[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 146 (Wednesday, October 14, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H10876]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               CONGRESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN EDUCATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Tiahrt) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, I want to take a little time this afternoon 
to talk about some of the 25 accomplishments that this Congress has 
made in the area of education. We have heard a lot about education over 
the last week or so. The President has been a little distracted. He has 
not had a chance to focus on education until the last couple of weeks. 
He has had over 100 fund-raisers and two Cabinet meetings, so I guess 
in the time that he has spent between fund-raisers, being overseas and 
the 22 days he spent on vacation that he has not had time to sit down 
and talk about education until this last week. In the meantime, 
Congress has been working very hard on the issues of education and we 
do have 25 accomplishments. Some of the things that I think are most 
important for the accomplishments that we have had in education is 
getting dollars into the classroom. One of the problems that we have in 
our local school districts is that it is difficult to get the dollars 
directed into the classroom. For example, in Kansas, about 7 percent of 
all dollars are dollars that come from the Federal Government. Out of 
that 7 percent, it could be expanded to over 14 percent, but much of 
that money is wasted right here in Washington, D.C., where we have a 
large education bureaucracy that does not educate any children. The 
Department of Education is only a few blocks from the Capitol, itself. 
They have quite a few people that work there that do nothing more than 
demand additional paperwork from the local school districts. The 
average salary at the Department of Education is $52,000 per year. Now, 
I would invite any of the Members to go back and talk to their teachers 
and see if any of the teachers are making an average of $52,000 in the 
school districts in their congressional district. My wife worked in 
public schools for 4 years. At that time she made significantly less 
than $52,000 a year. But that is what the average amount of salary is 
at the Department of Education. What we have been trying to do this 
year is limit that amount of money that is wasted here in Washington, 
D.C. on education and ship those dollars out to the local school 
districts so that it can be spent, and our Dollars to the Classroom 
program would have required that 95 percent of the money gets into the 
classroom. The significance of that is that we could increase the 
amount of Federal money that is actually spent in the classroom where 
the rubber meets the road. That is the important thing, is that we see 
that our children get educated. Instead, we see a lot of it being spent 
right here within the District of Columbia not escaping to the local 
school districts. We have been working on sending dollars to the 
classroom to make sure that it is spent where the teachers can use that 
money to get the materials they need, get the books they need, make 
sure that the right amount of money is spent in the classroom.
  Another area that we have been trying to focus on is special 
education. Title I money, special education money has been a 
requirement from the Federal Government, yet it has never yet been 
fully funded. That has had to have been made up by the local school 
districts. They have raised local taxes in order to pay for these 
programs. Rather than having the mandate come from the Federal 
Government, it ought to be paid for by the Federal Government, and the 
Republican Congress has spent time this Congress focusing on getting 
more money for special education, which is a big problem in almost 
every school district in south central Kansas where my district is. 
That is another area where we have been focusing on education.
  We have also been trying to make college more affordable. We have had 
the lowest student loan rates in 17 years. We have had the highest ever 
Pell grant awards. Because we have the Balanced Budget Act, this was 
very clear that has come straight from Alan Greenspan, the chairman of 
the Federal Reserve Board, he said that if we would balance the Federal 
budget, interest rates would be lower. In fact we have balanced the 
Federal budget, we have a surplus this year, interest rates are lower. 
That directly affects student loans. My wife and I could not have 
gotten through college without student loans. We both had student 
loans. For 10 years we faithfully paid back those student loans. But it 
would have been nice to have a lower interest rate. It would have saved 
us hundreds, potentially thousands of dollars when you add that 
together. It is not just a fact or an accounting principle when we talk 
about balancing the budget. When we talk about balancing the budget, it 
affects students and student loans, just as it affects people who have 
credit cards, car loans, home mortgages.
  Another thing that we have been doing is developing a program to help 
get teachers into education. It is a loan forgiveness program for new 
teachers. Many people want to serve their local communities, serve 
their States, serve their country by dedicating themselves to teaching. 
I have to tell you, outside of the Department of Education, their 
salary is not very good. This program will help teachers get into 
education.
  I just wanted the fellow Members to know that we have been working 
very hard on education for the last 2 years and we are glad that the 
President is finally focused on it.

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