[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 33 (Wednesday, March 22, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1609-S1610]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. FRIST:
  S. 2276. A bill to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act 
of 1965 to establish programs to recruit, retain, and retrain teachers, 
and for other purposes; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, 
and Pensions.


                     a million quality teachers act

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce A Million Quality 
Teachers Act. Thomas Jefferson once observed that of all the bills in 
the federal code, ``by far the most important is that for the diffusion 
of knowledge among the people.'' ``No surer foundation,'' he said, 
``can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness.''
  Unfortunately, our current foundation of elementary and secondary 
education is grossly inadequate to enable American children of all 
income levels and backgrounds to best realize the ``American dream'' 
and the economic freedoms that the ``American dream'' encapsulates.
  Most companies dismiss the value of a high school diploma. Twelfth 
grade students in the United States rank near the very bottom on 
international comparisons in math and science. The Third International 
Math and Science Study, the most comprehensive and rigorous comparison 
of quantitative skills across nations, reveals that the longer our 
students stay in the elementary and public school system, the worse 
they perform on standardized tests.
  High school graduates are twice as likely to be unemployed as college 
graduates (3.9% vs. 1.9%). Moreover, the value of a college degree over 
a high school degree is rising. In 1970, a college graduate made 136% 
more than a high school graduate. Today it is 176%. Even more ominous 
are labor participation rates for high school graduates in an 
information economy. While labor force participation for adults is at 
an all time high in the American economy, this boom has masked a 10% 
decline in participation rates for high school graduates since 1970 
from 96.3% to 86.4%.
  Our children cannot afford to be illiterate in mathematics and 
science. The rapidly changing technology revolution demands skills and 
proficiency in mathematics, science, and technology. IT, perhaps the 
fastest growing sector of our economy, relies on more than basic high 
school literacy in mathematics and science.
  The Senate has begun to consider the reauthorization of the 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). As a member of the 
Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, I have worked 
hard to ensure that we change the current focus of our federal 
education effort from a confusing, duplicative, categorical system that 
relies on inputs to one that focuses on effectiveness and on increased 
student achievement as a result.
  The bill that I introduce today is a good complement to the ESEA bill 
that we will soon debate on the Senate floor. We have all heard about 
the impending teacher shortage. The Department of Education estimates 
that we will need over 2.2 million new teachers in the next decade to 
meet enrollment increases and to offset the large number of baby boomer 
teachers who will soon be retiring. Additionally, although America has 
many high-quality teachers already, we do not have enough, and with the 
impending retirement of the baby boomer generation of teachers, we will 
need even more.

  the President and many Senate Democrats want to continue to devote 
significant resources to reducing class size, and the concept to hire 
more teachers isn't a bad idea. Studies have shown that smaller class 
size may improve learning under certain circumstances. But class size 
is only a small piece in the bigger puzzle to improve America's 
education system, not the catapult that will launch us into education 
prosperity.
  My bill takes the class size reduction money and redirects it to 
strengthening and improving teacher quality. Tennessee's own William 
Sanders, a professor at the University of Tennessee, has pioneered the 
``value-added'' system of measuring the effectiveness of a teacher. His 
research demonstrates that teacher quality has a greater effect on 
student performance than any other factor--including class size and 
student demographics. He goes on to say that, ``When kids have 
ineffective teachers, they never recover.'' According to noted 
education economist and researcher Eric Hanushek of the University of 
Rochester, ``the difference between a good and a bad teacher can be a 
full level of achievement in a single year.''
  Unfortunately, there are too many teachers in America today who lack 
proper preparation in the subjects that they teach. My own state of 
Tennessee actually does a good job of ensuring that teachers have at 
lest a major or minor in the subject that they teach--well enough to 
receive a grade of A in that category on the recent Thomas Fordham 
Foundation report on teacher quality in the states. Even in Tennessee, 
however, 64.5% of teachers teaching physical science do not even have a 
minor in the subject. Among history teachers, nearly 50% did not major 
or minor in history. Many other states do worse.
  Additionally, there is consensus that we are not attracting enough of 
the best and the brightest to teaching, and not retaining enough of the 
best of those that we attract. According to Harvard economist Richard 
Murnane, ``College graduates with high test scores are less likely to 
become teachers, licensed teachers with high test scores are less 
likely to take jobs, employed teachers with high test scores are less 
likely to stay, and former teachers with high test scores are less 
likely to return.''
  A Million Quality Teachers seeks to change that by recruiting, and 
helping states recruit into the teaching profession top-quality 
students who have majored in academic subjects. We want teachers 
teaching math who have majored in and who love math. We want teachers 
teaching science who have majored in and who love science. This bill 
helps draw those students into teaching for a few years at the very

[[Page S1610]]

least, and studies have shown that new teachers are most effective in 
the first couple of years of teaching. This bill would attract new 
students, and different kinds of students, into teaching by offering 
significant loan repayment.
  While teachers are one of our nation's most critical professions, it 
is often very difficult to attract highly skilled and marketable 
college students and graduates because of a profound lack of 
competitive salaries and the burden of student loans. In addition to 
the loan forgiveness and alternative certification stipends, the 
legislation will allow states to use up to $1.3 billion originally 
designated in a lump sum to hire more teachers to instead allow the 
states to use that money more creatively in programs to attract the 
kind of quality teachers they need but cannot afford. Using innovative 
tools already tested by many states, such as signing bonuses, loan 
forgiveness, payment of certification costs, and income tax credits, 
states will be able to once again make teaching an attractive and 
competitive career for our brightest college graduates. Additionally, 
the legislation does not limit states to these tools, but allows them 
to receive grants to continue testing other innovative and new programs 
for the same purposes.

  There are two parts to the bill:
  Part I is a competitive grant program for States to enable them to 
run their own innovative quality teacher recruitment, retention and 
retraining programs. Part II is a loan forgiveness and alternative 
certification scholarship program to entice individuals with strong 
academic backgrounds into teaching.
  The State grant program will help States focus on recruitment, 
retention and retraining in the way that best serves the individual 
State. Some states may decide to offer a teacher signing bonus program 
like the widely publicized and very successful program in 
Massachusetts. Other states may choose to institute teacher testing and 
merit pay, or to award performance bonuses to outstanding teachers. The 
program is very flexible, yet the State must be accountable for 
improving the quality of teachers in that State.
  States who participate must submit a plan for how they intend to use 
funds under the program and how they expect teacher quality to increase 
as a result, including the expected increase in the number of teachers 
who majored in the academic subject in which they teach, and the number 
of teachers who received alternative certification, if the funds are 
used for recruitment activities. If the funds are used for retention or 
retraining, the State must focus on how the program will decrease 
teacher attrition and increase the effectiveness of existing teachers.
  States must also report at the end of the three-year grant on how the 
program increased teacher quality and increased the number of teachers 
with academic majors in the subjects in which they teach and the number 
of teachers that received alternative certification and/or how the 
program decreased teacher attrition and increased the effectiveness of 
existing teachers.
  The loan forgiveness provision is different than loan forgiveness 
already in current law in that it targets a different population: 
students in college or graduate school today who are excelling in an 
academic subject. The purpose is to attract students into teaching who 
might not otherwise choose to pursue a teaching career and who are 
majoring in an academic subject.
  Any eligible student may take advantage of the loan forgiveness and 
deferral. An eligible student has majored in a core academic subject 
with at least a 3.0 GPA and has not been a fulltime teacher previously. 
Loan payments are deferred for as long as the student is obtaining 
alternative certification or teaching in a public school.
  The federal government would actually forgive:
  35% of all federally subsidized or guaranteed loans after the first 
two years that an eligible student teaches;
  For the next two years, an additional 30% is forgiven;
  After 6 years, an additional 20% is forgiven; and
  After 8 years, the remaining 15% of the loan obligation is 
eliminated.
  The premise is that teaching is or will soon be like other 
professions where there is at least some degree of transience. In fact, 
recent studies show that most new teachers leave within four years. But 
these studies also show that new teachers are most effective in the 
first few years of teaching. This bill would attract new students, and 
different kinds of students, into teaching by offering significant loan 
repayment.
  Alternative certification stipends will provide a seamless transition 
for a student from school into teaching. The bill provides stipends to 
students who have received their academic degrees from a college or 
university in order to obtain certification through alternative means. 
Students who have received assistance under the loan forgiveness 
section get first priority, but any student who has received a 
bachelors or advanced degree in a core academic subject with a GPA of 
at least 3.0 and who has never taught full-time in a public school is 
eligible.
  Students would receive the lesser of $5,000 or the costs of the 
alternative certification program, in exchange for agreeing to teach in 
a public school for 2 years.
  There is also a small amount of money available to the Department of 
Education for the purposes of notifying eligible students of the loan 
forgiveness and alternative certification stipend programs and 
contracting with outside groups of broaden public awareness of the 
program, including to advertise it in various media formats.
  A Million Quality Teachers is a good complement to the Teacher 
Empowerment Act contained in the ESEA proposal voted out of the HELP 
Committee by a 10-8 vote. The Teacher Empowerment Act (TEA) directs 
federal funds to local education agencies for professional development, 
recruitment and class size reduction, while A Million Quality Teachers 
directs federal funds to states for statewide initiatives like the very 
successful Massachusetts teacher signing bonus program. A Million 
Quality Teachers also addresses the pressing need for more highly-
qualified teachers in light of the teacher shortage by providing 
appropriate incentives to top students in order to entice them into the 
teaching profession.
  The job of every new generation is to meet civilization's new 
problems, improve its new opportunities, and explore its ever-expanding 
horizons, creating dreams not just for themselves, but for all who come 
after. Our job--the job of the current generation--is to help them do 
just that. Learning is the future. Education is the key. I think it's 
time we embarked upon a national effort to bring up to a standard 
demanded by the challenge, and improving teacher quality is the first 
step. I hope that my colleagues will concur.

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