[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 50 (Tuesday, April 13, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H1919-H1925]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
OVERWHELMING NEGLECT: THE ARITHMETIC OF FEDERAL AID TO EDUCATION
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Sweeney). Under a previous order of the
House, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens) is recognized for 60
minutes.
Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to clearly label my discussion
this evening with a topic. I want to call it ``Overwhelming Neglect:
The Arithmetic of Federal Aid to Education.''
Overwhelming Neglect: The Arithmetic of Federal Aid to Education, and
I am pleased that this special order has fallen in a period when there
may be large numbers of school-going youngsters, students in high
school and elementary school and junior high school, awake, and maybe a
few will be listening.
{time} 1715
I want to address a large part of my remarks to those students, and I
assure them that what I have to say will not be complicated. I am not
going to talk in terms of complex and abstract ideas. I am going to
talk about the simple arithmetic of Federal aid to education, no higher
mathematics, no logarithms, no differential equations and calculus,
nothing complicated, just simple arithmetic.
I want the students of America out there attending school to join me
in trying to educate my colleagues here in the House of Representatives
and in the whole Washington decision-making arena. There is something
wrong with decision-making in Washington at this point about education,
something radically wrong.
I think we need the children, the students, younger minds, to come to
the aid of the decision-making circles here. We have some decision-
making circles with closed minds. We are hemmed in and smothered by
some conventional thinking and we need a breakthrough, and I am going
to call on the children of America to help us make this breakthrough.
There is some simple arithmetic we should start with. The arithmetic
begins with an allocation of priorities here in terms of time and
attention and money based on the priorities that are established by the
American people. In other words, we live and die by opinion polls here
in Washington. Public opinion polls are very important to the
Republicans, they are important to the Democrats, they are important to
the White House. Everybody is concerned about what the public thinks
and we spend a lot of time and energy discussing public opinion polls.
There are a large amount of resources committed to finding out what
is it that the public thinks. The impact of public opinion polls, of
course, can be tremendous on public policy. We saw the impact of public
opinion on the impeachment proceedings which the Republican Party
insisted on going ahead with despite the fact that common sense, as
reflected by public opinion, the common sense of the American people
dictated that it was a wasteful venture, kind of a silly venture and
that is what it turned out to be. So public opinion can sometimes be
ignored by powerful forces here that refuse to listen.
Right now we have a war in Kosovo which public opinion, I think, will
play a great role in determining what else do we do, where do we go in
terms of United States policy.
For good or ill, sometimes public opinion is not so desirable in
terms of the results that I think we need. I did not agree with public
opinion when we had a dictator, self-imposed Army dictator, in Haiti
for 3 years. They got rid of the lawful government and they sat there
and they would not move, and negotiations went on and on and on.
I wanted to go in and restore the rightful president of Haiti,
elected leader of Haiti, and if it took troops to do that, armed
intervention, then I was in favor of that. Two-thirds of the American
people said no. Two-thirds of the Congress said no. I am glad that the
President did not listen to public opinion in that case. I am glad that
he went ahead and took some decisive action and it all worked out in
the interest of not only the people of Haiti but in the interest of
democracy in this hemisphere.
I am glad that Abraham Lincoln did not listen to the opinion of his
cabinet when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. All the votes
were against the Emancipation Proclamation which set the slaves free,
but he went ahead and signed it anyhow.
So there are times when public opinion, I admit, I may not agree with
it but we do listen to it. We do listen to it.
I want to call upon the decisionmakers in this Congress and in the
whole Washington arena to listen to public opinion on the issue of
education. Public opinion has been speaking not sporadically but
consistently over a long period of time about the priority it assigns
to education.
The great majority of the American people say that government
assistance to education ranks highest on their list of priorities, and
it has been among the top priorities in the last 5 years.
Education consistently, the American people say, needs help. We need
government at every level to do more for education and certainly we
need the Federal Government to do more because the Federal Government
really does very little in terms of dollar value. The Federal
Government is responsible for less than 8 percent of the total budget
for education in general. That includes college education, where most
of the money goes. So the Federal Government should do more. The public
keeps saying that.
Just to refresh everyone's memory, let me cite the polls generally.
Whether taken by Republicans or Democrats, they are saying that
education ranks number one. Seventy-four percent of the American people
consider education as a number one priority. We might think it is
Social Security because we hear more talk about saving Social Security.
Among the elected officials and political leaders of both parties,
Social Security is on everybody's lips. So Social Security is
important. However, it is the second highest concern. Seventy-one
percent rank Social Security as the highest priority.
Crime reduction is the third. Health care reform is the fourth.
Eliminating poverty is the fifth. Tax cuts are the sixth. Jobs, number
seven; getting rid of the national debt, number eight;
[[Page H1920]]
campaign finance reform, number nine. Here is a list of priorities with
education at the very top.
By the way, I have not mentioned defense. Defense expenditures and
increases in government aid for defense does not even score. It is not
on the chart. It is not on the chart. It is not ranked. So one would
think that the priorities that we set here in Washington would have
some relationship to the priorities which public opinion has set. One
would think that there would be a correlation between what the American
people say they want government to do and what we are actually
proceeding to do here in Washington, in the Congress and in the White
House.
Is there a priority? Is there a correlation? Well, on the surface, it
may seem so because on the surface we have a lot of talk about
education. Both Republicans and Democrats have all seized the issue in
terms of public relations and spin, in terms of getting out press
releases, in terms of posturing. Everybody wants to make it appear that
they are concerned with education.
However, when we look at the budget, when we look at the arithmetic,
we find that there is a very shallow commitment. When we look at the
arithmetic, we will find that education is not a priority. The
arithmetic of the budget, the allocation of resources, of dollars, it
places education way down on the list of priorities. Defense, which is
not even in the top ten, defense is the highest priority for both
Democrats and Republicans, if we measure priorities according to the
amount of money they are willing to appropriate.
Now, defense we often say is the business of the national government;
the Federal Government is defense, so it is natural that defense should
be the very highest priority. But why a big increase in defense at a
time like this? Why do we have to have a tremendous increase proposed
for defense before the arms intervention in Kosovo?
We have to pay separately for that. Most people do not know it, but
the defense budget is for something else besides fighting wars. When we
went into the Gulf War, we had to have a special appropriation for
that. Any special armed intervention, any deployment of our forces in
large measure, we have special appropriations. So we are going to have
to have a special appropriation for Kosovo. We are already in
Yugoslavia, to the tune of $8 billion. Our armed forces are in
Yugoslavia, in Bosnia, and part of Croatia and carrying out a peace
plan. So we have spent up to $8 billion already. All of that money is
appropriated on top of the defense budget.
So let us leave out Kosovo for a moment, although I think that Kosovo
is certainly important to what I have to say today, and I am going to
mention Kosovo because I think Kosovo is an example of how the military
strength of the United States is very important in the present world.
We are the last superpower and Kosovo certainly would not be possible
if it were not for the participation of this American superpower in
that intervention.
What do I think of that intervention? I think it is very important
that the American people support the intervention into Kosovo, just as
I thought it was important to intervene in Haiti and to follow up a
long list of various efforts that were made to resolve the problem
peacefully. We negotiated and we negotiated and we negotiated but the
predators in Haiti, the vicious, savage people who were killing people
every day and killed nearly 5,000 of their own people, they were not
about to back down just via negotiations.
Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia, Serbia, is the same breed of
character. He is a sovereign predator. He and his gang are in control
of the tanks. They have control of the machine guns. They have control
of the arms might of the Nation and they are not about to stop the
genocidal destruction of Kosovo. They are not about to stop it via
peaceful negotiations.
I want to pause and comment on Kosovo because a strong nation must be
strong across the board, and our military strength is very important
for now and for the future. Even our military strength is weakened and
jeopardized by the fact that we are blind to the need for a greater
investment in education. We are blind to the need to make the
investment now in order to guarantee that we will not have shortages in
the future anywhere, shortages in our military personnel who are
capable of running a high tech military operation or shortages in the
civilian sector, in any area of the civilian sector, information
technology, teachers.
We have a lot of shortages that have been projected as a result of
the fact that not enough people are being educated in this country. Not
enough people are in the colleges now in various fields that are
threatened with great numbers of vacancies. To be specific about the
military, the aircraft carrier that we launched recently, the super
aircraft carrier like none other in the world, was short of personnel.
Almost 300 staff members that they needed for that aircraft carrier,
they could not find them. They were short of personnel. They could not
fully staff the last great aircraft carrier that was launched by the
United States Navy.
Why could they not staff it? We have a Nation of almost 260 million
people. In a nation of 260 million people, we cannot find enough people
to staff an aircraft carrier? It is because we are not talking about
simple bodies. We do not need just a physical body, a man or a woman to
stand there and staff the aircraft carrier. We need people who have
some orientation, some orientation toward a computerized world and can
be trained to run a high tech aircraft carrier. They need a certain
kind of people. They still need certain kinds of people.
There are other shortages. Already I mentioned in Kosovo, we have got
shortages of fuel tank pilots, tanker pilots. One might have picked
that up if they were listening to the news, because it came out in the
regular news. One does not have to listen to C-SPAN to get serious
things like that. I think I heard it twice. I think I heard it again on
C-SPAN, but certainly I heard it on the regular news. Tanker pilots in
shortage. They are going to find other shortages soon. In a high tech
world where we cannot just take a body, an individual and throw them
into an activity and expect them to perform, we need educated people.
So it does not matter where we look. Economic security or military
security, whatever, it is threatened by the fact that we are not
measuring up to the economic challenge.
{time} 1730
Now, back to Kosovo, do I think we should be in Kosovo? Do I think
that should be a challenge that the American superpower should take on,
the so-called, what I like to call, in agreement with President
Clinton, the indispensable Nation?
We are the indispensable Nation in terms of certain kinds of
activities in the world. In this particular instance, I do not think we
would be in Kosovo if this indispensable Nation did not play an
indispensable role.
I was going to make a statement on the Floor earlier, but did not get
a chance today, so I am going to make my statement on Kosovo right
here, because I do think it relates to education. It relates to the
need for the indispensable Nation to have the most educated population,
not only military, but we need more diplomats, we need more people who
are able to deal with the details. We need all kinds of specialists to
take care of the various kinds of problems of the world which require
people who have a great deal of technical competence.
On Kosovo, I call Kosovo a campaign of compassion. It is a campaign
of compassion, and this Nation should be proud of the fact that it has
provided a leadership role in this campaign of compassion. The U.S.-
NATO military intervention in Kosovo is not driven by any vested
interests, any financial interests, or any strategic hidden agenda.
That is not the case.
There are some cynics who say, well, we would not be over there if it
was not for something. Tell me, I would like to know. Are we in Kosovo
because we are afraid that the price of oil or gasoline will go up?
They used to say that about the Gulf War, that we had to protect our
supply of oil, and we had a vested interest. But Kosovo does not have
any oil. Yugoslavia does not have any oil or minerals of any great
importance to us.
Somebody said in a joke the other day that we are in Yugoslavia to
lessen the competition to Ford and General Motors for the building of
autos. They
[[Page H1921]]
were making fun of the Yugoslavian automobile industry. The Yugoslavian
automobiles have not caught on in the world.
We have to search very hard to find some vested interest we could
pinpoint of the United States in Yugoslavia. We would have to search
pretty hard to find a vested interest we could pinpoint with respect to
most of the NATO countries. We are not in this by ourselves. It is the
NATO countries, including Great Britain and France. France has provided
a great deal of moral leadership. I understand the people of France are
clearly articulating the reason why they think this is an important
intervention.
The NATO nations, the United States and the other nations, are
motivated by great moral interests and high standards which require
that civilized people never again should tolerate any rationalization
for genocide.
I would like to repeat, these NATO nations and the United States are
motivated by great moral interests and high standards which require
that civilized people never again should tolerate any rationalization
for genocide.
Our Nation's generous commitment of resources and the large-scale
risks of American lives, and they are already being risked, those
pilots are risking their lives. With people over there in the fervor of
just getting ready, just loading material and so forth, many people can
die by accident in that kind of atmosphere. But certainly people who
fly those missions are risking their lives. Even before we move to the
level of ground troops, large numbers of lives are being risked. We are
doing that already.
The large-scale risk of American lives, not in the pursuit of the
usual narrow vital interests, but to protect the sacred lives of human
beings that we will never know personally, this action represents a
laudable and noble national action.
The Roman empire only dispatched its legions to achieve greater
conquest. This American indispensable Nation has deployed its armies in
an unprecedented campaign of compassion. This is a campaign of
compassion.
Adolph Hitler, Josef Stalin, Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, the Hutu
generals of Rwanda, Slobodan Milosevic, we can call the roll of
sovereign predators who have used murderous ethnic scapegoating to
seize, to hold, and to expand their powers.
The oldest trick in the world is to scapegoat. Scapegoating even
existed where there were no ethnic groups involved. Scapegoating, in
fact, the whole description of it is an actual goat. The dead and dried
carcass of a goat was used in some villages when there were plagues or
hunger and famine, and people were so downtrodden and angry and bitter
and hopeless that they would pull together the dead carcass of a goat
and they would heap all of their rubbish and stuff, and the symbolism
would be that all the evil and all the disease and everything in the
town and in the village would be heaped on this thing, and it would be
driven out of town or dragged out of town. Scapegoating was done even
without having another ethnic group.
But in the history of humankind, scapegoating has become a very
convenient vehicle for demagogues. Demagogues throughout time find it
easy to come to power. The easiest way to power is to brand somebody as
the enemy, and to set yourself up as the savior of your group against
that enemy. It has been done repeatedly, and any group that happens to
find itself in a minority is likely to be victimized.
It is not because the minority has something wrong with it. African
Americans have often absorbed a whole lot of self-hate, and they think
that there was something wrong with them, that they allowed themselves
to be enslaved for so long, and that it is because of some curse in the
Bible, it is because of some genetic inferiority. They believe the
white folks who say that African-Americans are inferior. They have
taken in a whole lot of guilt and inferiority feelings, and they said,
this is the reason why we are persecuted.
No, there have been minorities in history who have been superior, who
have been acknowledged as being superior. It does not matter whether
you are accused of being inferior or of being superior, but when they
are ready, the demagogues are ready to take advantage of a situation
and they need scapegoats, they will seize upon and utilize the weakest
element of the population. Just being the minority guarantees that you
are going to be in the line of victimization.
The Jews in Germany, they were too rich, they were too educated, they
were too accomplished in the arts, too accomplished in the sciences,
they were despised because they had achieved too much. It did not
matter, if it had been just the opposite they would use another kind of
excuse. This is the process that demagogues use to come to power.
The most recent demagogue, of course, that we are dealing with is
Slobodan Milosevic. People say, well, they have been fighting in the
Baltic for years and we cannot do anything about that, because they are
going to do that. It is ancient hatreds.
Well, there was a period of several decades where Kosovo was given
its autonomy, and the Serbs and the ethnic Albanians lived together in
peace. In fact, all of Yugoslavia has been falling apart for the last
15 years, but all of Yugoslavia was united under one banner for several
decades.
The answer to that, they say is Tito. Tito was a Communist. He made
them do it. I do not pretend to know how it all happened. I am not a
historian. I am not a sociologist. I think there ought to be a study
made of how did they hold it all together. Even under communism, there
are no magic formulas.
But nevertheless, these people, they say, cannot live together in the
Balkans. They are always going to fight each other. But they did live
together. In Kosovo there was a solution. Slobodan Milosevic wrecked
the solution. He took away the autonomy. He started the problem.
We have been negotiating with him for 8 years. How long do you
negotiate before you realize that there is no profit to this so-called
peaceful negotiation? Slobodan Milosevic is a sovereign predator. He is
in the vein of Hitler, Stalin, the Hutu generals, Hutu leaders of
Rwanda who massacred the Tutsis. They needed to come to power fast, and
they just used the hatred of people to scapegoat and come to power.
From ancient Egypt to Kosovo, the demagogues repeatedly have used the
same methods and found a willing mass of supporters. The United States-
led resistence to genocide in Kosovo shows that finally we have not
only learned a vital lesson in history, but now that knowledge has also
provided us with an imperative for painful but effective action.
We are not just looking back at what happened when Hitler killed 6
million Jews and the world stood by and did nothing. We are not just
regretting that that happened, but in this particular instance we have
been forced to come to grips with a decision.
As a Nation, I am proud of the fact that public opinion in this case
is behind the President, who has made a very difficult political
decision and moved forward on this venture that becomes more complex
and violent every day.
The U.S.-led resistance to genocide in Kosovo shows that finally we
have not only learned a vital lesson of history, but now that knowledge
also provides an imperative for painful but effective action.
Slobodan Milosevic should have been declared a war criminal 8 years
ago. Diplomatic patience has been cleverly manipulated by this
sovereign predator. Better late than never, however. We must now
declare Slobodan Milosevic a war criminal, and send a clear message to
all of his confused civilian followers, now mobilizing in their
neighborhoods under misplaced banners of nationalism and patriotism.
For more than 8 years the citizens of Serbia and Yugoslavia have
failed to marshal internal sovereign resistance to the genocidal
policies of their dictator. Their popular will, majority complicity
with evil, is the true cause of the present conflagration in the
Balkans. It is not the designs of NATO, it is not the vested interests
of the United States, it is not some kind of outside desire to
humiliate the people of Yugoslavia and Serbia. It is the majority
complicity with evil that has allowed Slobodan Milosevic to stay in
power that has led to this conflagration in the Balkans at present.
[[Page H1922]]
War is hell, and we extend our prayers to innocent victims on all
sides. War is hell. We need to pray for all those people who have been
caught up in this.
Most people are innocent, because only a handful control the power,
the tanks, the machine guns. But the refusal to watch the repeat of
Hitler's death pageant is our duty. It is our duty to refuse to watch a
repeat of Hitler's death pageant.
There are some who say that because we cannot stop genocide
everywhere, we should refuse to stand against genocide anywhere. People
are saying, well, you are not doing anything about Tibet, you were not
doing anything about genocide against the Kurds in Iraq, you did not do
anything to help the Tutsis in Rwanda, so why are you in Kosovo?
Because we cannot stop genocide everywhere, we should refuse to stand
against genocide anywhere. That is the logic they have.
We reject that logic. We cannot save them all. We could not save the
Tutsis in Rwanda. We cannot save the Kurds in Iraq at this point, the
Tibetans in China. But the world can take united action now in Kosovo.
In this clear and present instance, a portion of the civilized world
has both the capability and the will to stop genocide. I am certain
that the angels in heaven are applauding these bold and brave actions.
Since the civilian electorate of Serb-Yugoslavia has not been willing
or not been able to save itself from totalitarian disease, and because
a minority of military monsters with tanks and machine guns can hold
the majority of a Nation hostage, outside intervention is sometimes the
only antidote to a spreading poison.
Decades of autonomy was the peaceful solution that Milosevic
eradicated. Let the Kosovo campaign of compassion send a message to
sovereign predators everywhere. Sovereign predators will not be allowed
to savagely devour human rights. Diplomatic condemnation of genocide
will always be a certainty, and sometimes military confrontation will
also be possible.
I appeal to progressive thinkers everywhere to lay aside their fuzzy-
minded analyses and remember the Hitler syndrome. Remember the Hitler
syndrome. ``Never again'' must not be an abstract slogan. Each one of
us has a duty to take a forceful position.
We should all be proud of the fact that this indispensable Nation has
both the will and the power to reinforce the foundation of a
compassionate civilization.
I make this statement in the midst of my discussion of education
because I think that, as the indispensable Nation, the last remaining
superpower assuming great responsibilities in the world, our citizenry,
the people out there, including the students who are still awake and
attending high school and grammar school and listening, they certainly
ought to understand and know or be stimulated by my remarks to go and
do more research, if you wish.
We need to move on all fronts. We need a peace academy in this
country that is as big as West Point. We have a peace academy, by the
way. Look it up on the Internet, or do some research on the peace
academy. We have a budget for a peace academy, a very tiny budget. I
know, because it was under the jurisdiction of one of the subcommittees
that I served on at one time.
The peace academy is very important, and understanding how to make
peace, how to negotiate. What shall we do about the world court at the
Hague, which is responsible for trying war criminals, or how
significant should that be? It should be given a greater role in the
present situation and in our present modern day society.
As we go toward the future, we need to have as much energy and effort
put into studying how to make peace as we have in the process of making
war.
{time} 1745
Education. The Peace Academy would have a big education budget, not
as big as West Point maybe, but it needs a big education budget.
So back to my major topic, overwhelming neglect, the arithmetic of
federal aid for education. What I am trying to say tonight is we are on
the verge of making a great mistake in America. We can act with great
nobility and great bravery and courage in emergency situations, and we
have done that.
In the case of Kosovo, it is an emergency which the machinery of our
government, starting at the White House with the leadership of
President Clinton, the machinery of our government has gone into motion
to provide support for the foundations of a compassionate civilization.
This is a great compassionate crusade to stop genocide in Kosovo.
So while I am applauding the expression of the American people, which
is what such an action is, I would also like to caution us and warn our
Nation at this point. The way we are responding to the education
crisis, there is a crisis, we are not educating the kinds of people,
the numbers that we need for the future. We are not educating at a
quality level to deal with a complex future.
I think we are going toward a cyber civilization, a cyber
civilization, which is very complex. We need not fear it because it has
already created miracles. It will continue to create miracles.
There is a future out there which is possible where some of the most
difficult problems and burdens that mankind faces will be able to be
resolved because of the nature of this cyber civilization that we are
going into.
So, as we prepare for that, we have to understand that an investment
in education is the one thing we must do. We do not know all of the
pitfalls. We cannot project and predict everything that is going to
happen. But one thing is clear, we need the most educated population
possible, and we need more people educated. We need better education.
Right now we are failing to do that, to respond to the need for that
kind of investment. We are failing to respond to the clear clarion call
of our own people.
The common sense of America is amazing sometimes, the common sense of
American people. They sense, they understand, they feel that education
is very important. Across this country, most people have never
graduated from college.
But in this Congress, 99 percent of the people have graduated from
college. In Washington, all of the decision makers and the
bureaucracies, the White House, everyone, they are all graduates from
college. They have all benefited from our great education system. Yet
they are blind, they are blind to the need to follow the lead of the
American people and make education our number one priority.
There are some of my colleagues listening to me who would say, what
are we talking about? It is our number one priority. We talked about it
in the Democratic Caucus all the time. We talk about it in the
Republican Caucus all the time. We have made great statements to our
party about how important education is.
It is all a bit strange when this talk adds up to peanuts in the
budget. The arithmetic of the budget does not show that we understand
that education is important.
Let me give my colleagues a little of that arithmetic. As I said
before, it does not take a genius to figure these figures out. The
billions and the millions might confuse us sometimes, but this is
simple arithmetic.
Defense is not on the list of the American priorities. Highways and
transportation are not on the list of American priorities. Remember
that as I talk.
Right now the budget for public schools, elementary and secondary
schools in America, this Federal Government is giving $22.6 billion in
assistance. This is probably less than 5 percent of the total budget
for elementary and secondary education assistance because the States
and the localities provide most of the money for the education.
The Constitution does not require the Federal Government to assume
the responsibility for education. People are always repeating that.
Since the Constitution does not require the federal government to
assume the responsibility for education, why should we make a great
investment at the Federal level in education?
Well, the Constitution does not require the Federal Government to
assume responsibility for highways and roads. That really has always
been traditionally a State and local function. But we are spending
$22.6 billion for public schools, elementary and secondary education,
$22.6 billion right
[[Page H1923]]
now. The budget for highways and transportation, most of which is
highways, is $51.3 billion.
Where did we take on the responsibility of roads and highways from
the local and State governments? Somewhere down the line, because it
was important. I think it is important.
Last year we passed a bill which authorized $218 billion over a 6-
year period for highways and transportation, mostly highways again,
$218 billion in 6 years. What we are proposing in terms of school
construction, however, is $3.7 billion over 5 years.
Listen. Make the comparisons. $22.6 billion is our total education
contribution from the Federal Government at this point. But $51.3
billion, more than twice the amount, goes for highways and
transportation across the country. Why are we investing more in
highways? I have no problem. Let us invest in highways. Let us
understand how minuscule our investment is in education.
The President, who is in the leadership on education, and I applaud
the White House leadership on education, the White House has proposed
to increase the education budget by $697 million this year. The annual
increase is $697 million, which is more than the Republicans are
proposing. They are proposing $500 million this year although both
parties say that they are very concerned about education.
The increases in the case of the Democrats or the President's budget
is 5.1 percent. The increase in the case of the Republicans is 3.7
percent. The increase for the highway budget was 12 percent. The
increase for the defense budget is staggering. They are proposing $110
billion at the White House, $110 billion or $112 billion, I forget,
$120 billion, but no less than the $110 billion, it has sort of been
fluctuating, $110 billion for defense when the American people did not
say we need anything in terms of increase for defense. Remember, we
have got to pay for Kosovo and any emergencies on the side with
additional funding anyhow.
Let us take a look at what we are getting per student. The number of
enrolled public school students in America is 54.4 million students,
54.4 million students. That means that the Federal expenditure per
enrolled student at this point is $415 in annual yearly expenditure for
each student enrolled in public school across America is merely $415.
If we take a look at the proposed increase this year on a per-student
basis, the President has proposed to increase the budget by $12.80 per
student. The Republicans are proposing to increase the budget by $9.20
per student.
When one looks at the number of students we have in the schools out
there and one looks at the amount of money being appropriated, one
wonders where is the response to the American public opinion polls
which said that education is a priority. Think about it.
I have proposed an amendment to the Elementary and Secondary
Education Assistance Act, title XI, I have proposed to increase the
education budget just for construction, school construction, including
modernization, repairs, and basic technology, wiring of the schools for
the Internet, et cetera. I am proposing increasing it by $22 billion a
year over the next 5 years. I want to get close to the defense budget,
$110 billion over 5 years.
Twenty-two billion dollars a year would be an appropriate response to
the fact that education is in great need of Federal assistance. It
would be an appropriate response to do it in construction because that
is the simplest way for the Federal Government to help education.
It would be an appropriate need because that is where we have a need
for larger amounts of capital expenditures. It would be an appropriate
place for the President and the Federal Government to intervene because
it does not involve the Federal Government getting involved in running
the schools on an operational basis.
We do not have to get involved in determining what the curriculum
should be. We do not have to interfere with the internal workings of
the school that is basically the responsibility of the State and the
local government.
So to appropriate, and I do not propose doing it in any way except
straight appropriation, a straight appropriation of $22 billion a year
for the next 5 years would not bring schools equal to highways.
Remember, I just said highways get $218 billion over 6 years. So school
construction would not come anywhere near the capital outlays for
highways.
If we divide the 54.4 million students into the amount of money I
propose to spend per year per student, we are talking about school
construction expenditures by the Federal Government would be $416 per
student.
If there are young people listening, they are going to go to school
tomorrow. Talk to your teacher about why is it that the Federal
Government cannot spend $416 for each student going to elementary and
secondary education schools. Why can we not spend $416 per student?
Why do we say we care about education, that the federal government
wants to help, while the Republicans are out peddling their education
agenda, saying that they are all for education and want to do something
great for education, while the Democrats out there are pushing hard,
the President is certainly stressing education in his program, why do
they do so little?
The President is out way ahead of the Republicans. He is proposing
$3.7 billion for construction. He is not proposing to do it the way I
want to do it, that is a direct appropriation, put it in the budget and
appropriate it, he is proposing to do it via a tax credit. The
Committee on Ways and Means has to approve a tax credit for school
construction.
Over a 5-year period, he proposes to make $25 billion available; that
is, he allows the States and the local governments to borrow $25
billion. They have to borrow that. In New York, we have to have a bond
issue on the ballot. Voters would have to vote to borrow some money in
order to qualify for that Federal program because it only provides the
interest on the $25 billion. Over a 5-year period, he proposes to pay
the interest on $25 billion worth of bonds that local governments and
State governments would borrow.
That comes out to $3.7 billion over 5 years, roughly, depending on
what the interest rate is. And $3.7 billion over 5 years is the only
commitment we have to the school construction, but we have $110 billion
over 5 years committed to defense in increases I am talking about,
increases.
The defense budget is already $280 billion. We are going to increase
it over a 5-year period by an additional $110 billion.
Highways are going to be spending, over a 6-year period, $218
billion. Yet, we propose to spend only $3.7 billion for school
construction over a 5-year period.
So take out a pencil and paper and do the addition and the
subtraction and the comparison. I am not really going to leave here
with my colleagues believing that the President is not trying. He
assumes this is all he can pass. I say we need to, from the White
House, state the case more clearly and call for what is needed.
The Republican proposed budget for school construction is zero. Zero.
Nothing. They do not propose anything for school construction
whatsoever over a 1-year period, over a 5-year period, nothing.
If we look at the President's construction budget, the only one on
the agenda, the only one on the table, nobody else has it, we must
praise him for having a proposal on the table for school construction,
but if we look at it closely and we divide the number of students in
elementary, secondary education institutions, in schools, the President
is proposing $68.50 over a 5-year period for school construction per
student, $68.50 per student.
The Republican construction per student of course is zero because if
we start with zero, we end up with zero. I am sorry, that is per year,
$68.50 per year, per student. My proposal is of course, as I said
before, $415 per student, $416 per student when we look at all the
students.
My colleagues might say how are we going to evaluate those costs? Is
that a lot of money, $416 per student times 54 million students, which
comes to about $22 billion a year. Is that a lot of money?
{time} 1800
Well, $416 per student, compare that with the cost of one combat
rifle. One modern rifle used in our Army costs how much? $835. Twice as
much as we are willing to spend, as I propose to spend, per year per
student on construction. I mean look at it closely.
[[Page H1924]]
Look at this figure, also. The average annual cost per prison inmate
in the United States. For each person we put in prison we are spending
$24,000. The average is around $24,000 to keep a person in prison, and
yet we cannot spend $416 per student for school construction.
The average annual cost of a student in school, in terms of operating
cost, is probably somewhere between $8,000 and $10,000. The annual cost
per student in our schools, operating costs, ongoing costs, the
average, when we take the rich and the poor districts, is between
$8,000 and $10,000.
I ask my colleagues to do the arithmetic and take a look at it. Is it
in harmony with what we hear being said about the importance of
education?
The governors say education is very important. They have all kinds of
nickel and dime experiments ongoing that they parade at conferences,
and parade around about what they are doing about education, but they
are not willing to spend the money. The governor of New York had a $2
billion surplus but he would not spend any money for school
construction. The Mayor of New York had a $2 million surplus last year
and he would not spend any money for construction in New York City,
although New York City has a very serious situation.
In New York City they have large numbers of schools that are
overcrowded, where students have to eat lunch at 10 o'clock in the
morning because they have three shifts of lunchroom sittings, but also
it has 250 schools that are burning coal in their furnaces still,
jeopardizing the immediate health of students with pollution, and yet
they would not move. Why are all these people talking about education?
One of the programs we hear a lot about is the 21st Century Learning
Centers. Now, that is a worthy program. It is an after-school center
program, and already we have $200 million committed to that and we are
going to raise that over the next 5 years to $600 million. When we have
it funded at $600 million, we will serve about 1.2 million students.
1.2 million students will be served by this program.
It is a great program because it deals with the fact that we want to
end social promotion and have students move on through school but we
will not dump them. We will give them some kind of after-school help,
tutorial programs, some summer help. Well, $600 million will only
provide help for 1.2 million students at best.
There are 54 million children in elementary and secondary education
institutions. About a quarter of them, at least one-fourth of them need
help in this area. How will we provide help for one-fourth of the
students if all we are willing to appropriate is $600 million?
It is a great program, but it is a very minuscule program. If we did
10 percent, one-tenth of the total students, the 54 million, can we
help that many? Even one-tenth? I think my colleagues can understand
the dilemma we are facing.
We need to understand that we are the richest country in the history
of the world, and at this moment in history we are probably more rich
than we have ever been. The country is richer than it has ever been.
The government itself has a surplus. The surplus can be used partially
to invest in education. We do not have to submit to the stampede to put
it all into Social Security.
Again, they are playing the American intellect and the American
common sense cheap. They are trying to take advantage of people's
concern about Social Security, to whip us all into a frenzy and say
that every penny we get in the surplus should go into Social Security.
Well, the President proposed that we use 60 percent of the money we
have in surplus for Social Security. That sounds reasonable to me. He
proposed to use another part of it for Medicare. That sounds reasonable
to me, because Medicare is health security for elderly people. But then
we have some left over. We still have a percentage that they are
proposing no use for at this point, but we know that most of it will go
into defense expenditures if we do not say that we ought to have some
for education.
Education is the key to our future's defense. Our national security
is all bound up in the educated populace we produce. Education is the
key to Social Security. How? Because we want a populace that is
working. We want young people who are working, and they must be able to
qualify for the high-tech jobs being created every day more and more.
And if we do not have workers, young people who can qualify for those
jobs, they will not come out and take the jobs. What we will do is
contract with overseas corporations. We will send the work overseas and
companies will do the work overseas who do not pay into the Social
Security System. The best way to rob the Social Security System is to
deny the work force the opportunity to earn the money and pay into the
Social Security fund.
There are some other ways we can save Social Security, too, but the
present time-honored way we fund Social Security is through the wages
of working people. If we have fewer people working, and they have
already projected that, we cannot avoid the demographics, we are going
to have fewer people working. But how few? Can we avoid wiping out the
whole work force because they cannot qualify for high-tech jobs? So
many will not be able to qualify for high-tech jobs. We have a real
dilemma here.
The kind of greatness and the kind of vision and courage being shown
in Kosovo by our national leaders now we need to apply in the sector of
education, looking down the road. If we do not do it, we will have a
great deficit in major areas. This great indispensable Nation is going
to stumble and fall if we do not have as many people educated as
possible. Every person that can be educated must be educated.
It is likely that our posterity will pity us. They may even spit on
us in the future as they evaluate and analyze our great lack of vision
at this critical moment when we have maximum opportunity to go forward
in the revision of our education system. We are in danger of becoming
the victim of midget minds and tiny spirits. Too much of the planning
at the Department of Education is being undertaken by midget minds and
tiny spirits.
Too many tiny spirits are guiding our caucuses, both the Republican
and the Democratic Caucus. We are not willing to take hold of where we
are in modern America and deal with education the way we dealt with the
GI bill after World War II. We understood the implications of the need
for a more educated population and we had a massive education program
in the GI bill.
A Congressman named Morrill, many years ago in the 1800s, around the
time of the Civil War, had the vision to see that every State in
America needed a land grant university. We dealt with it. A big mind
and a big spirit seized the problem.
Thomas Jefferson, who created the first State university, the
University of Virginia, had a vision. The model he established inspired
Morrill to go on to create land grant colleges and universities all
across the country.
The vision of a transcontinental railroad, the Federal Government
financed the transcontinental railroad. We had the people in Congress
who had the vision to take hold and to do things in a big way.
The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Bud Shuster) is my hero here in
Congress. He is a Republican, but he had the vision to take hold of the
highway problem, the transportation infrastructure problem, and with a
lot of criticism. He was called a big spender, and still called a big
spender, but he had the initiative and he used the available power that
he had to pass a highway transportation infrastructure bill that is
meaningful. We need it. We need it. We need it far more than we need
some of the weapon systems that are being proposed. We need it far more
than we need some of the other wasteful expenditures taking place
presently.
We are in danger of becoming, as I said before, the victims of midget
minds and tiny spirits. We seem to possess the cerebral alertness, the
statistical understanding that a crisis looms ahead if we do not meet
the education emergency at the moment. We understand the trends, the
projections, the inevitability of continued inadequacy in our school
systems. We comprehend with our heads, but we seem incapable of
engaging with our backbones and moving forward with our decision-making
feet. In the education arena we need giant minds and great spirits. We
[[Page H1925]]
need to end the overwhelming neglect of education.
In the minds of our citizens, the concerns related to national
defense do not compete with the overwhelming mandate to improve our
schools. Nothing in the minds of our citizens, the American electorate,
the people who have common sense out there, nothing in their minds
competes with education. It is number one. ``It is education, stupid.''
It is education.
Look at the polls, but do not look at the polls and let your eyes
blink. Here in Washington, in the Congress, Democrats and Republicans,
we need to act on appropriating and vesting real dollars in an
education system which will take us into a cyber civilization in the
future where everybody needs to be educated.
The dollars that we are willing to appropriate in response to the
American people's stated concern about education are minuscule. We are
throwing pennies at a problem which requires billions of dollars. We
must change our minds.
If the American people are listening, they might help open the eyes
and the ears of their own Congressman or Congresswoman. Have them make
a survey. Even in the richest districts there are often schools that
need help.
I challenge every Member of Congress to make a survey and select a
few schools in their districts and go take a look at what they need.
There are some places where they need money for wiring for the
Internet; there are other places where they need money to fix the roof;
there are some places where they need money to tear down old buildings
and construct new schools. All over New York City we have schools that
need money to put in a new furnace and get rid of the pollution and the
asthma-generating coal-burning furnaces.
We need to address these issues in our Education Task Force and the
Democratic Caucus, as well as the Committee on Education and the
Workforce. Members of the Committee on Education and the Workforce were
on the floor before, and I want to applaud what they had to say. They
understand the problem, but I do not think that the solutions that are
being proposed have yet come to grips with the magnitude of the need.
We need to spend many billions on school construction. School
construction is just at the center of the problem, but that is a place
to start. If we do not meet the need for adequate buildings, safe
buildings, across America, the Congressional Budget Office says we need
about $147 billion to just stay even, if we do not meet that need or
begin to step forward to move toward meeting that need, then everything
else we propose to do in Washington at any level is fraudulent,
everything else we propose to do about education.
We are feeding the people a spin on the problem without coming to
grips with the reality and the substance. We must go forward and invest
in education in order to prepare our education system to take us
forward into a new cyber civilization.
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