[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 145 (Tuesday, October 13, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12443-S12444]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           EDUCATION FUNDING

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I want to address the Senate for a few 
moments today to call attention to some progress that has been made, as 
I understand it, in budget negotiations in the areas of education, but 
also to indicate why I think the resolution of the President of the 
United States in identifying the importance of the help and assistance 
of the Federal Government for local communities and the States is 
extremely important, and why it has been very important in these last 
few days, that these negotiations reflect the President's strong 
commitment to education policy, and to put into some perspective why 
this battle has been necessary over the period of recent years and why 
it is necessary now. I will mention in just a few moments some of the 
areas where I understand progress has been made. Nothing will be 
achieved until everything is settled, but, nonetheless, the areas that 
I will mention here, I think, have been generally recognized as having 
been fairly well agreed to, and I think it is relevant to mention those 
because they are important and will be important when the final omnibus 
legislation has been achieved.
  If you look over the recent years to see what has happened in terms 
of the education budget, you will see why this battle has been so 
important. If you look at the amount of the Federal budget that is 
devoted to education, it represents only 2 percent of the total budget. 
We are talking now of a budget of $1.7 billion. Only 2 percent of that 
budget is education. I think most Americans would believe that it 
should be a good deal higher.
  What we are trying to do is to make sure that even this 2 percent is 
going to be preserved. If there is an opportunity, we are going to see 
some expansion of it. We understand that we have a tight fiscal 
situation. We are grateful for the economic policies that have brought 
us to some surplus, and we expect that to continue, although the 
surplus for the first 5 years is reflected really in the cumulative 
savings in our Social Security. And that is why the President is wise 
to say it is not appropriate now to have a tax cut because those funds 
which have been paid in and reflect themselves in the form of a surplus 
are really the hard-earned wages of workers and employers paying into 
the Social Security trust fund, and until we resolve the challenges of 
the Social Security trust fund, we should not, and we must not, see a 
tax cut.
  But what we are trying to do is give education more of a priority 
within the total budget. That is certainly the desire of the American 
people. What we have been faced with over the period of recent years is 
the following: In 1996, the Republicans attempted to cut $3.7 billion 
below the previous year, 1995, in terms of what had actually been 
appropriated. Do we understand? In the education budget--that was in 
1996, that was resisted by the President--all those budget cuts were 
not achieved but there were some budget cuts.
  In 1997, the Republican proposal was to cut $1.5 billion below the 
previous year--not add on, Mr. President, not try to find out how we 
could possibly squeeze other aspects of our national budget in order to 
increase our commitment to education. No. We saw the request for $1.5 
billion less in 1997 over the previous year; in 1998, a $2 billion cut 
below the President's request, and this year $2 billion below the 
President's request.
  These are the facts. And so it is understandable that in the final 
wrap-up of these budget negotiations, the President of the United 
States is going to do everything he possibly can to resist that kind of 
cut in terms of education funding.
  Now we know, as I have said before, the amounts of money do not 
necessarily indicate the solution to all of our problems. That is true 
in education as well. But what it does reflect is a nation's 
priorities--a nation's priorities. When you look over the record, for 
1996, $3.7 billion; 1997, $1.5 billion; 1998, $2 billion; this year, 
1999, $2 billion. That is reflected in the $420 million cut for title 
I, cutting back on the Eisenhower Teaching Program, cutting back on 
teacher technology, cutting back on the Afterschool Program, cutting 
back on the Year 2000 Program, zeroing out the Summer Jobs Program.
  We can understand why the President and many of us--the Democratic 
leader, Senator Daschle, the Democratic leader in the House, Dick 
Gephardt--are saying we are not going to have an omnibus budget unless 
it protects education. In effect, that is what is happening in 
Washington. Surely, there are other priorities, but this is one 
identified by the President and the leaders, and the one which I 
believe is the overriding and overarching issue that those families 
across our country care most about.
  Now, we have heard that in the past few days the Reading Excellence 
Act, which is basically the Literacy Program that passed in the Senate 
virtually unanimously, was tied up over in the House of 
Representatives, and when they effectively halted other kinds of 
action, that legislation was still hanging out there and would not have 
been approved unless put into this omnibus legislation.
  When we understand that 40 percent of our children who are in the 
third and fourth grades cannot read properly, and when we understand 
that this is increasingly a problem, we are not going to be able to 
solve it all with our Reading Excellence Act, but we are going to be 
able to help and assist teachers who are attempting to set up literacy 
programs, who are tying into the Head Start Program, who are working 
with volunteers who reflect the interests of many of our young people 
who are working as volunteer teachers in the areas of literacy in our 
schools and colleges, with the Work-Study Program, which has been 
expanded significantly in the last couple of years.
  I am proud that Massachusetts is ranked as the second State in the 
country in the number of volunteers in the Work-Study Program who are 
working with children in their communities on literacy. California is 
first; we are second. California better look out because we are 
increasing the number of our colleges that will be doing it. Close to 
60 percent of all of our colleges scattered around our State of 
Massachusetts now are doing that. I believe every college ought to be 
involved. We ought to be challenging the young people in all of our 
colleges to give something back to the community. This program will 
provide that little seed

[[Page S12444]]

money to help assist those kinds of efforts in our States. That is an 
important program, and I understand has been agreed to.
  We have the Afterschool Program which last year had been a $40 
million program; this year, now, some $200 million. We have 5 million 
American children who are under 14 years of age who are left alone 
every afternoon in this country--5 million of them. And we wonder what 
happens when we see these kinds of charts that reflect the spiking up 
in indexes of violent crime right after school, at 3 o'clock in the 
afternoon; 3 o'clock to about 6 o'clock in the afternoon have the 
highest incidents. These people should be involved in afterschool 
programs. They are working. They are working in my own city of Boston. 
Not all the city of Boston has it, but Mayor Menino is working to 
improve these programs. This is a good $200 million program.
  But that would not be there unless we had been battling--as in the 
past few days the President has--to have a modest program to try to 
help, to work through the nonprofit organizations, even some of those 
church-related groups, so children in this category can complete their 
homework in the afternoon. That way, when they go back home they can 
spend some quality time with their parents rather than come home and 
have the parents say, ``Jimmy, go upstairs and finish your homework.'' 
This happens. This is a family issue. These are two very, very modest 
but important programs.
  But we have more to do, Mr. President. This important program 
reflects what has been happening in our schools across this country in 
terms of the total number of students going to the schools. We have 
seen, now, the escalation in the number of students; 53 million now are 
going. This number is increasing. The demography, the number of 
children going in, is putting additional burdens on local communities 
and States. All we are saying is let's be a partner with them. Let's be 
a partner with them.
  We have listened on the floor to those saying, ``This is not a role 
for the Federal Government.'' You ask the parents. They want their 
child educated. They want a well trained teacher in a modern classroom 
with modern equipment so their child can learn. They want a 
partnership. With all due respect to our colleagues on the floor 
yesterday, talking about local control, saying, ``We ought to let the 
local communities make those judgments,'' the fact is, the local 
community has control, now, over 93 cents of every dollar that is spent 
at the present time. Only 7 cents out of that dollar is related to 
expenditures that are made by the Federal Government. That reflects a 
very narrow, targeted area of child needs like the title I programs for 
those children that come from economically deprived communities across 
this country, whether they are urban or rural communities.
  It has been worked out with bipartisan support, that program and the 
programs that are related to the needs of disabled children and the 
other limited, targeted programs here. What we are saying, and what the 
President is saying, is this: With this escalation, we are going to 
need more teachers. Let us develop the help and assistance so we will 
have more teachers so these children, particularly in the most 
formative time of their lives, are going to be in smaller classes so 
the children will have 16, 17, 18--hopefully, 17 children in the first 
three grades. That is when the children coming out--perhaps the 
children coming from a Head Start Program, maybe others who are not, 
who are coming from some kindergarten, entering first grade--that is 
when they are making their decisions in terms of developing their 
confidence, developing their interests in academics. As we have heard 
from virtually every teacher across the country, the advantage of 
having that number of students is that a teacher can spend individual 
moments every single day with that child. That is enormously important.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair advises the Senator he now has 2 
minutes remaining.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, this is the issue that still remains: 
Increasing the funding for teachers and also helping, assisting to try 
to do something about what the General Accounting Office has pointed 
out is the condition of schools all across this country. They say, to 
try to address the old schools, to modernize the old schools, 
nationwide, it would cost $110 billion. The President's program is only 
$22 billion. Listen to the conclusion, not of Democrats, not of 
Republicans, listen to the General Accounting Office that says:

       Virtually all communities, even some of the wealthiest, are 
     wondering how to address school infrastructure needs while 
     balancing them with other community priorities.

  This is a national problem. We want to make sure our children are in 
the best classrooms with the best teachers and that they have the best 
opportunity to learn. This afternoon I will be going out with the 
President to the Forrest Knoll Elementary School just out in suburban 
Maryland. We are going to an event. The whole sixth grade is housed in 
trailers. The Forrest Knoll Elementary School was originally built to 
hold 450 students. It now teaches over 700 students.
  We could find these kinds of conditions in communities, not only in 
urban, but in rural areas. We need the best local and State efforts, 
and also Federal help and assistance. That is what we are talking about 
in terms of modernization. That is what we are talking about in terms 
of enhanced teachers. These are priorities for American families. We 
ought to be able to work out a process, Republicans and Democrats 
alike, to try to address those very, very important and special needs. 
They are the No. 1 priorities for families in this country and we ought 
to, even in these final hours, we ought to be able to work through this 
process to make sure we are going to give our best efforts to the 
protection of children in our society, for their own interests and for 
our national interest.
  It is in our national interest clearly, so America is going to be 
able to compete in a global economy and we are going to have the best 
trained and best educated children and young people in this world. We 
can do no less. We owe that to our country. That is a great deal of 
what this debate is about here in the Nation's Capitol, over the time 
we are meeting here today.
  Mr. President, 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. THOMAS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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