[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 143 (Sunday, October 11, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H10522]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             EDUCATION HAS BEEN A PRIORITY TO THIS CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller) is recognized for 5 minutes.

  Mr. WELLER. Mr. Speaker, I have often listened to the debate in these 
Chambers. Sometimes I feel like I am in a schoolyard where we have 
fourth-graders taunting each other back and forth, saying my program is 
better than yours, and you are a bad guy because you are not saying my 
program is a good program. We just have to remember that today is an 
election year, and we are just 3\1/2\ weeks away from that date.
  I also noted that one of my colleagues tried to elevate the debate by 
quoting the Washington Post. Once I did that. I was back home in a town 
meeting back in my district. I quoted the Washington Post, and I kind 
of realize at times when I read the Washington Post that they don't 
like anybody. Two weeks ago they were calling on the President to 
resign. Now they are saying Congress is bad.
  Whether or not Members want to quote the Washington Post, folks in 
Hegewish and south Chicago, they don't care what the Washington Post 
says. They are looking for a solution.
  One thing I found from town meetings, meetings at the union hall, the 
VFW, the grain elevator, or a suburban women's club meeting, they are 
saying that they are tired of partisan politics. They are looking for 
solutions. That is why they are pretty proud of what this Congress has 
done in the last few short years.
  If we think about it, think of all the things we were told that we 
could not do. I am one of those who was elected in 1994, this new 
Republican majority for the first time in 40 years.
  I was told by the Washington Post and the New York Times and all the 
other liberals in the world that we cannot balance the budget, but we 
did it. They told us that we could not cut taxes, but we did it. They 
told us we could never reform welfare, but we did it. They told us we 
could not restructure the IRS, but we did it.
  If we think about it, this Congress in the last 2 years has done some 
big things that we were told we could not do by many of those on the 
other side of the aisle. We balanced the budget for the first time in 
28 years, we cut taxes for the middle class for the first time in 16 
years, we reformed our welfare system, helping kids and families for 
the first time in a generation, and we restructured the IRS, taming the 
tax collector for the first time ever.

  Those are pretty big accomplishments, something I am really proud of, 
because it took a Republican Congress to do that, and I am pleased that 
a Democrat President joined with us in a bipartisan effort to bring 
those four accomplishments and those four solutions home.
  We are often asked, what is our next challenge? What more can we do 
to change how Washington works and to make Washington more accountable 
to the folks back home? Clearly, education is a priority for all of us.
  When I am back home and I am walking through, whether it is Lincoln 
Way High School, which is one of the best in the Nation, in New Lenox, 
or in the south side of Chicago, in the Chicago public schools, or 
LaSalle Peru in the Illinois Valley, and I talk to local school board 
Members, administrators, teachers, and parents, they say, Congressman, 
about 4 to 6 cents of every dollar we spend on our public schools comes 
from Washington, but we also want you to know that with that 4 to 6 
percent of the funding we spend on our local public school comes two-
thirds of the paperwork we have to fill out.
  If we look at how those dollars actually get spent when we 
appropriate them in Washington, only about 70 cents on the dollar 
actually reaches the classroom. Thirty cents on the dollar gets spent 
on bureaucratic overhead before it gets back to Illinois schools. 
Something is wrong. We need to do a better job.
  Over the last few years we have made a difference, trying to change 
how Washington works to make sure when we appropriate funding that it 
counts, and education was a big winner last year when we balanced the 
budget. Not only did we make education a priority, but we increased 
funding for education in our budget by 10 percent, a $5.4 billion 
funding increase over the previous year, even while balancing the 
budget.
  Unfortunately, 30 cents on the dollar stays here in Washington. One 
clear message from the folks back home is we need to leave less money 
in Washington and get more money back to the classroom. That is why I 
am proud that we passed earlier this year legislation that will put 
more dollars into the classroom by streamlining the process, not saying 
70 cents on the dollar, but actually 95 cents on the dollar reaching 
the classroom.
  I am proud that this Republican Congress has given us the lowest 
student loan rates in 17 years, and that we have doubled Pell grants to 
twice what they were when I was sworn in 4 years ago to help low-income 
students better afford college with an outright grant. This year while 
the President ignored special ed, we provided $500 million more for 
special education in our local public schools.
  Last year, while we were working to balance the budget, we created 
the first ever school construction bond program, providing almost $1 
billion in helping build new classrooms for our schools. We increased 
funding for Head Start low-income kids in my district.
  Mr. Speaker, education is a priority. We have given it a 21-gun 
salute. This House has passed 21 initiatives to help education in just 
the last 2 years. Education is a priority.

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