[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 142 (Saturday, October 10, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12288-S12291]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          THE EDUCATION CRISIS

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, we appear to be, obviously, stuck on the 
issue of education in the Senate as in the country. We have been 
talking about the crisis for a long time now. The fact is that there 
isn't a community in the country that isn't struggling with its public 
school system. Vouchers gain in popularity notwithstanding the fact 
that they are only going to solve the problem for a few of our kids. 
And the truth is that too many of our schools have a diminished tax 
base and an inability through the property tax to be able to do what 
they need to do.
  We also know that too many of our students are graduating from high 
school and given a degree by a principal even though principals in this 
country know that too many of those kids can't even read or write 
properly. Of 2.6 million kids who graduated from high school a year and 
a half ago, fewer than a third graduated with a proficient reading 
level. One-third were below basic reading, one third were at basic 
reading level, and only 100,000 of them had a world-class reading 
level. Thirty percent of our kids need remedial reading, writing, and 
arithmetic in the first days when they go to college. The truth is, we 
also have a crisis of teachers and their availability in our school 
system. We need some 2 million new teachers in the course of the next 
10 years. We will need to hire 60 percent of them in the course of the 
next 5 years. This year alone, 61,000 new teachers went into our school 
systems. But the fact is, we are not able to draw from the best 
universities, the best colleges, and the best students because we 
barely pay enough for subsistence as

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starting salary and because too many kids come out of college today 
with loan payments due and with other opportunities that draw them away 
from the prospect of teaching.

  We really do have a major set of choices in front of us about our 
education system. There is a great struggle here in Washington. A lot 
of people argue the Federal Government has no role whatsoever, there is 
nothing the Federal Government can do with respect to this. After all, 
only 7 percent of the budget comes from the Federal Government, and as 
we all know, it is a cherished notion in America that schools are run 
locally. And that is the way we want it. I agree with that. There is 
nothing in what I propose that would suggest the Federal Government 
ought to increase its relationship. In fact, it can decrease it. But we 
have to acknowledge the reality that there are too many communities 
that simply cannot do it on their own. There is a whole new set of 
relationships that need to be created in our education system between 
teachers and the principals, the school boards and the layers of 
bureaucracy that have been created for all of these years.
  So I suggest we ought to undo the bureaucracy, think differently, 
think out of the box and not be locked into a traditional debate 
between Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals. We ought 
to look at a way that we can take the best practices, what works best 
in a parochial school, in a private school--or in a wonderful public 
school. The truth is, there are some incredible public schools in this 
country where teaching is going on and kids are going on to the best 
colleges in the country. When you go to those schools, you will 
invariably find a principal, above all, who is energized, respected, 
creative, visionary; who has the respect of the community, who is able 
to move the school into new curricula, into a new relationship with the 
school board, into a new relationship with the students and with the 
teachers and they have worked out their own hybrid relationships with 
the teachers' unions and with the layers of bureaucracy. They have 
liberated themselves in many ways from what stifles creativity in too 
many of our schools. In essence, they have become a charter school 
within the public school system.
  I believe what we ought to strive to do is to allow every school 
within the public school system to effectively become a charter school 
within the public school system, allow those schools to be able to have 
principals who run the school on a local basis, hiring teachers from 
any walk of life, being responsible for the quality of that teaching. 
It does not make sense in America that someone who can teach at a 
college might not be allowed to teach in a high school or in a 
secondary or elementary school simply because they have not gone 
through the structure of the education system that is now licensed to 
provide teachers in most of our communities.
  How is it that you can have a professor in a college who would not be 
able, on a long-term basis--yes, maybe on a provisional basis--but on a 
long-term basis to teach in the public school system? We need to 
provide choice and competition within the public school system. We need 
to have accountability in those systems in ways that parents and 
children and the community as a whole will be more involved in the life 
and breadth of that school.
  I am going to be introducing legislation together with some 
Republican colleagues later in the year. I will be putting it in now as 
an outline, for purposes of the Record. I look forward, I hope in the 
next Congress, to our opportunity to engage in a stronger and more 
lively debate about real solutions to the crisis of education in 
America.
  I yield the floor and ask unanimous consent the outline be printed in 
the Record.
  There being no objection, the outline was ordered to printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                  A Plan to Educate America's Children

                       (By Senator John F. Kerry)


            Title I--Voluntary state reform incentive grants

       If education reform is to succeed in America's public 
     schools, we must demand nothing less than comprehensive 
     reform effort. The best public school districts are 
     simultaneously embracing a host of approaches to educating 
     our children; high standards and accountability, sufficient 
     resources, small class sizes, quality teachers, motivated 
     students, effective principals, and engaged parents and 
     community leaders. We must not be half-hearted in our efforts 
     to make reform feasible for every school in this country. We 
     cannot address only one challenge in education and ignore the 
     rest. We must make available the tools for real comprehensive 
     reform so that every aspect of public education functions 
     better and every element of our system is stronger.
       So let us now turn to a bold answer: Let's make every 
     public school in this country essentially a charter school 
     within the public school system. Let's give every school the 
     chance to quickly and easily put in place the best of what 
     works in any other school--private, parochial or public--with 
     decentralized control, site-based management, parental 
     engagement, and real accountability.
       Several schools across the country have devised ways to 
     accomplish this by raising standards to improve student 
     achievement, lowering class size, improving on-going 
     education for teachers, and reducing unnecessary middle-level 
     bureaucracy. Numerous high-performance school designs have 
     also been created such as the Modern Red Schoolhouse program, 
     the Success for All program, and the New American Schools 
     program. The results of extensive evaluations of these 
     programs have shown that these designs are successful in 
     raising student achievement. Studies show that these many of 
     these successful programs cost less than the national median 
     of basic education revenues per pupil for K-12 school 
     districts. If we brought all schools up to the spending level 
     of the national median, all schools could finance these high-
     performance school designs. Therefore, we should raise 
     spending to the state or the national median, whichever is 
     higher, thereby allowing every school district to finance and 
     implement comprehensive reform based on proven high-
     performance models and teach students to the highest 
     standards (58 percent of school districts are below either 
     the national or their state median). Although money alone 
     will not solve the problems in poor school districts, it is 
     impossible to solve without adequate resources. Rather than 
     piecemeal, fragmented approaches to reform, the Comprehensive 
     School Reform program is intended to foster coherent 
     schoolwide improvements that cover virtually all aspects of a 
     school's operations.
       To ensure that the vast majority of school districts could 
     engage in comprehensive school reform, Title I of the 
     Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) should also be 
     fully funded. Title I is the primary federal help for local 
     districts to provide assistance to poor students in basic 
     math and reading skills. Title I currently provides help 
     to local school districts for additional staff and 
     resources for reading and math, curriculum improvements, 
     smaller classes, and training poor students' parents to 
     help their children learn to read and do math. However, 
     Title I only reaches two-thirds of poor students because 
     of inadequate funding. Since 90 percent of school 
     districts receive at least some Title I funds, fully 
     funding Title I and allowing school districts to use these 
     additional funds for comprehensive reforms would give 
     schools the ability to implement comprehensive reforms so 
     that all students reach the highest academic standards.
       Most poor school districts lack the resources to meet the 
     vital educational needs of all of their students. A well-
     crafted program with the federal and state governments 
     working in close cooperation with one another could make 
     major strides in closing these gaps and improving student 
     performance.
       Comprehensive school reform will help raise student 
     achievement by assisting public schools across the country to 
     implement effective, comprehensive school reforms that are 
     based on proven, research-based models. No new federal 
     bureaucracy would be established--the program would be 
     implemented at the state level. Furthermore, no funds could 
     be used to increase the school bureaucracy. School districts 
     would implement a comprehensive school reform program and 
     evaluate and measure results achieved. Schools would also 
     provide high-quality and continuous teacher and staff 
     professional development and training, have measurable goals 
     for student performance and benchmarks for meeting those 
     goals, provide for meaningful involvement of parents and the 
     local community in planning and implementing school 
     improvement, and identify how other available federal, state, 
     local, or private resources will be utilized to coordinate 
     services to support and sustain the school reform effort.
       The funding for the program would move towards the goal of 
     providing every school district in the country enough funds 
     to implement a high quality, performance-based model of 
     comprehensive school reform at a cost of $4,270. This would 
     mean providing enough funds to bring every district up to the 
     state or the national median, whichever is higher (it is 
     estimated that $30 billion annually would be needed to bring 
     the per-pupil expenditure of every school district up to the 
     national or state average). To move towards this goal, the 
     federal government would provide funds and states would match 
     this money (states would provide 10 to 20 percent with poorer 
     states providing a smaller match). To receive these funds, 
     states would have to provide a minimum spending effort based 
     on state and local school spending relative to the state's 
     per capita income. Funding would be $250 million in FY99, 
     $500 million in FY2000, $750 million in FY2001, $1 billion in 
     FY2002, and $4 billion in FY2002.

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       Fully fund Title I so almost all school districts would 
     receive some funds to implement comprehensive school reform 
     (90 percent of all local school districts receive Title I 
     funds). Funding would be $200 million in FY99, $400 million 
     in FY2000, $600 million in FY2001, $1 billion in FY2002, and 
     $4 billion in FY2002.


       Title II--Ensure That Children Begin School Ready To Learn

       Recent scientific evidence conclusively demonstrates that 
     enhancing children's physical, social, emotional, and 
     intellectual development will result in tremendous benefits. 
     Many local communities across the country have developed 
     successful early childhood efforts and with additional 
     resources could expand and enhance opportunities for young 
     children. We must enhance private, local, and state early 
     successful support programs for young children by providing 
     resources to expand and/or initiate successful efforts for 
     at-risk children from birth to age six.
       Provide funds to States to make grants to local early 
     childhood development collaboratives. States would fund 
     parent education and home visting classes and have great 
     flexibility to decide whether to also support quality child 
     care, helping schools stay open later for early childhood 
     development activities, or health services for young 
     children. Communities would be required to document their 
     unmet needs and how they would use the funds to improve 
     outcomes for young childen so they begin school ready to 
     learn. Funding would be $100 million in FY99, $200 million in 
     FY2000, $300 million in FY2001, $400 million in FY2002, and 
     $1 billion in FY2002.


            Title III--Excellent Principals Challenge Grant

       Principals face long hours, high stress, and too little 
     pay. To overcome these obstacles, principals in successful 
     schools must have effective leadership skills. However, too 
     few principals get the training they need in management 
     skills to ensure their school provides an excellent education 
     for every child. Attracting, training, and retaining 
     excellent principals is essential to helping every local 
     school district become world class.
       Establish a grant program to states to provide funds to 
     local school districts to attract and to provide professional 
     development for elementary and secondary school principals. 
     Activities would include developing management and business 
     skills, knowledge of effective instructional skills and 
     practices, learning about educational technology, etc. 
     Funding would be $20 million per year. States and local 
     school districts would contribute 25 percent of the total 
     although poor school districts would be exempt from the 
     match.


  Title IV--Establish ``Secone Chance'' Schools For Troubled Students

       Parents, students, and educators know that serious school 
     reform cannot succeed without an orderly and safe learning 
     environment. The few students who are unwilling or unable to 
     comply with discipline codes and make learning impossible for 
     the other students need behavior management programs and high 
     quality alternative placements. Suspending or expelling 
     chronically disruptive or violent students is not effective 
     in the long run since these students will fall behind in 
     school and may cause additional trouble since they are 
     frequently completely. unsupervised; these students need 
     alternative placements that provide supervision, 
     remediation of behavior and maintenance of academic 
     progress. Although some may resist this program for fear 
     that it will be used to isolate disabled students, the 
     purpose is to provide additional interventions for 
     troubled students, not to change disciplinary actions 
     against disabled students.
       Add a new title to the Elementary and Secondary Education 
     Act (ESEA) to establish a competitive state grant program for 
     school districts to establish ``Second Chance'' programs. To 
     receive the funds school districts must enact district-wide 
     discipline codes which use clear language with specific 
     examples of behaviors that will result in disciplinary action 
     and have every student and parent sign the code. 
     Additionally, schools may use the funds to promote effective 
     classroom management; provide training for school staff and 
     administrators in enforcement of the code; implement programs 
     to modify student behavior including hiring school 
     counselors; and establish high quality alternative placements 
     for chronically disruptive and violent students that include 
     a continuum of alternatives from meeting with behavior 
     management specialists, to short-term in-school crisis 
     centers, to medium duration in-school suspension rooms, to 
     off-campus alternatives. Funding would be $100 million per 
     year and distributed to states through the Title I formula.


  Title V--Teacher Recruitment and On-going Education Incentive Grant

       Approximately 61,000 first-time teachers begin in our 
     nation's public schools each year. Since the average starting 
     salary for teachers is a little more than $21,000 per year, 
     we need to raise their compensation to attract a larger group 
     of qualified people into the teaching profession. Since the 
     average student loan debt of students graduating college who 
     borrowed money for college is $9,068, the most effective way 
     to provide federal assistance to states to raise teachers' 
     salaries is to provide loan forgiveness. In addition, 
     scholarships ought to be available to the most talented high 
     school students in every state in return for a commitment to 
     teach in our public schools (North Carolina has successfully 
     recruited future teachers from within public high schools 
     with the lure of college scholarships).
       States would be given funds to provide poor school 
     districts the ability to raise teacher salaries to attract 
     and retain the best teachers. Funding would be provided 
     through the Title I ``targeted grant'' formula (the minimum 
     threshold would be 20% poor children or 20,000 poor 
     children). Funding would be $500 million for FY 99, $500 
     million in FY 2000, $1 billion in FY 2001, $1 billion in FY 
     2002, and $2 billion in FY 2003. Additionally, full-time 
     state certified public school teachers who teach in low-
     income areas or who teach in areas with teacher shortages 
     such as math, science, and special needs would have 20 
     percent of their student loans forgiven after two years of 
     teaching, an additional 20 percent after three years, an 
     additional 30 percent after four years, and the remaining 30 
     percent after five years. The program would be funded at $50 
     million each year. Finally, an additional $10 million would 
     be provided as grants to states that wish to provide signing 
     bonuses for first-time teachers who teach in low-income areas 
     or areas with teacher shortages.
       Provide $10 million in grants for states to establish a 
     program to provide college scholarships to the top 20 percent 
     of SAT achievers or grade point average in each state's high 
     school graduating class in return for a commitment to become 
     a state certified teacher for five years. States would 
     contribute 20 percent of the funds for the scholarships. Five 
     percent of the total funds could be used by local school 
     districts to hire staff to recruit at the top liberal arts, 
     education, and technical colleges (districts would be 
     encouraged to establish a central regional recruiting office 
     to pool their resources). One percent of the total funds 
     would be used by the Secretary of Education to create a 
     national hotline for potential teachers to receive 
     information on a career in teaching.


              title vi--teacher quality enhancement grants

       We need to provide on-going education in teaching skills 
     and academic content knowledge, establish or expand 
     alternative routes to state certification, and establish or 
     expand mentoring programs for prospective teachers by veteran 
     teachers (according to the National Commission on Teaching 
     and America's Future, beginning teachers who have had the 
     continuous support of a skilled mentor are more likely to 
     stay in the profession).
       Establish Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants, a competitive 
     grant awarded to states to improve teaching. The grants would 
     have a matching requirement and must be used to institute 
     state-level reforms to ensure that current and future 
     teachers possess the necessary teaching skills and academic 
     content knowledge in the subject areas they are assigned to 
     teach. In addition, establish Teacher Training Partnership 
     Grants, designed to encourage reform at the local level to 
     improve teacher training. One of the uses of these funds 
     would be for states to establish, expand, or improve 
     alternative routes to state certification for highly 
     qualified individuals from other occupations such as business 
     executives and recent college graduates with records of 
     academic distinction. Another use would be to mentor 
     prospective teachers by veteran teachers. Provide $100 
     million per year for these new teachers training programs so 
     that states can improve teacher quality, establish or expand 
     alternative routes to state certification for new teachers, 
     and mentor new teachers by veteran teachers.


   title vii--invest in community-based schools and community service

       As many as five million children are home alone after 
     school each week. Most juvenile involvement in crime--either 
     committing crime or becoming victims themselves--occurs 
     between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Children who attend quality after-
     school programs, however, tend to do better in school, get 
     along better with their peers, and are less likely to engage 
     in delinquent behavior. Expansion of both school-based and 
     community-based after school programs will provide safe 
     developmentally appropriate environments for children and 
     help communities reduce the incidents of juvenile delinquency 
     and crime. In addition, many states and localities such as 
     Maryland and the Chicago public school system require high 
     school students to perform community service to receive a 
     high school diploma. The real world experience helps 
     prepare students for work and instills a sense of civic 
     duty.
       Expand the 21st Century Learning Centers Act by providing 
     $400 million each fiscal year to help communities provide 
     after-school care. Grantees will be required to offer 
     expanded learning opportunities for children and youth in the 
     community. Funds could be used by school districts to 
     provide: literacy programs; integrated education, health, 
     social service, recreational or cultural programs; summer and 
     weekend school programs; nutrition and health programs; 
     expanded library services, telecommunications and technology 
     education programs; services for individuals with 
     disabilities, job skills assistance; mentoring; academic 
     assistance; and drug, alcohol, and gang prevention 
     activities.
       Provide $10 million in grants to states that have 
     established or chose to establish a state-wide or a district-
     wide program that requires high school students to preform

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     community service to receive a high school diploma. States 
     would determine what constitutes community service, the 
     number of hours required, and whether to exempt some low-
     income students who hold full-time jobs while attending 
     school full-time. The grants would be matched dollar for 
     dollar with half of the match coming from the state and local 
     education agencies and half coming from the private sector.


    title viii--expand the national board certification program for 
                                teachers

       The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, 
     which is headed by Gov. Jim Hunt, established rigorous 
     standards and assessments for certifying accomplished 
     teaching. To pass the exam and be certified, teachers must 
     demonstrate their knowledge and skills through a series of 
     performance-based assessments which include teaching 
     portfolios, student work samples, videotapes and rigorous 
     analyses of their classroom teaching and student learning. 
     Additionally, teachers must take written tests of their 
     subject-matter knowledge and their understanding of how to 
     teach those subjects to their students. The National Board 
     certification is offered to teachers on a voluntary basis and 
     complements but does not replace state licensing. The 
     National Commission on Teaching for America's Future called 
     for a goal of 105,000 board certified teachers by the year 
     2006 (since the exam began recently, only about 2,000 
     teachers are currently board certified). Since the exam costs 
     $2,000, many teachers are currently unable to afford it.
       Provide $189 million over five years so that states have 
     enough money to provide a 90% subsidy for the National Board 
     certification of 105,000 teachers across the country.


       title ix--help communities to modernize america's schools

       More than 14 million children in America attend schools in 
     need of extensive repair or replacement. According to a 
     comprehensive survey by the General Accounting Office (GAO) 
     requested by Senator Moseley-Braun, Senator Kerry and others, 
     the repair backlog totals $112 billion. Researchers at 
     Georgetown University found that the performance of students 
     assigned to schools in poor condition fall by 10.9 percentage 
     points below those in buildings in excellent condition.
       To help rebuild, modernize, and build over 5,000 public 
     schools, provide federal tax credits to school districts to 
     pay interest on nearly $22 billion in bonds at a cost of $5 
     billion over five years.


                title x--encourage public school choice

       Many public schools have implemented public school choice 
     programs where students may enroll at any public school in 
     the public school system. In contrast to vouchers for private 
     schools, public school choice increases options for students 
     but does not use public funds to finance private schools 
     which remain entirely unaccountable to taxpayers.
       Provide $20 million annually in grants to states that 
     choose to implement public school choice programs. School 
     districts could spend the funds on transportation and other 
     services to implement a successful public school choice 
     program. Up to 10 percent of the funds may be spent by a 
     school district to improve low performing school districts 
     that lose students due to the public school choice program.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Enzi). Under the previous order, the Chair 
recognizes the Senator from New Mexico for up to 20 minutes.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I thank Senator Sessions from Alabama. 
He was here ahead of me and, frankly, had a more legitimate right to 
speak now than I, and I appreciate his permitting me to proceed.

                          ____________________