[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 55 (Monday, May 8, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3575-S3576]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES ACT

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will now 
resume consideration of S. 2, which the clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 2) to extend programs and activities under the 
     Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. JEFFORDS. Madam President, we are awaiting the arrival of the 
Senator from New Hampshire. I would like to say, in the interim, we 
would like to proceed today with other amendments. I hope by the end of 
the day we will be able to establish a program for the coming week, 
which will put us in a position where we can move the education bill 
forward.
  At this time, I am happy to yield to the Senator from Massachusetts.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I will speak briefly. As soon as the 
Senator from New Hampshire is on the floor, I will be glad to yield so 
he will be able to make a presentation on his amendment. I have had the 
chance, over the weekend, to study it closely. I will reserve my 
comments on it until we have had an opportunity to hear his 
presentation in the Senate this afternoon.
  Just to review very briefly, we have had, now, as I understand it, 
probably 4 days of discussion of the Elementary and Secondary Education 
Act. Of those 4 days, 1 day was a general kind of presentation, 
although that was a good presentation by the speakers who had different 
views on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. We had five votes: 
on Senator Gorton's amendment, what they call Straight A's; our 
Democratic alternative, which was introduced by Senator Daschle and a 
number of us; Senator Abraham's merit pay amendment--I offered a 
second-degree on the Abraham amendment; and then on the Murray class 
size amendment.
  We had indicated there would be a number of others, although a 
relatively small number. Actually, the total number that would be 
offered by this side would be somewhat less than has been usually 
offered in past considerations of the Elementary and Secondary 
Education Act.
  We were going to have proposed an amendment that would address the 
whole issue of the quality of our teachers, to guarantee we would have 
a well-

[[Page S3576]]

trained teacher in every classroom at the expiration of the 
authorization bill. I will come back to that, how we are going to do 
it, and the importance of it for strengthening the quality of education 
and what the results are if you do have an excellent teacher, and what 
the academic results are, from various examinations of whether having a 
well-trained teacher, who is competent and knowledgeable about the 
content of the subject matter, and a good teacher. The difference that 
makes to children's ability to learn is intuitively 
obvious. Nonetheless, we will have an opportunity to present some very 
important and powerful evidence about why the way we have approached 
this will result in more favorable results.

  Secondly, we have the whole issue about assisting many of the schools 
in this country that are older and are in great need of repair and 
modernization. We want an opportunity to make a presentation to make. 
The Senator from Iowa, Mr. Harkin, has a powerful presentation to make. 
We need over $112 billion a year to bring our schools up to standard. 
There is much work that needs to be done, again, through a partnership 
among the Federal Government, States, and local communities.
  We want to address the important issue of afterschool programs. 
Senator Dodd, Senator Boxer, and others have been involved in the 
development of that program. We have important results as to how that 
program is working and has worked in advancing the cause of teachers.
  We want to have a good debate on accountability. We believe the most 
knowledgeable member is on our side, Senator Bingaman of New Mexico, 
who has, going back to the time of the Governors' conference a number 
of years ago, made that a speciality of his. Most of the pieces of 
legislation that are before us reflect a good deal of what he has 
developed and has broad support. That has been very important.
  Senator Mikulski has reminded us a number of times about the 
importance of addressing the digital divide. In a time of new 
technology, it is important we not look back 10 years from now and find 
that the new technology has been used in such a way it further divides 
our children who are attending schools, but instead that we have been 
creative enough to use technologies in ways that have reduced the 
divide that exists in our schools rather than exacerbate it. That is 
very important. Senator Mikulski wants an opportunity to talk about 
this issue.
  Senator Reed has made a very important contribution to our 
legislation. He was a member of the Education Committee in the House of 
Representatives prior to coming to the Senate, following Senator Pell. 
He wants to talk about the importance of the involvement of parents in 
decisionmaking in the local communities. That is very important.
  Senator Wellstone will be bringing up the issue of fair testing of 
children. He has spoken about that issue a number of times. We have 
voted on some aspects of it in the past.
  Those are the principal education issues. There are some on our side 
who feel safety and security in our schools is an important issue, and 
we will be addressing that issue.
  We have a limited number of amendments. In my conversations with most 
of our colleagues, we are prepared to enter into very reasonable time 
limits. I know on six or eight of those subject matters, we are 
prepared to enter into time agreements of an hour or so evenly divided 
so we can move this process forward. These are not subjects the Senate 
has not addressed. We have addressed these issues in the full committee 
in our markups. We have spoken about these issues during the debate. I 
intend to speak on the issue of the quality of our teachers because 
that is relevant to the Gregg amendment.
  I have talked with our leader, Senator Daschle, who will be talking 
with the majority leader and hopefully will work out a program so we 
can reach a determination on these issues in the next few days. There 
is no reason why we should not do that.
  There are amendments on the other side as well. We have had 
an opportunity to look at some of those. There is no reason we cannot 
pick up the pace and resolve some of these issues in a timely way. We 
had hoped to do more of these amendments at the end of last week, and 
we are in the situation today, with the funeral of His Eminence 
Cardinal O'Connor, of being unable to reach a conclusion on some of 
these debates this afternoon.

  Hopefully, we can, by the end of the day, give an indication of how 
the Senate wants to proceed. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Georgia.
  Mr. COVERDELL. Madam President, I thank the Senator from 
Massachusetts for fulfilling the commitment he made during a discussion 
we had on Thursday night. I advise the Senator in Massachusetts that 
five of the seven amendments he talked about did arrive at our office 
Friday. I thank him and his staff for that. We are going to try to 
accommodate him this afternoon in return.
  At the moment, by previous agreement, we were prepared to move to an 
amendment by Senator Gregg of New Hampshire. His arrival has been 
delayed somewhat--I do not think very long. I had a chance to talk with 
the chairman, and I thought we might accommodate Senator Inhofe, if the 
Senator from Massachusetts concurs, for some 5 to 10 minutes on an 
unrelated matter while we are locating Senator Gregg.
  I ask unanimous consent that Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma be given up 
to 10 minutes to conduct his remarks.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, I thank both managers of the bill for 
giving me some time.

                          ____________________