[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 146 (Wednesday, October 14, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H10882]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




WHAT THIS CONGRESS HAS DONE FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION AND SPECIAL EDUCATION 
                                PROGRAMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GOODLING. Mr. Speaker, a previous speaker asked the question, 
what has this Congress done for education, and in particular, she said, 
what has this Congress done for public education? She should be very 
proud of what this Congress has done as far as education is concerned 
during the last 2 years.
  Just a few of the issues that we have enacted into law, which the 
President has already signed: The Higher Education Act, a bipartisan 
effort; special education, signed into law, the second largest program 
from the Federal Government in relationship to elementary and secondary 
education; the Workforce Investment Act, signed into law; loan 
forgiveness for new teachers, signed into law; quality teaching grants, 
that is the law; emergency student loans, that is law; and yes, in a 
bipartisan way, prohibition on Federal school tests. That is in law.
  This Congress has also, for public education, dealt with school 
nutrition and reauthorized the school nutrition legislation, very 
important to schools; charter schools for public schools, $100 million; 
quality Head Start, again, bipartisan, and again, bicameral; vocational 
education; Community Services Block Grant; $500 million extra for 
special education; and the Reading Excellence Act.
  That is only 14 programs; I might say, probably more than any 
Congress in the history of my term in the Congress; by far anything 
more than I have seen in a long, long time.
  The issue is not what we have done or what we may not have done; the 
issue is, where is the control. We believe that if we are going to 
reform education and make a positive effort, it starts from the bottom 
up. We do not try any longer, as we have done for so many years, to 
say, ``Here, this is coming from the Federal Government. It is good 
because we said it is good. We know that one-size-fits-all. You do not 
know anything, on the local level. You should not make any decisions. 
We know it all.''
  That is not the way it works, and it has not worked. We ought to 
admit that it has not worked. We are trying something different: 
passing 14 pieces of legislation dealing with elementary schools, 
secondary schools, public schools, for $31 plus billion in this year's 
budget for education.
  Special education got a $750 million boost last year. It is going to 
get another $500 million this year. This is the one unfunded curriculum 
mandate from the Federal Government, a 100 percent mandate from the 
Federal Government.
  Thirty years ago local government was promised that they will get 40 
percent of the excess costs. Whatever it costs them to educate a 
regular student, and all of that above to educate a special needs 
student, we will send them 40 percent. We sent them, until 2 years ago, 
6 percent. We are about up to 12 percent.
  But as I have mentioned so many times, in California, the Los Angeles 
Unified School District, it means $60 million a year, every year. Now, 
if we talk about reforming schools, talk about the pupil-to-teacher 
ratio, talk about school maintenance, what they could do with $60 
million, if we would put our money where our mouth is. That is a 
tragedy. In the St. Louis schools there is a $25 million increase every 
year, and on and on it goes.
  So what we have done is tried to get money back so that they could do 
on the local level what they want to do to improve schools. But they 
cannot do it because, for instance, in Los Angeles, they have to raise 
$325 million from their local taxpayers to pay for our 100 percent 
mandate. They would have that $325 million, at least they would have 
$60 million more at the present time.
  I tried to get this point across for 20 years in the minority, and 
now as a member of the majority, because that is the biggest problem 
facing local school districts: How do we fund the 100 percent mandate? 
They do not know how to do that. They do not have a tax base in order 
to do that. The mandate came from here.
  So I am pretty proud of the fact that in the last 2 years, $750 
million and another $500 million. This will be the first year that 
local school districts will be able to reduce their spending on special 
ed so they can put it into maintenance, they can put it into new 
teachers, they can put it into additional teachers, reduce class size 
all of those things. But if they got the 40 percent of the excess 
costs, it is unbelievable what they could do on the local level.
  I would hope that no one leaves the Congress this session without 
being proud of what we have been able to do in the area of public 
education.

                          ____________________