUCATION IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 7, 1997, the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Etheridge] is 
recognized for the remainder of the minority leader's hour, 
approximately 30 minutes.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, let me respond to what the gentleman said 
about facilities and other things, because this is important. When you 
think of public schools, public schools are like a small town, they 
carry on a lot of the services that any town would have and they need 
to have basic infrastructure for water and sewer of some type. They 
have got to have maintenance facilities, they teach, they provide 
discipline and provide instruction. It is a whole multitude of things 
we require teachers to do and the staff of a school as well as teach.
  I am reminded of people who say that the facility does not make any 
difference, and my friend from New Jersey was just talking about the 
school here in D.C. and how important it is. If your roof leaks, the 
first thing you have got to do is patch the roof. It is hard to say to 
a child, this and that is important, and they look around and find out 
their building is dirty, the walls need painting, the windows need 
fixing and the roof needs patching, and they do not perceive that 
education is important. That is important to fix.
  Just last week I was in a brand new school in a school in my 
district. I went in and read to a kindergarten classroom in Rocky 
Mount, and in the process of reading, the school is new and it had 
video throughout the school, and in the process of reading to those 
students, I knew it was on camera, but I didn't realize, I guess I just 
got so involved in reading to the children, the kindergartners, I 
forgot it was going throughout the whole school.
  So when we finished the reading of the book, the kindergartners in 
the class I was in applauded, and the door happened to be open, and 
apparently the doors to a lot of the school were open, and I could hear 
applause all over that school.
  I tell that story because that is an example of what could happen 
when you have a school that has modern facilities and conveniences, and 
the things we talk about every day. And we talk about high-tech and the 
Internet and faxes and things we move quickly, and yet some of our 
children go to buildings every day that we would not dare put a 
business in. But we send children there, because they do not have any 
choice.
  Some communities are growing so fast, they are struggling to make 
sure they can do it. The question is can the Federal Government do all 
that? No, absolutely not. But we can say it is important and our taxing 
policies can support that where we can, and we tried to put some money 
in this time. The majority would not let it go as part of the bill. I 
trust before this Congress adjourns, it will get another opportunity to 
assist in those areas where it is so important, because children do 
deserve a good environment in which to learn. It improves the 
qualities. The school ought to be one of the nicest places they attend 
every day. It was when I was in school, and we should not back up.
  I remember, I told a group in a chamber meeting not long ago, if the 
facilities do not matter, then I would suggest the next time the 
industrial hunter goes out looking for any major client to come to town 
and open their business, take them to someplace in town where there is 
an old, run-down warehouse and say to them, you know, the facility 
really does not make any difference in the quality of product you are 
going to put out, so this is the building we are going to try to help 
you acquire, and see how long it is before that client is out of town 
and the word gets around, and you will not have an opportunity to 
recruit very much.
  We have a responsibility I think, and I say ``we,'' I think all of us 
in this country, in the Nation, that has the resources we do, to help. 
It is a local matter, yes, but all of us working together need to make 
it happen.
  The last time I was in a school, which was just last Friday, I do not 
remember a single child, as a matter of fact, they didn't, they didn't 
ask who paid for anything in that school; the books, the TV, the 
materials they used. Children only know what they get. They do not know 
what they need. That is our responsibility, and I think Congress can 
help with that by setting the tone and saying education is important. 
It is one of the key components we have to deal with in this country.
  It is as much, in my opinion, of our national defense in this global 
economy we find ourselves in, and the economic challenges we face 
around the world, to be able to compete economically as it is to have 
strong military, and I very strongly support a strong military to 
defend our borders.
  I think we should not give up on public education. That is where the 
bulk of our children are. They will be there tomorrow, they will be 
there next week, next year, and they will be there for time to come, 
because there is not enough space in any other place for them. And to 
back away from making sure they have a quality education would be a 
travesty, in my opinion.
  Let me touch on one other point that Mr. Pallone mentioned in his 
remarks as he was going through, and he touched on facilities and 
standards and the whole issue of teacher assistance, teacher support, 
to be able to make sure that they have the support to do the job.

[[Page H8994]]

  We need to make sure that we work with our universities in the 
dollars appropriated from the Federal Government, that they get more 
involved, as the President has now encouraged the universities to do, 
roughly 800 of them now, participating in the America Reads program. 
But we also need them to get involved in our teacher development and in 
our teacher recertification programs, to provide some of the latest up-
to-date resources and research-based information for our teachers to 
use.
  I know at the University of North Carolina, they are now developing a 
tremendous program on the Internet, and they are using graduate 
students to do some of the work. The reason I know about it, Mr. 
Pallone, my daughter is working in it, and they will have it on line in 
another year or so, when teachers, when they have access to computers, 
they can log in, bring down some of the best lesson plans anywhere 
around, and use those to challenge our students in the way that they 
never have been challenged before.

                              {time}  1845

  It will help that teacher at the point they are working with our 
children. That is one of the things the President and the Vice 
President talked about when they are talking about having access to the 
Internet in every library and in every classroom. Until it is available 
to the teacher, my view is it will not be used the way it should be. 
Teachers have to be comfortable with using it, and then it becomes 
integrated in their instructional materials and the children will use 
it.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to follow up on what the 
gentleman mentioned. When we talk about the need to address school 
infrastructure, whether it is building new school buildings or 
renovating those that have deteriorated, the gentleman knows we have 
mentioned before this initiative that was essentially recommended by 
the President, the $5 billion to help pay the costs of school 
construction bonds or the interest on school construction bonds, which 
the Republicans rushed and insisted that it not be part of the balanced 
budget agreement.
  The reason why it was not I think was very unfortunate, but it is 
still out there, something that the gentleman's task force supports and 
many of my Democratic colleagues support.
  We stressed that money would not be just used for buildings, but 
could also be used for the Internet, for rewiring, for making 
improvements so that the Internet or various computers, whatever, could 
be utilized in schools, because obviously one of the infrastructure 
needs, as the gentleman mentioned, that a lot of the schools do not 
have in this country is to address the high-tech problems, wiring, the 
types of things that make computers and the Internet available. So that 
is important. That was actually the third point of the gentleman's task 
force agenda.
  But I just wanted to, in the small amount of time that we have left, 
go into another area which the gentleman mentioned in the task force, 
the Democratic task force recommendations. That is support for local 
plans to renew neighborhood public schools.
  It sounds like a generic term, but when we break it down, they talked 
about specific things: Federal assistance for communities committed to 
renewing their public schools; Federal support for local school renewal 
plans that are developed and implemented by the community; plans to 
address such considerations as parental involvement, teacher training, 
technology enhancement.
  A lot of this involves getting the community as a whole involved and 
at the same time getting individual parents or caretakers involved. 
That is so important, and it also shows how much the Democratic 
proposals, if you will, the task force proposals, want to build upon 
the community and upon parental involvement.
  Oftentimes when we talk about addressing education on a Federal level 
and providing funding on a Federal level, we get accused from our 
colleagues on the other side of saying, well, you want the Federal 
Government to control the public schools. It is just the opposite. We 
want more parental involvement; we want more community involvement. We 
simply want the dollars to be made available, because we know that is 
where the crunch is.
  A lot of times they do not have the dollars. If the gentleman maybe 
wants to discuss a little more the types of ways that communities can 
get involved when they get a small amount of Federal resources, because 
I think it is so important, I will yield to him for that purpose.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. The gentleman is absolutely correct, Mr. Speaker. What 
this was about was a reaffirmation of the fact that schools inherently 
are community-based. People believe very strongly in their schools.
  That is why poll after poll after poll and research and whatever 
says, I believe in my school, but it is the one down the road that 
needs changing, or the one down the road ought to have the new program, 
but I like what I have here. The belief there is that we ought to 
provide the resources to do it.
  Another example, a school I am aware of a number of years ago had 
very little parent involvement and low test scores, which indicates 
that, and a lot of other problems, discipline problems.
  The principal said, listen, I'm not going to put up with this. It was 
an area where you would say the school cannot be successful, with a lot 
of problems in the community, lack of involvement, et cetera. This 
principal decided, I am going to get them involved. She went to every 
house and knocked on every door, went to softball games, baseball games 
during the summer; wherever parents were, this principal went.
  It was a long story. Parental involvement, the PTA went from 
something like 10 percent to 80 percent. School scores went up 
dramatically; dropout rates went down. That is what we are trying to 
get to, is to be able to provide a resource. All this school needed was 
one person. One parent came and volunteered. Pretty soon they were not 
able to volunteer and they needed more help, so they were able to 
scrounge up enough money to pay a half-time person to coordinate the 
parents.
  These kinds of things make all the difference in the world: Just a 
few resources at the point of the school to reach out and bring them in 
and you have changed lives forever and the opportunities are 
tremendous.
  If we take that and allow a child to progress through school, and 
follow through with what we did this time, in putting $35 billion 
available for education beyond high school, we have changed this 
country forever, too, when we allow more and more young people to get a 
college education.
  But we have to get them started on the right track, get them to read, 
get them stronger in math, give them that foundation, get the parents 
involved, let them understand they can dream the American dream and 
they can achieve it.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, the other point that the gentleman made in 
his agenda, and again, his task force agenda, the Democratic task force 
agenda, was about efficient and coordinated use of resources. There was 
a very important point incorporated under that rubric which says, 
coordinate the services for children and families through local 
consortiums of education and social service providers.
  What I find in my congressional district, and I am sure this is true 
in many parts of the country, is that many times the school districts 
are too small. If they want to provide certain types of services, or 
address certain educational needs, they need to get together with other 
local school districts. A small amount of Federal dollars would help a 
great deal in that, as well.
  Just to give an idea, in my home county, Monmouth County, over the 
years they have tried to get the schools together on a county level to 
set up various schools that address particular needs. For example, we 
have a MAST program, M-A-S-T, which is the Marine Academy of Science 
and Technology. Students from the various county schools can enroll 
there. The county set it up at one location along the shore, actually, 
in my district, where they had basically marine and science programs 
for 4 years.

  The students have to participate in like a naval training program, 
similar to the Navy officer reserves, but this is on a high school 
level. There is a physical element. I do not know if I would call it a 
military element, but there is

[[Page H8995]]

a physical element to it. But then they spend their time dealing with 
marine resources, specialty courses on oceanography and various aspects 
of marine resources. There are similar schools that have been set up on 
a county level for other purposes like that, whether it is sciences, or 
there is talk now with regard to arts programs.
  I think the schools individually could not do that, but if they get 
together with some kind of consortium either through the county, the 
State or whatever, then they can set up something like that. Then 
again, that is the innovative idea. It is public. These are public 
school dollars that are being used to set up specialty type schools. I 
know this type of thing is a very important part of the gentleman's 
agenda, as well.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. The gentleman is absolutely correct, Mr. Speaker. What 
that does is open up for young people. We want them to be well-grounded 
in the basic foundation, but children learn a whole lot more earlier 
than we can have any idea, and have interests. That is how we get our 
astronauts, how we get our scientists.
  With schools working together in consortia, or really outside the 
school, with various groups, there may be resources in the community 
they can pull in. Many schools are doing that in some areas, but they 
are doing it where they have substantial business interests who are 
putting the dollars in. But in some areas where those resources are 
lacking in terms of the tax base of the community or the school, and 
they do not have the business support because it is virtually 
nonexistent, then those children deserve the same opportunity. They 
deserve the same opportunity. They are just as talented.
  I would venture to say if we take a sampling or checked every Member 
who serves in this United States Congress and in the Senate, we are 
going to find a lot of people serving in this body that came from Small 
Town, U.S.A. There are a lot of children today out in rural areas in 
Small Town, U.S.A., who can make major contributions if we give them 
that opportunity.
  That is what the consortia is about, allow them to work together, 
because they do not have the money. They may not have the resources for 
all the Internet pieces they need. They may want to have a math high 
school. That is available in a lot of places and it works.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, the other thing, too, when we talk about 
innovative programs like that where we get schools together on a county 
level or whatever to do something innovative, it is often difficult to 
get the local board of education to contribute dollars to something 
like that because they are locally based, and they figure it is taking 
it away, and so on. So that is a perfect example of where the Federal 
dollars become very attractive, and become a tool to provide excellence 
and to improve and provide more opportunities for public education.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. If the gentleman will continue to yield, Mr. Speaker, 
it is a lot like the farmer that seeded the ground and put some water 
on, because that local board, in many cases those dollars are 
allocated. It gets back to the issue you raised earlier as it relates 
to vouchers. It is not like taking new money. We are taking money away 
from the students who were out there, whether they be in the poorest 
community, the wealthiest suburban community, and the rural community. 
Ultimately, all children have less money, because you are funding a 
source that was not there before, because we have a lot of children who 
are not in the public schools.
  That is their choice. I will say today that I will fight for their 
right to have that choice, but I will not support their right to take 
tax money and make that choice, because I do not think it is in the 
interests of all of our children. I do not think that is ever what was 
designed or intended when we talk about public education in this 
country. It is not taking public dollars and carrying it for private 
support.
  Mr. PALLONE. The point is, we like to provide more alternatives, more 
choices, as the gentleman stated, but within the context of public 
education. We do not want the dollars taken away from public education. 
If we want to use the money to start some innovative programs at the 
existing schools, or to send kids in some sort of consortium, that is 
fine.
  I know there have been a lot of experiments within, say, one school 
district, say it is a city and there are many elementary schools, in 
providing parents choices within the public school system. They can go 
to one school or another. But that is public dollars. That is still 
public education. There is a big difference between that and a voucher 
program that takes those dollars and uses it for private education.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Absolutely. I get a little frustrated at times, people 
talk about how schools have too much money, and some will say that. I 
do not know where they get that information.
  I would say to them, anyone who feels schools have more money than 
they need, go talk to those PTA presidents, those PTA moms and dads who 
are out there selling candy and selling subscriptions to books and 
working at ball games in the evening, and taking the money from the 
concession and buying things schools need, that their children need.
  That happens all across America. It is not restricted to urban areas, 
and not restricted to suburban areas, and it is certainly not 
restricted to rural areas. It is all across the country. Because that 
to me is the fact that parents want what is best for their children, 
and they are willing to go the extra mile to make sure that their 
children get that opportunity. When they do it and they spend those 
dollars and that time, it is not selfishly, for just their child, it is 
for all those children in that public school.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to thank the gentleman again 
for his participation. I think this is what we have to do, exactly what 
the gentleman has done, which is to show how in various districts 
around the country efforts have been made to improve the public 
schools, whether it is basic skills or some of the other things we 
discussed tonight, and that is the direction in which this Congress and 
this House of Representatives should be going, clearly, not in the 
direction of taking the resources away for vouchers or other types of 
plans.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey. He 
is absolutely right, that this country is what it is today because we 
have been able to stand on the shoulders of those who have given so 
much for so long in our public schools, under some very tough 
situations.
  I am very happy tonight to be part of showing some success stories. I 
hope we will be about that in this body on both sides of the aisle, 
talking about the successes of our teachers and children, because if we 
criticize our schools, we are criticizing our children and teachers. I 
hope I am never guilty of that. I thank the gentleman for helping 
organize this.

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