[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 136 (Friday, October 2, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1883-E1884]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 6, HIGHER EDUCATION AMENDMENTS OF 1998

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 28, 1998

  Mr. MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, next week, President Clinton 
will sign the Higher Education Amendments of 1998, passed unanimously 
by both the House and Senate earlier this week. This is, on balance, a 
good bill that will make a real difference in the lives of our Nation's 
students.
  With the Higher Education Act, we have established a proud tradition 
over the last 34 years of providing opportunities to millions of 
Americans--giving them the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in 
their careers and to be active and productive citizens. Above all, we 
have given these millions of Americans, particularly those with lower-
incomes, life options they simply would not have had otherwise. That is 
something we can all be proud of.


                         Student Interest Rate

  This most prominent feature of this bill is the lowering of the 
student loan interest rate. Under this bill, a student with an average 
student loan debt of $13,000 will save $700 in interest payments. 
Students with higher burdens of debt will save even more.
  This is a good deal for students and for parents who help pay for 
their children's education.
  Unfortunately, this bill continues what I, and many others, consider 
to be unnecessarily high subsidies to the banks and guaranty agencies 
that participate in the student loan program. I seriously question the 
fairness of the burden that, as a result, will continue to fall on our 
nation's taxpayers.
  In this authorization, we have shaved slightly the rate of return to 
banks. But since we went much further in lowering the rate that 
students pay, we had to come up with more than a billion dollars to 
makes up the difference to maintain the hefty profits that banks in the 
student loan program enjoy. Ironically, a great deal of the cost will 
be born by students who are least able to afford it, those with loan 
debt who encounter financial hardship.

[[Page E1884]]

  It did not have to be that way.
  Earlier this year, the Treasury Department published a thorough and 
detailed analysis which showed that we could have gone much farther in 
reducing interest rates while still keeping the program profitable for 
lenders.
  Unfortunately, Congress chose to largely ignore this report.
  One of the problems in finding the ``right'' interest rate is that if 
Congress were to go too far in cutting rates, it would risk causing a 
major withdrawal of bankers from student lending, which would be very 
disruptive to students and parents. One would hope to be able to rely 
on information from the lending community in making such a 
determination, but instead the banks have traditionally played a game 
of chicken in which they have threatened to leave the student loan 
program each and every time Congress has sought to lower interest rates 
or trim unnecessary costs. Of course, they have never followed through 
on such threats because the reality is that student loans have been, 
and under this bill will continue to be, a very profitable enterprise.
  I believe there are better places--Head Start, Pell Grants, TRIO, 
Title I--to put billions of federal education dollars other than in the 
coffers of already wealthy financial institutions.
  President Clinton and members of Congress, particularly Congressmen 
Andrews and Senator Kennedy, have worked hard over the years and in 
this reauthorization to create a fairer and more efficient system for 
setting interest rates. I look forward to continuing working with them 
on this issue.


                       Teacher Quality Provisions

  This bill contains a number of provisions aimed at strengthening 
teacher quality, including those drawn from my bill, the ``Teaching 
Excellence for All Children Act'' (HR 2228). I appreciate the 
opportunity we have had to work together in a bipartisan fashion on 
these issues, and particularly want to thank Chairman Goodling, Ranking 
member Clay, Mr. Kildee, Mr. Graham, Ms. Woolsey, Ms. McCarthy, and Mr. 
Ford, as well as Senator Jeff Bingaman, for all their hard work in 
crafting what I think is a fairly strong package.
  I also want to commend the excellent policy analyses, particularly 
those by the Education Trust, the National Commission on Teaching and 
America's Future, and the Congressional Research Service, that have 
done so much to inform the work we did here.
  All across the nation, states and local school districts are raising 
standards for what students should know and be able to do. Research 
clearly shows that qualified teachers are key to children's ability to 
succeed in school. In fact, after parental involvement, the quality of 
a student's teacher is the most important factor in their academic 
career.
  We now have, for the first time, a bill that addresses, from a 
federal perspective, issues of teacher quality at each stage in the 
process: preparation, recruitment, placement, professional development, 
and retention.
  This bill provides financial incentives to attract qualified 
individuals into teaching and authorizes funds for support and 
mentoring to help make sure that qualified teachers remain in the 
profession. This will also help ensure that the taxpaying public gets 
its money's worth, by improving the quality of teacher preparation, by 
providing better information to parents regarding the quality of their 
child's teacher, and by implementing a more rigorous system of 
accountability.
  For the first time, federally funded teacher preparation programs 
nationwide will publish and disseminate information on the percentage 
of their graduates who pass state licensing tests. States will be 
required to identify low-performing teacher preparation programs. And, 
ultimately, federal funds will be withheld from consistently low-
performing schools.
  Teacher preparation is the foundation of our entire educational 
system. Many schools do a good job in preparing teachers, but the 
evidence is clear that too many others fall far short. In this bill, 
Congress is sending an important notice to colleges and universities: 
we will hold you accountable for the billions in taxpayer dollars you 
get each year. You owe it to students, their parents, taxpayers and to 
the teachers themselves to raise the bar on teacher training.


           Labor Codes of Conduct for University Merchandise

  I am also pleased that the House and Senate agreed to include my 
amendment to call on universities and colleges to adopt labor codes of 
conduct to prevent the use of sweatshops or child labor in the 
manufacture of university merchandise that they sell.
  These codes of conduct are on the agenda for universities and 
colleges across the country and I applaud the students and 
administrators that are working to see that schools of higher learning 
do not participate in the lowest forms of exploitation.
  By adopting this amendment, Congress sends an important message to 
schools across this country: Use the power of your purse. Tell 
businesses what you will accept and what you will not, and they will 
adhere to your demands. The market for university merchandise like 
sweatshirts and baseball caps is big enough to influence the way the 
goods are made. In fact, schools sell nearly $2.5 billion worth of 
goods each year.
  Without a code of conduct, schools will not know whether they are 
participating in labor exploitation. And without a good code, promises 
made about good labor conducts can be easily broken.
  A quote by the provost of Harvard, made in another context, 
illustrates the importance of codes of conduct to schools. He said, 
``All members of the University and the institution as a whole benefit 
when its name is well used, and suffer when it is ill used.''
  Codes of conduct alone are not enough to assure honest wages, a safe 
workplace, and respect for workers, and I believe Congress should look 
to take additional actions against child labor and sweatshops. There 
are many bills pending in the House today that would help in that 
effort.
  But simply raising the issue can make a difference. Look at the 
soccer ball industry. After widespread publicity and outrage over the 
manufacture of soccer balls by small children in Pakistan, a few of the 
manufacturers announced they would no longer use child labor for soccer 
balls.
  The international economy today places great pressure on companies to 
compete for low wages and low standards. Consumers are the last defense 
for workers and children in the United States and around the world. The 
codes of conduct for universities and colleges are one important weapon 
in our arsenal against exploitation.


         Continued Eligibility for the Freely Associated States

  As passed by the House, this legislation included language which 
would have abruptly ended eligibility to the Republic of the Marshall 
Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau for Pell Grants, 
Special Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG), and the College Work-
Study Program.

  I am therefore particularly pleased that the conferees were able to 
agree to continue these programs and thereby honor our commitment to 
these Pacific islands to assist them in becoming self-sufficient. Under 
the conference report students will continue to benefit from these 
important programs through 2004, by which time the Compacts of Free 
Association with these nations will have been renegotiated.


                Caution on Trade and Proprietary Schools

  Trade and proprietary schools play an integral role in educating and 
training our nation's workforce and we should do whatever we can to 
ensure that students have access to the high quality training that they 
provide.
  But, unfortunately, this bill contains new loopholes that will weaken 
monitoring and enforcement of current laws that address trade school 
abuses of federal student aid programs.
  In the last reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, Congress 
tightened oversight of proprietary and trade schools in response to 
widespread instances of fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. Since 1990, 
more than 1,500 trade schools have been kicked out of federal student 
aid programs, saving taxpayers millions of dollars and protecting 
thousands of students from being ripped off.
  The Department of Education's Inspector General recommended this year 
that we tighten program requirements even further. But instead the 
Congress, under heavy pressure from trade school owners, has decided to 
retreat in the battle against fraud and abuse.
  I fear that once again we will see a spate of press accounts of 
schemes to bilk students and taxpayers. I fear that once again, a few 
bad apples will be allowed to tarnish the reputations of schools that 
are doing an effective job of training and educating students.
  I intend to monitor the implementation of these new provisions 
closely and hope that if and when problems do arise, Congress will act 
swiftly and responsibly to protect students and taxpayers.


           education Can And Should Be A Bipartisan Endeavor

  On balance, however, this is a good bill with many important 
provisions that will benefit America's students and workers. It is an 
example of what can be accomplished when partisan differences are set 
aside and members work together to find common ground on issues of 
great importance to our nation. It is an example I hope we continue to 
follow on education legislation.

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