[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 33 (Wednesday, March 3, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S2202]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                EDUCATIONAL FLEXIBILITY PARTNERSHIP ACT

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I rise in support of the Educational 
Flexibility Partnership Act, the Ed-Flex program that has been debated 
here today. I congratulate Senator Frist and Senator Jeffords for their 
work on this bill of which I am a cosponsor.
  Ed-Flex does the important work of granting waivers of certain 
statutory and regulatory requirements so that local schools can 
implement creative programs that are custom-tailored to the needs of 
their kids and allows some State education agencies to waive State 
requirements along with Federal mandates so that local schools can 
innovate effectively.
  I think this is an extremely important program. We have been saying 
for some period of time that too much of education is directed out of 
Washington, that problems in education are not solved in Washington as 
much as they are at the local level. If we can allow people to have the 
flexibility in Kansas, Nebraska, Vermont, Tennessee, Texas or 
California to solve their education problems with these dollars, they 
will get more education done, and they will have more effective 
education done than if we direct it out of Washington. It is a basic 
premise. It works. It has worked on a number of programs. We allowed 
this to take place in welfare reform. We had a number of different 
experiments on welfare reform that led welfare rates to decline 50 
percent. We solve it in Kansas differently than they solve it in other 
States. It worked. Education--we have a problem. But it is not a 
uniform problem that you can say, OK, if we just do this and this and 
this all across the Nation with programs, the problem is solved. It 
doesn't work that way. We have different educational needs in different 
places.
  Ed-Flex is tried and true as a concept. It is a needed concept in 
education, because we need more flexibility to get these dollars into 
the classroom than people back here deciding how to spend it.
  I might note that Ed-Flex is already in place in 12 States, including 
my home State of Kansas. Schools there have already submitted 43 waiver 
requests in an effort to better serve the unique needs of Kansas 
students. At this point, no waiver has been rejected. Around two dozen 
requests have already been granted, and others are pending. I would 
encourage the Department of Education to expedite those requests.

  That speech and that point that I just gave sounds very reminiscent 
of a point that I made in 1995 about waivers that were being granted on 
welfare reform and asking that those be sped up so that States could 
solve the problem. We are at the same point in time with education. 
Let's let the States have the resources and have them solve the 
problem.
  Kansas schools have used Ed-Flex for many reasons. One school 
district received a waiver in order to better distribute title I funds 
to the neediest students. Leavenworth schools requested a waiver to 
provide an all-day kindergarten class and preschool programs to better 
serve the needs of children of parents that are at Fort Leavenworth at 
the military facility. Emporia used an Ed-Flex waiver to implement new 
literacy programs in an intensive summer school program. That fit the 
needs and what we had for needs in Emporia. The list goes on.
  These are all very different programs that address different needs. 
But that is just the point. Schools need this flexibility. We need 
education decisions made in Emporia, in Fort Leavenworth, in Topeka, 
and in Manhattan--not in Washington for Kansas. We need it made there. 
And the people there care for the students. They look in their eyes 
every day. They can say, ``We need this program here.'' What can we 
tell them in Washington? No. You don't need that program. What you need 
is something else when we don't even look into the eyes of that same 
child. People here in the Washington bureaucracy have great desires to 
help that child, but the person who is right there closest is the one 
who can best determine what that child needs. This is the sort of 
program that allows that to take place. Schools need that sort of 
flexibility.
  While Ed-Flex is an important first step, there are other steps that 
we need to take as well. If we are going to make progress toward 
improving our schools, we need to give the States and communities far 
more flexibility and empower them to make decisions with what is best 
for their schoolchildren. As important as it is to make waivers to 
Federal regulations available, frankly, I believe it would be better if 
we would roll back those regulations altogether and provide the 
resources to Kansas and to the school districts, and say to them, ``You 
figure out how best to educate these students.'' Believe me. They will 
come up with the ideas to do it. They will implement them, and they 
will get them done without the regulation here.
  I don't think anybody in this Chamber, or in this town, should think 
that somebody in Emporia, KS, doesn't care greatly about how that child 
is educated and won't do the absolute best they can to make sure that 
child is educated well.
  We need to empower them. We need to empower the parents, the 
teachers, the school boards, the communities over the government 
bureaucracy. That is why I will vote in favor of the Ed-Flexibility 
Act. I urge my colleagues to do likewise.
  I say let's not stop here. This is where we started with welfare 
reform--providing these waivers. Ultimately, when we gave the program 
to the States and the resources to the State, they cut the welfare 
dependency in half and had people who were on welfare being thankful 
that they are now out on the job and they are encouraged about that. 
Why don't we try that with education, letting the States and the locals 
decide this? We will get more for every education dollar that we put 
out there. And, more importantly, our students will be better, and they 
will achieve higher test scores in the key areas that they are not 
doing today.
  Mr. President, one other point: I think we have finally started down 
the road of making some real reforms in education, and reforms that I 
think people have been afraid that we are going to dictate out of 
Washington. This, to me, is a positive step forward--letting the local 
school districts start to decide on how they can implement those 
reforms. We have a lot of bright students across this country who need 
a system that is as bright as that are to challenge them and help them 
move forward.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MACK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Smith of Oregon). Without objection, it is 
so ordered.
  Mr. MACK. Mr. President, I understand we are in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. MACK. I ask unanimous consent to speak in morning business for 
not to exceed 30 minutes. I hope I will not use the full 30 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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