[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 82 (Monday, June 26, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5818-S5821]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          EDUCATION SPENDING AUTHORIZATION AND APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, tomorrow we are going to be addressing 
the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill. In that legislation, we 
will have allocations of resources to fund the Federal participation in 
education. The federal government provides only 7 cents out of every 
dollar spent on education at the local level. But those are important 
funds for many different communities.
  I regret very much that we are taking up this appropriations bill for 
education, before we have completed action on the authorizing bill, the 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It seems to me that we are 
putting the cart before the horse. We should have had a good debate and 
resolved the issues on education policy before funding them. Instead, 
we are now addressing appropriations before we even have the 
authorizations in hand. There are important policy issues and questions 
that ought to be resolved.
  At the outset, I thank our friends on the Appropriations Committee 
for the resources they provided in a number of different programs. But 
I believe some programs were underfunded in the allocation of 
resources.
  The budget is established by the majority. In this case, it was 
decided by the Republican majority. The Republican Budget Resolution 
shortchanged education programs in order to pay for unwise tax cuts for 
the wealthy. In the Resolution, the Republican majority imposed cuts of 
more than 6%--more than $100 billion over the next five years--in 
discretionary spending, including education programs.
  As a result of this resolution, the allocation for education is too 
low. Because of that inadequate allocation, the Senate Appropriations 
Committee was forced to make unwise cuts in key education and other 
discretionary programs. This $100 billion in order to afford a tax cut 
for wealthy individuals is the wrong priority.
  That is what a good deal of the debate is going to be about--about 
whether we think we ought to have further tax cuts for wealthy 
individuals or whether we ought to invest in the education of the 
children of this country. I believe we ought to invest in the children 
of this country.
  We didn't get the kind of allocation in the Appropriations Committee 
that we should have, and we are going to find, once this is approved, 
that it will go to the House, which has had a very significant 
reduction in terms of allocating resources. We are going to find 
further cuts in education. That troubles me.
  If you look over the past years, we will see what has happened in the 
history of cutting education funding in appropriations bills.
  We have seen, going back to 1995 when the Republicans took control of 
the Senate, that we had a rescission. We had money already 
appropriated. But then we had a rescission of $1.7 billion below what 
was actually enacted in 1995.
  In 1996, the House bill was $3.9 billion below 1995.
  In 1997, the Senate bill was $3.1 billion below what the President 
requested.
  In 1998, the House and Senate bill was $200 million below the 
President's request.
  In 1999, the House bill was $2 billion below the President's request.
  In 2000, the House bill was $2.8 billion below the President's 
request.
  In fiscal year 2001, it is $2.9 billion below the President's 
request.
  We have all of the statements being made by the Republican leadership 
about how important education is in terms of national priorities. We 
have our Republican Majority Leader, going back to January 1999, 
saying, ``Education is going to be a central issue this year. . . . For 
starters, we must reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education 
Act. That is important.''

  That was the bill which was set aside in May of this year. Some six 
weeks later, we still haven't had it back in order to be able to debate 
it.
  In remarks to the Conference of Mayors, the majority leader said: 
``But education is going to have a lot of attention, and it's not going 
to be just words. . . .''
  June 22, 1999: ``Education is number one on the agenda for 
Republicans in the Congress this year. . .''
  Then remarks to the Chamber of Commerce on February 1, 2000: ``We're 
going to work very hard on education. I have emphasized that every year 
I have been majority leader. . . . And Republicans are committed to 
doing that.''
  National Conference on State Legislatures, February 3: ``We must 
reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. . . . Education 
will be a high priority.''
  April 20, the Congress Daily: ``Lott said last week his top 
priorities in May include an agriculture sanctions bill, Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act reauthorization, and passage of four 
appropriations bills.''
  May of this year: ``This is very important legislation. I hope we can 
debate it seriously and have amendments in the education area. Let's 
talk education.''
  Then, on May 2, on elementary and secondary education: ``Have you 
scheduled a cloture vote on that?'' Senator Lott: ``No, I haven't 
scheduled a cloture vote. . . . But education is number one on the 
minds of the American people all across this country and every State, 
including my own state. For us to have a good, healthy and even a 
protracted debate on amendments on education, I think is the way to 
go.''
  This is the record. We still don't have that debate. That was 6 weeks 
ago. We had 6 days of debate, and 2 days of the debate were without any 
votes at all. We had eight amendments, and three of those we were glad 
to accept.
  We have effectively not had the debate on education. Here we are on 
Monday afternoon before the Fourth of July recess, and we have the 
appropriations bills up with a wide variety of appropriations to 
support the agencies in areas of health and of education. I believe we 
are giving education policy short shrift. You can't draw any other 
conclusion--short shrift.
  We were prepared to spend 15 days on bankruptcy reform but only 6 
days on education--and for 2 days we couldn't vote. 15 days on 
bankruptcy and 53 amendments; 4 days where we had amendments on 
elementary and secondary education and only 8 amendments.
  That is an indication of priorities. I take strong exception. I think 
the American people do as well.
  Money in and of itself doesn't solve all of our problems, but it sure 
is an indication of where our national priorities are.
  If I look over this chart, the Federal share of education funding has 
declined. Look at what has happened in higher education: 15.4 percent 
in 1980 has declined to 10.7 percent in 1999. Take elementary and 
secondary education. In 1980, it was 11.9 percent on

[[Page S5819]]

elementary and secondary education. In 1999, it was only 7.7 percent.
  We have seen a decline in elementary and secondary education. We 
don't even spend 1 percent of our budget in support of elementary and 
secondary education. That is amazing.
  Think of any of us going into any hall across this country in any 
part of our Nation. Ask about the priorities of people in that hall. 
They would say: We need national security, national defense. We have to 
deal with that. Certainly we do. Save Social Security and Medicare--
absolutely. Deal with Medicaid--absolutely. But among their four or 
five priorities would be education.
  I think Americans will be absolutely startled to find out that we are 
spending less than one penny out of every dollar on elementary and 
secondary education.
  This is what has been happening. In the area of elementary and 
secondary education, K through 12, we have now gone from 1990 with 46.4 
million students up to 53.4 million in 2000. 7 million additional 
students at a time when our participation is going down in favor of tax 
cuts instead of investing in the children of this country.
  That is what is happening. As we start off on this debate, I think it 
is important to understand that. I think most parents across this 
country believe there ought to be a partnership, at the local level, 
the State level, and the Federal level in terms of participation.
  However, we are not meeting our responsibilities. We get a lot of 
statements, a lot of quotes, a lot of press releases, but when the time 
comes in terms of the Budget Committee--which is controlled by that 
side of the aisle--allocating resources on education, they are not 
doing it. They are not walking the walk. They are talking the talk, but 
they are not walking the walk. That is one of the important issues 
dividing our political parties, unfortunately. I think the American 
people ought to understand that.
  Tomorrow, we are going to have several education amendments. One 
which I will offer will be to try to strengthen the recruitment, 
training, and mentoring for teachers in this country. We need 2 million 
teachers. Last year, we hired--``we,'' meaning the States across this 
country--50,000 teachers who did not have certification in the courses 
they are teaching.
  We believe we ought to guarantee to the families in this country that 
within 4 years every teacher in every public school will be certified. 
We are committed to that. We are going to offer an amendment on that. 
We think that is one of the better ways of going with education. When 
we look at the results, better prepared teachers stay longer. The 
earlier intervention occurs for teachers, the longer they will stay. If 
we give them continued help and assistance that is school based, they 
will remain longer.
  Providing professional training and mentoring for the teachers is 
enormously helpful. If we have experienced teachers working with 
younger teachers in the classroom, they stay longer. This is enormously 
important. We ought to be debating and discussing these issues. 
Hopefully, tomorrow, we will.
  Amendments to be offered by our colleagues include after school 
programs, accountability, and the digital divide. We are going to have 
a series of amendments regarding helping, assisting, and modernizing 
our schools. All these amendments are for worthwhile programs.
  We need to have this debate. We need to have this expression. We need 
to call the roll to find out where our colleagues are going to stand on 
the issues involving education in this country.
  We will, of course, have the opportunity to debate smaller class size 
with the Murray amendment. We have had bipartisan support for that in 
the past. I will not take the time tomorrow to place again in the 
Record all of the press releases we had from Newt Gingrich and Mr. 
Armey celebrating the fact that we would go to smaller class size. We 
had strong bipartisan support, but they have emasculated the program in 
the appropriations legislation. We will have an opportunity, hopefully, 
to debate that, as well.
  The bill before the Senate includes $2.7 billion for title VI block 
grants but eliminates the Federal commitment to reducing class size and 
does nothing to guarantee the funds for communities to address the 
urgent need for school repair and modernization.
  Under the Class Size Reduction Program, the funds are distributed to 
school districts based on a formula that is targeted 80 percent by 
poverty and 20 percent by population. Under title VI, block grant 
funding is distributed based solely on population. It includes no 
provisions to target the funds to high poverty districts. It is 
basically a blank check--whatever the Governor wants to do with those 
funds--without the accountability which is so important and necessary.
  I think people across this country want scarce resources utilized in 
an effective way, on proven, tested, effective programs that will 
enhance academic achievement and accomplishment. That is provided in 
the amendments we are going to offer tomorrow.
  Better schools, a better education for all children, and making 
college more affordable are top priorities for the Nation's families 
and communities.
  I regret very much that we are taking up this appropriations bill for 
education, before we have completed action on the authorizing bill, the 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act. In many ways, we are putting 
the cart before the horse again.
  We have an opportunity this year to do our part to help local 
communities improve their schools by strengthening the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act. And, to Democrats, this is must-pass 
legislation.
  The Republican majority has paid great lip service to the importance 
of education, but the reality is far different. We considered only 
eight amendments to that legislation over 6 days--and during 2 of these 
days, we were allowed to debate only, not vote. On May 9, the 
Republican leadership suddenly abandoned the debate, moved to other 
legislation, and haven't returned to it since then.
  I hope that our Republican friends have just temporarily suspended 
the bill, and not expelled it. We owe it to the Nation's schools, 
students, parents, and communities to complete action on this priority 
legislation.
  The Senate education appropriations bill now before us also has 
problems. It is a much better step towards funding education than the 
House bill, but it's not enough.
  The Republican budget resolution shortchanged education programs in 
order to pay for unwise tax cuts for the wealthy. Because of the 
Republican budget resolution, the allocation for education is too low.
  Because of that inadequate allocation, the Senate Appropriations 
Committee was forced to make unwise cuts in key education and other 
discretionary programs because of the unreasonably low funding level 
set for domestic discretionary programs in the budget resolution. In 
the resolution, the Republican majority imposed cuts of more than 6 
percent--more than $100 billion over the next 5 years--in discretionary 
spending. These cuts are far from necessary to curb uncontrolled 
federal spending. The opposite is true. We are already spending less on 
domestic discretionary programs as a percentage of GNP than we ever 
have. Republicans are seeking to impose these drastic cuts for one 
reason only--to fund the massive tax breaks for the wealthy.
  This is not the time for cuts in education. We need to increase our 
investment in education to ensure a brighter future for the nation's 
children.
  Unfortunately, the bill approved by the House of Representatives is a 
major retreat from all of these priorities. It slashed funding for 
education by $2.9 billion below the President's request.
  The House bill zeroes out critical funding to help states turn around 
failing schools.
  It slashes funding for the 21st Century Learning Centers program by 
$400 million below the President's request, denying 900 communities the 
opportunity to provide 1.6 million children with after-school 
activities to keep them off the streets, away from drugs, and out of 
trouble, and to help them with their studies.
  It eliminates the bipartisan commitment to help communities across 
the country reduce class size in the early grades.
  It cuts funding for title I by $166 million below the President's 
request, reducing or eliminating services to

[[Page S5820]]

260,000 educationally disadvantaged children to help them master the 
basics and meet high standards of achievement.
  It reduces funding for the Reading Excellence Act by $26 million 
below the President's request, denying services to help 100,000 
children become successful readers by the end of the 3rd grade.
  It slashes funding for safe and drug free schools by $51 million 
below the President's request, denying communities extra help to keep 
their students safe, healthy, and drug-free.
  It does nothing to help communities meet their most urgent repair and 
modernization needs. Those needs are especially urgent in 5,000 schools 
across the country.
  It slashes funding for GEAR UP by $125 million below the President's 
request, denying more than 644,000 low-income middle and high school 
students the support they need for early college preparation and 
awareness activities.
  It does nothing to increase funding for the teacher quality 
enhancement grants, so that more communities can recruit and train 
better qualified teachers.
  It slashes funding for Head Start by $600 million below 
the President's budget, denying 50,000 low-income children critical 
preschool services.

  It slashes funding for dislocated workers by $181 million below the 
President's request, denying over 100,000 dislocated workers much-
needed training, job search, and re-employment services.
  It reduces funding for adult job training by $93 million below the 
President's request, denying 37,200 adults job training this year.
  It cuts youth opportunities grants by $200 million below the 
President's request, eliminating the proposed expansion to 20 new 
communities, reducing the current program by $75 million, and denying 
40,000 disadvantaged youth a bridge to skills and opportunities of our 
strong economy and alternatives to welfare and crime.
  It slashed summers jobs and year-round youth training by $21 million 
below the President's request, reducing the estimated number of low-
income youth to be served over 12,000.
  The Senate bill does take some positive steps towards better funding 
for education.
  It increases the maximum Pell grant by $350 to $3,650.
  It increases funding for IDEA by $1.3 billion.
  Although these are important increases, they are not enough. In too 
many other vital aspects of education, too many children and too many 
families are shortchanged by this bill.
  Once again, the Republican leadership has put block grants ahead of 
targeted funding for education reforms. Block grants are the wrong 
approach. They prevent the allocation of scarce resources to the 
highest education priorities. They eliminate critical accountability 
provisions that ensure better results for all children. The block grant 
approach abandons the national commitment to improve education by 
encouraging proven effective reforms of public schools.
  Block grants are the wrong direction for education and the wrong 
direction for the nation. They do nothing to encourage change in public 
schools.
  The bill includes $2.7 billion more for the title VI block grant, but 
it eliminates the federal commitment to reducing class size. It does 
nothing to guarantee funds for communities to address their urgent 
school repair and modernization needs.
  It is unconscionable to block grant critical funds that are targeted 
to the neediest communities to reduce class size. Under the Class Size 
Reduction program that has received bipartisan support for the past two 
years, funds are distributed based on a formula that is targeted to 
school districts 80 percent by poverty and 20 percent by population. 
But under the title VI block grant, funding is distributed based solely 
on population--it includes no provisions to target the funds to high 
poverty districts. This is unacceptable, when it is often the neediest 
students that are in the largest classes.
  The national class size average is just over 22 students per class. 
But, in many communities--especially in urban and rural communities--
class sizes are much higher than the national average.
  In 1998, the publication Education Week found that half of the 
elementary teachers in urban areas and 44 percent of the teachers in 
nonurban areas had classes with 25 or more students.
  A 1999 study found that 56 percent of the students in Portland, OR, 
in grades K through 3 were in classes with more than 25 students.
  In fact, nationwide, K through 3 classrooms with 18 or fewer children 
are hard to find. For example, in 22 northern and northeastern counties 
in Kentucky, and in 5 districts in Mercer County, New Jersey, less than 
15 percent of the children are in classes of 18 or less. Class size in 
New York City is an average of 28 students per class.
  The federal Class Size Reduction program is making a difference. For 
example, in Columbus Ohio, class sizes in grades 1 through 3 have been 
reduced from 25 students per class to 15 students per class.
  We need to invest more in this program, so that communities can 
continue to reduce class sizes. We should not block grant the program. 
If we do, it will no longer be targeted to the neediest communities, 
and parents will no longer be guaranteed that their children will be 
learning in smaller classes.
  In addition, it is wrong to put the $1.3 billion that the President 
requested for repairing and modernizing schools into the title VI block 
grant. We need to target school modernization funds to the neediest 
communities, and the title VI block grant will not do that. Parents 
need a guarantee that they will get the support they need to help their 
children to school in buildings that are modern and safe, and are not 
overcrowded.
  The bill also falls short in other areas.
  It fails to increase the national investment in improving teacher  
quality. It provides only level funding for the teacher quality 
enhancement grants that are helping colleges and communities recruit 
and train prospective teachers more effectively

  It cuts funding for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers by 
$400 million below the President's request, denying 1.6 million 
children access to after-school programs.
  It slashes funding for GEAR UP by $100 million below the President's 
request. That reduction will deny 407,000 low-income middle and high 
school students the help they need to go to college and succeed in 
college.
  It slashes the title I Accountability program by $250 million below 
the President's request, eliminating critical funding for states to 
turn around failing schools.
  It slashes funding for dislocated workers by $181 million below the 
President's request. As a result, 100,000 American workers who lost 
their jobs because of down-sizing or business relocation will go 
without the important services that they need to find adequate 
employment in their communities.
  It also slashes funding for youth opportunity grants by $125 million 
below the President's request, denying 27,000 youth in high-poverty 
communities access to vital education, training, and employment 
assistance, and eliminating the proposed expansion of the program to up 
to 15 new communities.
  We should be doing more, not less, to improve public schools, to help 
make college affordable and accessible to every qualified student, and 
to increase training opportunities for the Nation's workers.
  School and communities are already stretching their budgets to meet 
rising needs.
  Nearly one third of all public schools are more than 50 years old. 
Fourteen million children in a third of the Nation's schools are 
learning in substandard buildings. Half of all schools have at least 
one unsatisfactory environmental condition.
  The problems with crumbling school buildings aren't just the problems 
of the inner city. They exist in almost every community--urban, rural, 
and suburban.
  In addition to modernizing and renovating dilapidated schools, many 
communities need to build new schools, in order to keep pace with 
rising enrollments and to reduce class sizes. Elementary and secondary 
school enrollment has reached an all-time high again this year of 53 
million students. Enrollment will continue to rise over

[[Page S5821]]

the next ten years. The number will increase by 324,000 in 2000, by 
282,000 in 2001, and by 250,000 in 2002--and it will continue on an 
upward trend in each of the following years.
  To meet this urgent need, the Nation faces the challenge of hiring 
more than 2 million new teachers over the next ten years. According to 
the Urban Teacher Challenge Report, released by Recruiting New Teachers 
last January, almost 100 percent of the 40 urban school districts 
surveyed have an urgent need for teachers in at least one subject area. 
Ninety-five percent of urban districts report a critical need for math 
teachers. Ninety-eight percent report a need in science. Ninety-seven 
percent report a need for special education teachers.
  Unfortunately, the need for new teachers in 1998 was met by admitting 
50,000 unqualified teachers to the classroom. And nearly 50 percent of 
those who do enter teaching, leave the profession within 5 years.
  Parents, schools, and communities also need special help in providing 
after-school activities. Each day, 5 million children, many as young as 
8 or 9 years old, are left home alone after school. Juvenile delinquent 
crime peaks in the hours between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. We know that 
children left unsupervised are more likely to be involved in anti-
social activities and destructive patterns of behavior.
  The Nation's schools need more help to meet all of these challenges.
  In addition, many families across the Nation are struggling to put 
their children through college. The burden of education debt is rising. 
Eight million seven hundred thousand students borrowed $32 billion in 
1999 alone.
  Only 53 percent of students with a family income below $25,000 go on 
to higher education, and only 26 percent--1 in 4--go on to 4-year 
colleges. But 90 percent of students with family income above $74,000 
attend college. The opportunity for a college education should not be 
determined by the level of family income. Any student who has the 
ability, who works hard, and who wants to attend college should have 
the opportunity to do so.
  We need to do more to fund programs such as GEAR UP that help make 
college a reality for more young people.
  We also need to do more to help American workers who have lost their 
jobs because of down-sizing or business relocation to find other good 
jobs in their communities. Companies are doing more hiring and firing 
simultaneously than ever before. Workers need a new set of skills,  and 
globalization is driving more work abroad. Greater services for 
dislocated workers will guarantee that workers have the skills they 
need as we move full speed into the information-based economy. It will 
also help us respond to employer needs during the current labor 
shortage by having an efficient labor exchange system and retraining 
programs.

  We must also do more to emphasize keeping young people in school, 
increasing their enrollment in college, and preparing and placing these 
young people in good jobs. Only 42 percent of dropouts participate in 
the labor force, compared to 65 percent of those with a high school 
education and 80 percent of those with a college degree.
  Next week, when we have the opportunity to address education in the 
pending Senate appropriations bill, Democrats will offer amendments to 
address as many of these critical needs as possible.
  I intend to offer an amendment to increase funding for title II of 
the Higher Education Act, to help communities recruit and train 
prospective teachers and put a qualified teacher in every classroom. In 
addition, I will offer an amendment to increase funding for skills 
training programs by $792 million to ensure that the Nation's workers 
get the support they need in today's workplace.
  Senator Murray will offer an amendment to continue the bipartisan 
commitment we have made over the last two years to help communities 
reduce class size in the early grades.
  Senator Harkin and Senator Robb will offer an amendment to ensure 
that communities get the help they need to meet their most urgent 
repair and modernization problems.
  Senator Dodd will offer an amendment to increase funding for the 21st 
Century Learning Centers program, so that more children will have the 
opportunity to attend after-school activities.
  Senator Bingaman will offer an amendment to help states turn around 
failing schools.
  Senator Reed will offer an amendment to increase funding for the GEAR 
UP program, so that more children will be able to attend college.
  Other colleagues will offer additional amendments to increase the 
Nation's investment in education.
  The time is now to invest more in education. The Nation's children 
and families deserve no less.

                          ____________________