[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 31 (Thursday, March 19, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S2239]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE A+ EDUCATION BILL

  Mr. COVERDELL. Mr. President, this morning's Washington Post, and I 
am sure papers across the country and the electronic media outlets, 
were reporting on the President's assertion that our side of the aisle 
has somehow shortchanged education.
  I find this to be exceedingly ironic as I stand here in the midst of 
the fourth filibuster over the last several months orchestrated by the 
President and his administration to block massive education proposals 
that vast majorities of the American people support.
  We weathered a filibuster to get to the bill. Now, we have made 
offers to the other side so that they can bring their package for an 
open debate. They do not want to do that. Then we said, well, let us 
try to bring order to the process and have the amendments pertain 
strictly to the education issue. They rejected that.
  So basically you have a strategy, through two events, to not allow us 
to end the filibuster or to just go from amendment to amendment, many 
of which have nothing to do whatsoever with education.
  So on the front page we have the President saying that our side of 
the aisle is not stepping forward on education, but in the Halls of 
Congress and here where we are doing the people's business, he is 
orchestrating a filibuster. And it is the fourth or fifth one on 
education proposals.
  People might rightly ask, well, what is the cost of this filibuster? 
What happens if the President is successful in blocking these education 
proposals?
  Well, first and foremost, 14 million American families with children 
in school--most of which are in public schools, many of which are in 
private or home schools--will be denied if this filibuster continues. 
If we cannot end it, 14 million American families with children in 
school who would be given an education savings account as a tool to 
help them deal with their children's needs will be blocked dead.
  There will be no account, which means that these American families

[[Page S2238]]

will be denied an opportunity to save upwards to $10 billion-plus over 
the next 8 years. So billions of dollars that would come to the support 
of children in classrooms all across the country, which everybody 
acknowledges is a problem, will never appear, not a dime. Those savings 
will not occur, and that support will not occur.
  So some 20 million children will miss this opportunity to be helped 
to get a home computer, to be helped to get a tutor, a special-
education requirement, after-school transportation, a school band 
uniform, you name it. All of those things that those billions of 
dollars would buy are not going to happen if this filibuster continues.
  Everybody has read week in and week out a report about the problems 
we are having in grades kindergarten through high school. And everybody 
is reading about how difficult it is to pay for college. ``So let us 
filibuster an attempt to bring all these resources together and deny 
the American people the opportunity to do it.''
  If the filibuster succeeds, one million students who will benefit 
from tax relief on State prepaid tuition plans--State prepaid tuition 
plans are plans where families can buy their child's college tuition in 
advance. States led the way almost a decade ago in this idea to help 
families, to guarantee education at quality State universities.

  One million students who are in these plans, when they draw the money 
out, will be taxed on it if the filibuster continues. Twenty-one States 
have these plans: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, 
Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, 
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West 
Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
  Seventeen more States are putting these plans in place: Arizona, 
Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, 
Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North 
Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Rhode Island.
  This movement to help States, help their students get good quality 
university educations in these quality university systems--it will not 
happen. And it will slow down the States that do it. And those that do 
have these plans and the student gets the money, they are going to be 
taxed, so they will have less resources.
  One million workers in America, including 250,000 graduate students, 
would benefit from tax-free employer-provided education assistance. In 
other words, an employer in America could pay up to $5,250 for one of 
their employees to advance their education or to upscale it or to 
improve it. And the money would go to the employee without being taxed 
as if it were income, which is what happens now. That isn't going to 
happen if the filibuster continues. These one million workers and these 
250,000 graduates will just be in tough luck. The money is not going to 
come to them. If it does, it is taxed.
  I think, given the President's comments, this last point is very 
salient. If the filibuster continues, $3 billion in new tax-exempt 
private activity bonds, which would build schools all across our land--
and if I have heard that once, I have heard it a thousand times here: 
we need to be concerned about building new schools, and there are 
dilapidated schools. The Senator from North Dakota was talking about it 
yesterday. Well, with the guidance of Senator Graham of Florida, this 
provision that is being filibustered would make available $3 billion--
$3 billion--in new construction possibilities across the land. And 186 
school districts all across the country that are crunched by rapid 
growth would be denied a supplemental activity to build these schools 
for these fast-growing communities.
  Fourteen million families, 20 million children, 1 million students in 
college State prepaid tuition plans, 21 States, 17 new States, 1 
million workers, 250,000 graduate students, and $3 billion for new 
schools--none of it will happen, zero--zero, a flat straight line. And 
it will rest at the feet of the President of the United States. He has 
consciously tried to block this provision for well over a year.
  Now, the obvious question is, why? Why would anybody stand in the way 
of 14 million families, 20 million students, these 21 States, 1 million 
workers? What in the world would anybody do that for? This is it. No 
matter what is said, how much smoke and mirrors we have around it, it 
is because he is wedded to the status quo and the National Education 
Association does not want this to happen. Kind of hard to believe. You 
would think that an organization dedicated to education would want all 
these millions of families to take advantage of it.
  But here is the point. We really ought to call it a pinhead or a 
sliver the width of a hair, the fact that some families, some of these 
14 million families, which have to be statistically insignificant, but 
some of them will take the money they have put in the account--
remember, everybody, it is their money. This is not tax money; this is 
their money that they put in the savings account to help their 
children. It has been voluntary. We have not had to raise taxes a dime 
to do any of these things. We have just encouraged Americans to do it 
for themselves.
  Several thousand of them will take the money in the savings account 
and will pay tuition for their child to go to a different school. For 
that reason, we are in the fourth or fifth filibuster and we are going 
to stop all of these things. We are going to stop savings, we are going 
to stop the tax relief, we are going to hinder the State setting up the 
State tuition plans, we are going to stop the million workers, we are 
going to stop the $3 billion in school construction, because a handful 
of families might use their own money to make a decision for a child to 
go from a public school to a private school.
  I just have to say on the ledger of events, that is insane. It is 
utterly incredible, an egregious burden to put on an attempt to help so 
many and so easily. I have been surprised at how little an incentive is 
required to cause Americans to save. It is staggering. These billions 
of dollars that would go into the savings account are going in there 
because they will save taxes on the interest buildup. So, over the next 
5 years, we will leave $750 million--less than $1 billion--in these 
savings accounts. We won't tax that. That will cause 14 million 
families to open an account and to save over $5 billion. There are not 
many things we can do around this town that leverage themselves that 
well. That is 15 to 1. I wish we could do this all day long.
  These education savings accounts, 70 percent of the families who use 
them will have children in public schools, 30 percent will have 
children in private or home schools. The Joint Tax Committee says that 
the money will probably be about evenly divided, $2.5 billion 
supporting students in public, $2.5 billion supporting students in 
private. That is probably initially the case, because it costs more to 
go to a private school and those families will probably save more; they 
will try harder, because they are paying for public education through 
their property tax base and the private school has to be put on top of 
it. So they probably will save a little more initially.
  The one thing that the Joint Tax Committee has not evaluated as yet, 
and in my closing minutes here I want to talk about, is that probably 
more important than the money is that every time a family opens a 
savings account, there is a switch that goes on. That family suddenly 
has a financial instrument that is dedicated to their child's 
education, and from that point forward every time they get that slip 
that tells them how much is in the account, they are going to be 
thinking about how they will use that account and what problem is their 
child having that needs attention.
  I know this personally because years and years ago my father and I 
opened a savings account for two sets of twins. To this day, we still 
get a slip from the savings and loan association that tells us how much 
is left in it and how much it built up. It was all used for education. 
If this had been the case, my dad and I would have had twice the money 
that we ultimately saved. From that point on, we were reminded over and 
over and over about that situation because of that account. Clearly, it 
adds a new focus. It is like a massive PTA, so to speak.
  Now, the other feature that is equally important is that, unlike any 
other savings account of this type, sponsors can contribute to the 
child's savings. Not just the family, but when grandmother comes to the 
birthday, instead of a gift that is tossed away as old 24 hours later, 
she can contribute to the

[[Page S2239]]

savings account, which will last a lifetime. And they will, and so will 
uncles and aunts, even neighbors.
  Every time I talk about these savings accounts, corporations, you can 
see the wheels start to turn, because they are saying to themselves, 
``I could watch my employees, and we can both contribute to those 
savings accounts. This would be a good thing for our company to do.'' 
Or labor unions or churches, benevolent associations--it is limitless, 
the imagination of the American people. We have read about these 
philanthropists using scholarships to help elementary schools: ``We 
will give them a new school.'' These philanthropists will be able to 
open these savings accounts early on and assure a quality college 
education. The ideas that will come around these savings accounts, in 
that they allow sponsors, have yet to be fully thought of, because 
Americans are so ingenious.
  And none of the value of those sponsors is in any of the financial 
estimates. It will be billions, billions in dollars, creating one of 
the largest new--all of this is new money, not redirected; this is 
volunteered money, coming forward from a family's own checking 
accounts--no property taxes having to be raised, no taxes having to be 
raised at the Federal level. These are folks coming forward on their 
own, so it is all new. And it is smart money. It is smart money because 
it is directed right at the child's need. Public dollars have a hard 
time doing that.
  Public dollars have a hard time finding that tutor for the math-
deficient student, but the parents know what the problem is, or should, 
and hopefully this will help them think about it. They can put the 
money right on target. The child has dyslexia. Then we have a special 
education tutor. The child can't get to the after-school programs. We 
can arrange for that to happen through these accounts. Eighty-five 
percent of inner-city children in America today do not have a home 
computer. As my good colleague Senator Torricelli often says, how could 
anyone even envision coming to the new century without a home computer? 
Forty percent of the students in general don't have home computers, but 
it is 85 percent in inner-city schools.

  It has been interesting to me to watch leaders in inner-city 
communities say, ``We want these savings accounts.'' The sacrifices 
they are having to make and the problems they are having to face, all 
of these things help them, in particular. I might add, because every 
now and then I hear from the other side, ``This just goes to the 
wealthy,'' 75 percent of all these resources go to families earning 
$75,000 or less--or less. I might also add that the criteria for who 
can use the account are identical to the little college savings account 
that the President signed last year.
  Again, Mr. President, the hour draws near. It is duplicitous and 
cynical, when you are orchestrating a filibuster that denies millions 
of American families an advantage in education, to go out on the stage 
and point the finger at our side of the aisle and say we are not doing 
anything for education. No wonder this town reeks with cynicism. No 
wonder. I am trying, I say to the chaplain, to be conscious of the 
prayer, which was beautiful. But that is cynical.
  I cannot think of a single loser in this legislation, not one; 
everybody is a winner. That doesn't happen around here very often. 
Usually on tax policy and the like, somebody is a winner at the expense 
of somebody else. Any child in America, no matter where they go to 
school, no matter the family circumstances, they have a chance to 
create a new tool to help deal with the educational needs of their 
children.
  And it helps confront the high costs of college in two ways. Savings 
accounts could be kept until college. We protect the tax relief tuition 
plans in 21 States, with 17 States coming behind it, 1 million workers 
getting back into education, 250,000 graduate students, $3 billion in 
new school construction--$3 billion. And there is not a single loser. 
We would throw it all away, throw it all out, because some few families 
would use their savings account, which is their money, to pay tuition 
in another school. That is incredible and disappointing and cynical and 
denying of real benefits to the people of our Nation suffering a 
massive, massive problem.
  Let me conclude by saying this: This has been a very strong 
bipartisan effort. My cosponsor is Senator Robert Torricelli from New 
Jersey, from the other side of the aisle. He had been tireless in his 
effort to make the same case, many times much more adroitly than I. 
Senator Lieberman of Connecticut, Senator Breaux of Louisiana, Senator 
Graham of Florida who designed many of these provisions, Senator 
Moynihan who designed some of the provisions of this proposal. As a 
matter of fact, almost 80 percent of the costs associated with the bill 
are on provisions associated with the other side of the aisle. I thank 
those Members very much for their assistance. I hope they will continue 
to be attentive to the dynamics of what is happening here.
  The suggestion being made by the other side of the aisle that there 
has not been a fair balance on debate does not hold water. We are 
trying to keep the debate focused on education and not extraneous 
matters. I think that is appropriate. We are not trying to turn this 
into a Christmas tree. We are trying to talk about education, an 
education proposal. I hope we will be successful in cutting off this 
fourth debate later this afternoon.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REED. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call 
be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I thank the Chair.

                          ____________________