[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 146 (Wednesday, October 14, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H10895-H10896]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   REPUBLICANS SUPPORT MORE DOLLARS FOR THE CLASSROOM, AND EDUCATION 
                     DIRECTED FROM THE LOCAL LEVEL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, I am absolutely amazed that the same people 
who opposed the Dollars to the Classroom Act, a Republican bill to send 
$2.74 billion to our children's public schools, are today telling the 
Nation that Republicans are opposed to hiring new teachers for public 
school classrooms.
  This is a falsehood. Republicans have been working to send dollars to 
local schools so new teachers can be hired, classrooms can be connected 
to the Internet, computers can be bought to enhance learning, 
microscopes can be purchased so biology students can view various parts 
of nature, reading specialists can be hired to ensure that every child 
learns to read, and the list goes on and on.
  The point is that Republicans do not believe that the Federal 
Government should dictate and mandate to principals, teachers, and 
parents what is needed for our Nation's classrooms.
  Do Members of Congress actually have the audacity to believe that 
they in their Capitol Hill offices and those in the White House on 
Pennsylvania Avenue or bureaucrats at the Department of Education in 
Washington know what is needed in every single classroom in our Nation? 
They cannot possibly know.
  A child in a classroom in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, might have 
different needs than one in New York City or Anchorage, Alaska. As a 
teacher, I know that the only way to truly know what a child needs to 
learn is to see that child, to listen to that child every day. That is 
why Republicans are working for local control of education. While the 
President wants to control local schools from the Washington beltway, 
Republicans are working to send dollars to our Nation's classrooms.
  Do many of our Nation's public schools need more teachers? Many do. 
However, 100,000 new teachers is not a cure-all solution for the 
schoolchildren of our Nation. Are these 100,000 good teachers? The 
President evidently does not care about that, since he vetoed our bill 
for teacher training and merit pay.
  There are many wonderful teachers serving our Nation's classrooms. 
Even they will tell us that just hiring another person is not going to 
improve learning. Is that not what we are about, improving classroom 
learning for our children? Then why is the other side afraid of sending 
dollars to the classroom, to be used to meet the educational needs of 
local schoolchildren, whether the need is for a new teacher, new 
instructional materials, or a new computer?
  Why has the President threatened to veto the Dollars to the Classroom 
Act, that would send an additional $800 million to the classroom to 
meet these critical needs without new taxes, just increased efficiency 
by bypassing the bureaucracy?
  In the omnibus bill Republicans are supporting education funding, but 
with the requirement that the dollars are sent to the classroom. We 
simply believe that local school districts should decide if they need 
more teachers, more books, more computers, or building repairs.
  We support the hiring of new high-quality teachers, the reducing of 
class size, providing professional development to teachers to teach 
children, providing for teacher competency exams. But we do not want 
this directed by Washington bureaucrats. We want more dollars to local 
schools, more local control, and more local flexibility.
  Teachers are not calling for more government programs, they are 
calling for more local control and flexibility, dollars to the 
classroom. A program similar to the Dollars to the Classroom Act and 
one which the President has opposed is Title VI, the block grant. 
Educators nationwide have expressed how much they like this program, 
for it is extremely flexible, allowing them to focus on priorities of 
children in their schools.
  On Monday I believe our House Republicans offered the President a 
$1.1 billion educational proposal that would expand Title VI, 
emphasizing the hiring of new high-quality teachers to reduce class 
size.
  I would like to tell the Members about a few of the locally-driven 
initiatives that have resulted from Title VI in Pennsylvania.

[[Page H10896]]

  Garnet Valley, in Delaware county, implemented an English course 
supplemental program. Teachers and students were trained on the 
successful completion of research projects, use of CD-ROM products, and 
print resources to support the student thesis.
  Southeastern Greene School District implemented a professional 
development technology program to support reading, language arts, and 
math at the elementary level.
  In Philadelphia, the Model for Enriching Reading through In-service 
Training Professional Development program was created. Professional 
development and student participation was conducted in ``Writing and 
Language Arts'', ``Parent Conferencing,'' and ``Content Area Writing.''
  When dollars are sent to the classroom and schools are given 
flexibility using them, success is the outcome. Do we want children to 
have these types of successful learning experiences, or do we simply 
want them to attend smaller classes? That seems like an awfully 
simplistic answer to an enormous problem.
  I urge the President to agree to send education dollars in the 
omnibus bill to the classroom, to a teacher who knows the names of our 
children.

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