[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 63 (Friday, May 19, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E775-E776]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HOOSIERS SPEAK OUT ON EDUCATION

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. DAVID M. McINTOSH

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 18, 2000

  Mr. McINTOSH. Mr. Speaker, over the past few months I have heard a 
great deal about education reform from my constituents. The 
correspondence I received is so insightful that I want to share some of 
these thoughts and ideas with my colleagues in the House of 
Representatives.
  Pamela Rolfs, a research administrator at Ball State University in my 
home town of Muncie, Indiana wrote, ``In talking with K-12 teachers I 
find that most of them feel that two of their biggest challenges are 
inadequate classroom funding and student discipline problems. More and 
more excellent teachers are leaving their field due to the stress 
brought on by school violence and discipline problems.''
  Henry Young of Muncie, Indiana made this point: ``Proximity generally 
facilitates perception of needs. Accordingly, states may well be better 
informed of regional exigencies than federal management. However, local 
management of public schools . . . is the better level of government to 
direct public schools.''
  From Anderson, Indiana, Sandra Wilson wrote, ``One recruiter, which 
contracted one of my children, took his red pen out and corrected the 
letter of reference the high school English teacher had written. I had 
not pre-read this letter and obviously that was my mistake assuming an 
English teacher would be grammatically correct as well as being able to 
spell correctly . . . Teachers need to be accountable. They need an end 
product accountability. If a teacher is teaching English, should not 
the students be learning English?''
  Mrs. Ann Weldy of Markleville, Indiana asked two insightful 
questions: ``How can teachers discipline well when they are not allowed 
to teach character building? How can we effectively discipline 
children, in order to create a better society, when the system is poor 
at disciplining itself?''
  David Shepard, Professor Emeritus at Ball State University in Muncie 
stated, ``The present program of aid to education certainly does not 
put money into the classroom but into the education bureaucracy and 
into more and more methods courses at the expense of content courses.''
  Said David Webster of Hope, Indiana, ``I am an elementary teacher in 
a public school. For 26 years, I have been entrusted with the lives

[[Page E776]]

of fifth graders. There are many individuals and groups continually 
striving to help children have the best education possible; however, I 
am becoming increasingly concerned about upper elementary class 
sizes.''
  Mr. Rufus Cochran states, ``If you truly care about the state of 
education, consult classroom and special education teachers . . . 
Disruptive children and their parents are running our schools, because 
schools have been either stripped of their authorities or strongly 
discouraged from discipline for fear of lawsuits.''
  Mr. Speaker, although these suggestions come from different areas of 
the district, they focus on similar themes. To be successful, education 
reform should drive more dollars to the classroom, strengthen school 
safety and discipline, enhance local control, and enact accountability 
measures. I am proud to say that I and my colleagues on the Committee 
on Education and the Workforce have made great strides in these areas.
  To empower teachers to maintain classroom discipline, I introduced 
legislation to provide limited civil litigation immunity for educators 
who engage in reasonable actions to maintain an orderly, safe, and 
positive education environment. As an amendment to the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act, the provision passed overwhelmingly.
  To strengthen state and local involvement in education, Congress 
passed the Education Flexibility Act which allows eligible states and 
school districts greater flexibility in trying innovative education 
reforms using federal funds. This bill was signed into law on April 29, 
1999.
  Building on the success of this law, the House of Representatives 
also passed the Academic Achievement for All Act which allows even 
greater state and local flexibility in exchange for greater academic 
achievement.
  On October 12, 1999, the House of Representatives passed the Dollars 
to the Classroom Resolution which calls for at least 95 percent of 
federal funds to go directly to classroom expenditures. Currently, as 
little as 65 cents of every federal tax dollar actually makes it to the 
classroom!
  In the Teacher Empowerment Act and the Student Results Act which fund 
teacher training and services for disadvantaged children respectively, 
we successfully included provisions which will ensure greater quality 
and accountability in our schools. These bills, which passed in the 
House of Representatives await consideratioan in the Senate.
  Mr. Speaker, as you know, we have worked hard to pass an impressive 
package of education bills which will empower parents, teachers, 
administrators, and communities to make needed changes to our education 
system. We have heard from our constituents whose ideas form the 
foundation of our legislative agenda. I would like to thank these 
constituents and others who have written and given me insight into the 
classroom.

                          ____________________