[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 142 (Saturday, October 10, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12277-S12278]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           FUNDING EDUCATION

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I appreciate the opportunity to speak on 
the Senate floor this afternoon about matters which I am very hopeful 
can be addressed and will be addressed and I think should be addressed 
in the remaining hours before the Congress actually recesses. And this 
is in the area of education and what we are going to do finally in 
trying to meet the responsibilities that we have to assure a smaller 
class size for the 53 million Americans who will be attending and are 
attending schools across this country, which means an expansion in 
terms of the total number of teachers.
  I am very hopeful that in the ultimate and final budget agreement 
there will be an agreement on the President's recommendation of 100,000 
teachers over the period of the next 5 years, and that we will also 
embrace the very, very important and, I think, essential school 
modernization program which effectively would provide about $22 billion 
in interest-free bonds to local communities all over this country in 
order to modernize their schools.
  What we have seen now is a rather dramatic change in the demography 
and the growth in the total number of children who are going into the 
school systems all across this country, and at the same time you have 
seen a continued deterioration in many of the school buildings across 
the country. That is certainly true in my State, which has many of the 
oldest school buildings in the country, but it is also true in many of 
the other States across this country, and even in a number of the rural 
communities.
  As a matter of fact, the General Accounting Office did a study in 
terms of what would be necessary in our country in order to make sure 
that we are going to have good classrooms for the students, and it was 
estimated to be $110 billion. That is what the need is according to a 
nonpartisan evaluation of what the conditions are in our school 
buildings across the country.
  Therefore, the recommendation the President has made for $122 billion 
is a very modest recommendation. We have not embraced that 
recommendation at the present time. The urging of the President of the 
United States is that before we move out from this Congress, we ought 
to be about the business of addressing that particular education need. 
Education is of prime importance to every family in this country. It is 
of essential importance to every young person in this Nation, and it is 
a matter of enormous importance in terms of our country being able to 
compete in a global economy.
  So the urgency of these proposals--one is to have a reduced class 
size and the second is to be able to modernize our classrooms--is 
enormously important. If we look over the amount of resources we devote 
to education in the budget of this country, we will find that it is 
only about 2 percent. It is only 2 percent of our national budget.
  This is the 1998 Federal budget, and you can see from this pie chart 
the allocations of resources. The area of education is only 2 percent. 
If you ask people what percent of a dollar they believe goes to 
education, I think most Americans would think 10 or 12 percent, or 10 
or 12 cents should be going to education. If you ask what they believe 
they would like to be the number, it would be even higher.
  We are only talking about 2 percent. So the real question is, in a 
time now when our appropriators and negotiators are meeting to have 
final resolution on what will be a $1.7 billion budget, will we be able 
to find the resources to provide for the reduced class size for K 
through 3--$1 billion for fiscal 1999, $7 billion over the next 5 
years--to see a dramatic reduction in the number of students per class 
in K through 3, that is what we are trying to do, and to modernize our 
school buildings all across this country.
  Those are two priorities. I must say I strongly agree with the 
President, with Senator Daschle, and with Leader Gephardt who said we 
should not leave this city until we respond in a positive way to make 
sure those requirements are fulfilled, because there is nothing that is 
more important than meeting the needs of the children of this country.
  Finally, Mr. President, I think this is important to do for a number 
of reasons. Every day that children go into the school systems of this 
country, they go into dilapidated schools, they go into old schools, 
they go to classrooms with windows broken or with poor heating or poor 
air-conditioning in the course of the early fall and the late spring 
and early summer in many other parts of the country, or where the pipes 
are leaking, or where some schools are actually closed in the 
wintertime because of the failure of the heating system, we are sending 
a very powerful message to those children.
  On the one hand, we as parents are saying that education counts, that 
we believe it ought to be a priority, that we think the future of this 
Nation is

[[Page S12278]]

our children and we ought to be about the business of looking out for 
the interests of these children to make sure they are going to have a 
well-qualified teacher in every classroom in this country. That ought 
to be our hope, that ought to be our challenge, and that is what we are 
working for. And that ought to be an effort made in the local 
community. It ought to be an effort made at the State level. But we 
should not say we are going to abandon our national interest by saying 
we are not going to interfere if there are inadequate capabilities, or 
an inability, which is too often the case, to help and assist local 
communities, particularly when so many local communities such as we 
have seen in the recent times in Chicago and many other communities--my 
own city of Boston--are making this extraordinary effort to enhance the 
academic achievement for the children of this country and in those 
communities.
  We ought to be able to say we will be a partner with you, we are 
willing to be a partner with the local community, we are willing be a 
partner with the State, and we are going to be a partner in helping to 
modernize our facilities. Otherwise, the promise that we are going to 
convince this next generation that we are serious about their education 
is going to be a hollow one. No child will go into a classroom and see 
that it is in a deteriorated condition and then be exposed to other 
areas where everything is bright and shiny and new because of greater 
expenditures and not say, ``What is really important? What do our 
parents really think is important? Where they are spending the money is 
what is bright and shiny and new.''
  When we are not expending the resources in the classrooms, we send a 
very powerful message--it may be a subtle message but it is a powerful 
one--that we are not prepared as a nation to do what needs to be done 
to upgrade the classrooms in this country.
  I hope in the remaining hours of this process, as our leaders, our 
appropriators and leaders, members of those committees, get together to 
work out the final budget, as we are starting over for the next year, 
that the education budget is going to have the priority that every 
American family wants it to have, and that is priority No. 1. I hope 
when we come to that No. 1 we are going to say, ``The size of our 
classes is of enormous importance and consequence in terms of the 
ability of the teacher to relate to the children.''
  We have just heard an eloquent statement to that effect from some 
wonderful teachers from the State of South Dakota, as well as from 
Missouri, talking about the relationship between the teacher and the 
student and how it is enhanced to such an extraordinary degree when we 
have smaller class sizes. It ought to be self-evident and it ought to 
be intuitive. It is, in fact, true.
  I am not taking the time this morning--although I have at other times 
and will again--to talk about the progress that has been made in 
academic achievement in a number of communities when they have seen the 
significant reduction in the number of students per teacher that has 
taken place in communities and States across this country. The evidence 
is overwhelming that it has an enormously important positive impact.
  So let's get about doing what we know works, and that is to increase 
the number of teachers that we need in our schools. Even with the 
expansion of the number of students in our schools, let us increase the 
number of teachers, and let us enhance the quality of those teachers to 
make sure we are going to have good, qualified teachers in every 
classroom. Let's make sure the number of students in those classrooms 
will be such that the teacher is going to be able to identify and spend 
some moments with each child in that classroom. That is the hope and 
desire of the teachers who have committed themselves to excellence, to 
trying to enhance that academic achievement and accomplishment. Let's 
be a partner with the local communities and the States that are 
embarking on that effort.
  Let us, as we are going through the final days now--let's not leave 
town. Let's not say we will take whatever is served up to us in the 
budget. Let us say education is important. We can go about the business 
of trying to make a difference in the classrooms and in the quality of 
the people who will be in those classrooms. Let us resolve that we will 
do that before we leave this town. That is, I think, an important 
responsibility that we have. We should not fail our children.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Roberts). The Senator from Minnesota.

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