[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 90 (Thursday, July 13, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H6031-H6038]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          THE NEED FOR NATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN PUBLIC EDUCATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 1999, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Etheridge) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about one of the 
most critical issues facing our Nation. That is the education of our 
children. Hopefully as this afternoon goes on I will be joined by some 
of my Democratic colleagues to discuss this issue and the need for 
national leadership in this whole area of public education.
  We spend an awful lot of time in this body arguing back and forth 
about appropriations and budgets. We have just finished today doing 
that, and on and on. But what gets lost too often in all the sound and 
the fury of the legislative debate is the central meaning of the 
choices that we make and the people that it impacts so directly.
  My colleague, the gentlewoman from Michigan, was just talking about 
prescription drugs, real live people. Education is about real live 
young people.
  The budget and spending choices that we make help us define what our 
priorities are. They express our values. A whole lot more than what we 
argue about those values being, our actions speak for what our values 
really are.
  Mr. Speaker, my colleagues and I in the Democratic Caucus have been 
working now for several years trying to give greater priority to 
education in the budget process.
  Let me explain to all of my colleagues, the budget process is where 
the action takes place. We can talk about authorizing committees and 
they are the people who write the policies, et cetera, et cetera. 
Before I came to Congress I served as a legislator in North Carolina. I 
chaired the Committee on Appropriations for 4 years. Let me remind my 
colleagues, words are cheap, actions cost money.
  I have often said to folks, there is a big slip between the lip and 
the hip. It is easy to talk about it, it is tough to put actions to 
words when it really comes to making it happen.
  I go into an awful lot of schools. Before I came to Congress I served 
8 years as State superintendent of my State

[[Page H6032]]

schools. Children are pretty smart people, a lot smarter than some of 
us give them credit for. They know the difference between phonies and 
real folks who really mean what they say and say what they mean.
  When they ride by a brand new $22 and $23 million prison to go to a 
rundown school building, one that the wind blows through in the 
wintertime, with no air conditioning, they do not have the books that 
they need nor the technology they ought to have, they can figure out 
right quick what is important in their community.
  My colleagues and I have been working hard to make sure that we can 
focus in on these issues, because we do value education, because we 
know that lifetime learning or lifelong learning is the key to the 
American dream, not only for the middle class, but to allow people to 
move up into the middle class.
  Education is the one thing in our society that allows people the 
opportunity to move up. I say it is great. It is the thing that levels 
the playing field. No matter what your ethnic or economic background, 
with a good education, you have a chance.
  Certainly in today's global economy, America's international 
competitiveness is absolutely dependent on our people's ability to 
perform knowledge-based jobs. These are the kinds of jobs that produce 
the best jobs, the best goods. We provide the best goods and services 
in the world, there is no question about that. But if we are going to 
remain a world leader, we have to make sure our education lives up to 
those same standards.
  In the new economy of this Information Age, what people can earn 
absolutely depends on what they learn and what they can continue to 
learn in their lifelong learning processes.
  We have been trying to get Congress to give higher priority to 
strengthen our neighborhood schools, our neighborhood public schools, 
and demonstrate how much we value public education for our children. 
But, unfortunately, I must say that the House Republican leadership has 
pushed through Congress a number of very large tax bills.
  Let me tell the Members what the challenge of that is. I am in favor 
of targeted tax cuts. I think we ought to have them, but we ought to 
decide what our priorities are and put a balance on it, because if we 
do those first there will be no money for education for our children 
when the time comes.
  It is not right to leave our children behind and deny them the kind 
of educational investment that they need to make sure we have a world 
class education. We cannot do it without an investment. The last time I 
checked, computers cost money, new schools cost money, quality 
education and paying teachers and keeping good people in the classroom 
costs money.
  No business in their right mind would put their businesses in some of 
the buildings we ask our children to go to school in today. Yet, we say 
we want quality education. We all want it. We ought to have the courage 
to make sure our elected leaders live up to the commitment, and not let 
them get away with just talking about it. I strongly oppose these kinds 
of misguided priorities.
  I am pleased this evening to have joining with me my colleague, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Millender-McDonald), who is certainly 
a leader in education, who has worked hard in a number of areas. She is 
making sure that education is available to all children in the public 
sector, making that a priority.
  I am pleased to yield to my friend, the gentlewoman from California 
(Ms. Millender-McDonald), for her comments.
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Chairman, it is great to be here tonight. 
My dear friend, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Etheridge), has 
been an excellent leader in education, not only in this Congress but 
throughout the Nation for many years, and we value his advice and his 
leadership on the issues that are so important to parents and to this 
Nation, given the need for educational opportunities.
  Mr. Speaker, tonight I stand here to discuss the importance of 
technology in education. We have talked about the digital divide and 
how the gap has widened between those who have and those who have not, 
and especially among urban areas as well as rural areas of our children 
who have not had the opportunities to advance in this highly 
technological environment.
  We have a great deal at stake when it comes to the technological 
literacy of this Nation's teachers and students. A strong work force 
and a strong economy depend upon the quality of our schools, the 
preparedness of our teachers, and the ability of our students to 
compete in an increasingly technical world.
  The ability to use computer technology has become indispensable to 
educational, career, social, and cultural advancement. In the new 
millenium, technological literacy has not become only a basic 
requirement but a life skill as well.
  It is then imperative that students are equipped with technology 
skills at an early stage in life by teachers who are skillfully trained 
to integrate technology in their curriculum and classroom learning 
environment.
  According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Internet 
access in public schools has increased from 35 percent to 95 percent, 
and classroom connections have increased from 3 percent to 63 percent 
from 1994 to 1999.
  While these increases indicate positive responses to the need for 
technology in the classroom, we must be cognizant of how efficiently 
and effectively this technology is being used.
  According to the President's 1997 Committee of Advisors on Science 
and Technology, a ratio of four to five students per computer 
represents a reasonable level for the effective use of computers within 
schools.

                              {time}  1645

  In my district, however, Mr. Speaker, the ratios are much higher. In 
the city of Compton, the ratio is 18 students per computer. In the city 
of Lynwood, the ratio is nine students per computer. In Long Beach, the 
ratio is eight students per computer.
  Considering the socioeconomic demographics of my district, these 
numbers are just not acceptable. The children in my district and 
insular districts across the country are falling behind, and something 
must be done to stop it. Equipping our schools with technology is the 
first step in fulfilling the challenge to promote technological 
literacy in our schools.
  Another real challenge lies in feeling the vast training gap and in 
providing trained teachers who can incorporate computer technology in 
all aspects of the learning experience.
  A study by the National Center for Education statistics found that 
only one teacher in five felt very prepared to integrate technology in 
the subject they taught. This fact is not surprising when, according to 
a study by the Milken Exchange on Education Technology, teachers on 
average receive less than 13 hours of technology training per year, and 
40 percent of all teachers have never received any technology training. 
That is really a travesty.
  In addition to that, teachers receive far less technology curriculum 
integration training than basic computer skills training. Forty-two 
percent of teachers have had 6 or more hours of basic skills training 
within the past year, compared with just 29 percent of teachers who had 
an equal amount of curriculum integration training.
  Yet, research shows that training on integrating technology into 
education programs has a greater impact on teachers than basic 
technology skills training. Clearly, the key to successfully 
integrating technology into the classroom will not be in installing 
more hardware or software, or wiring schools to the Internet, the key 
will be training teachers to be integrators.
  Now is the time for action. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates 
that, by the end of the year 2000, some 60 percent of jobs will require 
proficiencies in the use of a broad range of information technologies. 
By the year 2005, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there 
will be growth of 70 percent of technology-related jobs.
  This issue, however, is not focused solely on preparing students to 
assume the jobs of the future. More important is the need to prepare 
students for America's life and culture, both of which will be 
influenced heavily by technology.
  In order to produce a citizenry ready to accept upcoming 
technological challenges, we must be willing to make a

[[Page H6033]]

significant investment in education. By preparing teachers and 
students, we are paving the way to a brighter, more prosperous future.
  I thank the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Etheridge) so very 
much. I think he recognizes as much as I do how digital divide and 
technological training is so important to students as well as teachers 
in planing for the future.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California 
(Ms. Millender-McDonald) for that point. She certainly has been a 
leader in this whole area of technology, in the digital divide, but she 
may want to comment on this further, because I think it is critical for 
our colleagues to understand.
  It is not just to say, as the gentlewoman said, we provided the 
resources, because the E-Rate has been helpful working with the 
administration getting that out there so we get the rate down. So many 
times, people forget, and I think our colleagues here forget, even 
though we put in roughly 7 percent of all the funds at the Federal 
level for education, we can be a real catalyst by providing leadership 
and training and staff development and all of those things.
  But when we talk about technology and hardware, it reminds me of 
someone who would buy a car and then do not let one drive it. Because 
we have so few pieces of equipment in some cases in some of our 
schools, those who do not have the resources, depending on where they 
may be in the country. That is wrong. It is absolutely wrong. It is 
like buying an automobile and say, well, we are going to park it here, 
and one gets to drive it every week or so.
  But that is what we do with technology. We do not even let the 
teachers use it. Then until we have training on the staff, we are doing 
a better job. We have got a long ways to go. The gentlewoman may want 
to comment on that as it relates to this whole issue of the digital 
divide because that is really what we are talking about.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. 
Millender-McDonald).
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, this is very true. As we have 
looked into the digital divide, we do find that, not only is that 
divide among the students in the classroom, but among the teachers as 
well.
  We find that a lot of the computers that are given to students in the 
inner city area are really all outdated computers that cannot really be 
used for training, nor has the teacher had training on computers as 
well.
  I have a program in the Watts area where we are now asking for old 
computers to come into that area where we will train young folks to 
prepare, do maintenance on old computers. Then once they have done 
that, we train them on that computer and then send that computer home 
to the parents for the kid to learn on.
  This is a whole new innovative concept in helping parents as well as 
students to understand the realization and the importance of 
technology. We also find that teachers are very fearful because the 
curriculum and the liberal arts colleges are not putting technology in 
the curriculum for training or the teacher training program.
  So the gentleman is correct. It is important that, as we look at the 
digital divide, we look at that division within the teacher training 
programs as well as the students who are, for whatever reason, have 
been given old outdated computers that really do not do anything in 
terms of teaching them.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, we have, and I am sure it is in several 
other States, certainly in North Carolina, where we have a group that 
actually are taking computers, corporate folks are providing for them. 
Once they will take all of the insides out of the computer, they are 
putting new components and booting them up.
  The students, then, they are really becoming technicians for 
computers. Those computers then go to the classroom. In a lot of the 
cases, this came as a result of things we were already doing, but we 
escalated it during the flood of eastern North Carolina because we lost 
an awful lot of equipment in a lot of our schools. That is starting to 
take place now in a lot of places in our country.
  What is happening to these young people, they may go into the 
university or they may go into the private sector, because they now are 
technically capable of making substantial salaries working on 
computers. That may be what the gentlewoman is talking about when she 
is talking about her digital divide.
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, that is exactly what I am 
talking about. When the gentleman from North Carolina spoke about the 
E-Rate and the wiring and how that is important; but the most important 
thing is to get adequate computers into the classroom. The ratio should 
be as such where students will get the type of computer training that 
is necessary to ensure that the training that they have will be 
commensurate with their going out getting a job once they have 
completed their secondary education or even post secondary education.
  I will say, as well as serving on the National Commission on Teaching 
on America's Future, as we look at the whole integration of technology 
and to the teacher training program, we find that a lot of the 
professional development that teachers are taking now are suggesting, 
or those who are giving that, suggesting that that professional 
development training require a certain amount of computer literacy.
  I am very thankful that the gentleman from North Carolina sought to 
bring us to the floor today to talk about education. We cannot talk 
enough about education and about the opportunities that are out there 
for the children of the future and teachers of the future if we, 
indeed, have the propensity to put the computers in the right spot.
  So I see others who have joined the gentleman from North Carolina on 
the floor. I will move out if the others move in.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from North 
Carolina (Mrs. Clayton).
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina 
very much for arranging this special order on education which is dear 
to all of our hearts but certainly is one that he has provided 
leadership, and I want to acknowledge that leadership and that 
commitment and that love for it.
  But I wanted to engage the gentlewoman from California (Ms. 
Millender-McDonald), before she left, on her concern in raising 
appropriately the whole training of our students and providing the 
technology within our schools and put it in the context of something we 
are going to be doing very shortly in this Congress.
  We are going to be voting on the H1-B visas, which is critical for 
the high-tech companies in making sure they have the staff capacity, 
not only to do the work they are currently doing, but also to be on the 
cutting edge in doing the technical research and responding to new 
opportunities. They have made a compelling case that, indeed, they do 
need them. I am convinced that they, indeed, need those high-tech 
individuals.
  But what is troubling about the fact, and I believe they are correct, 
what is troubling about that is that our education system here in 
America has not produced a sufficient supply that they can feel they 
can rely upon unless they forever increase.
  That is not to curtail bringing in intelligent, gifted individuals 
who may not be resident. I think that is what makes our country great, 
that we have that diversity. But to allow that to continue without 
putting intervention, we miss an opportunity.
  So our rhetoric will be able to be tested. We have a window of 
opportunity, I think next week, if not next week, very soon. Given this 
need and our response, what do we say to the high-techs? Not 
necessarily in penalizing them, that is not what we want to do. But we 
want them to engage in fostering the education systems that are in our 
high schools, in our colleges. If necessary, what are they doing from 
China? What are they doing in India? What are they doing in Asia that 
automatically produces in that system a superior engineer? It is not 
that we are not producing engineers. It is not that we are producing 
programers but not apparently the ones that meet those criteria.
  So there has to be a forcing of that relationship first to make sure 
we have a pool and understanding at the elementary and secondary work.

[[Page H6034]]

  Then the additional one is that I think we need to really, in 
addition to increasing the penalty or the fee they pay, I think they 
have monies, they are not short of money, what we are short of is their 
relationship and their involvement in our communities.
  So we ought to forge a relationship that says, you have this need 
here, you are making this request, well, there are American citizens 
that also need those jobs, and we are just asking you if you would 
please, sir, please, madam, work with our citizens in rural areas and 
inner cities and our students so we can give you the product you need.
  That requires, not a commitment in theory and theme, but a numerical 
commitment by year, 2 years, 3 years we can make ourselves.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, that is an important point as we deal 
with it. I think we need to keep in mind and remind our colleagues that 
it really is called, not just H1-B visa, working at the top, but it is 
called for a need for investment at every level.
  For instance, on the 100,000 teachers we are talking about that 
Congress has been engaged in, and we are still fighting the battle to 
get this year to reduce class sizes for children in the kindergarten 
and third grade level. That is where we create and get young people 
interested in the sciences and the mathematics, to create those 
scientists 8, 10 years from now. The only way we are going to do it is 
engage them early.
  Since the gentlewoman from North Carolina raised that issue, let me 
just share with her some examples, because many times people, some of 
our colleagues on the other side want to jump on partisan politics and 
talk about how bad the public schools and what they are not doing.
  Let me just share with my colleagues the student mathematic 
achievement is improving. That takes a while. It takes an overall 
commitment and sustained investment over time. Between 1982 and 1996, 
student improvements have improved their achievement on mathematics by 
the National Assessment of Education Progress. But the problem we have 
is, even though the improvement is there, we still need to have more.
  If we reduce those class sizes at the early grades where we can 
really excite a young person in mathematics, and they can see where it 
leads to, the ones who really we are losing are those in the point the 
gentlewoman made on the digital divide earlier, they are in those 
schools that do not have the resources to get them engaged. If no one 
engages those young people early, it is amazing. My colleagues have 
been in the classroom as I have, all of you have, it is amazing what 
one sees in the eyes of those students. Once one sees it in their eyes, 
one sees exciting things happen.

                              {time}  1700

  And down the road, all of a sudden the youngster decides I want to be 
an engineer, and maybe there has never been an engineer in their 
family. But that is how we turn it around. We are probably always going 
to bring in some of the best from around the world; but we should not, 
I agree with the gentlewoman, we should not leave the gap open for all 
the people.
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, I agree with both overtures of 
what both my colleagues have just said. I think mainly we must see in 
this H-1B bill some provision by which outreach can be done in our 
urban and rural communities to begin to train our young folks in the 
area of math and science.
  Secondarily, I think there has to be an outreach program to the HBCUs 
of students who are already in math and science. We do have young folks 
who are coming out of these schools ready to go into the jobs that they 
are talking about; but if we have not gone to those campuses, and we do 
not know that they are there, then we tend to think there is not a 
prepared group of folks out there waiting for the jobs.
  When I was director of Gender Equity for Los Angeles Unified, we had 
to make sure that we went around this Nation and look in every nook and 
cranny to try and get those who have been prepared for those particular 
subject areas and disciplines that we were looking for. I think we have 
no other recourse but to make sure that this bill has some provision of 
having the high-tech companies utilize those fees for outreach and for 
training of those who are in that digital divide and in that gap.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Actually, some of them are. And what we want to do is 
to increase that.
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. To expand, yes.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. To expand that. And even those that are, we do not have 
a numerical number of expectancy of their growing their own and their 
hiring.
  So if we increase the amount of money, which I think they will 
willing cooperate in, because I have not found a high-tech company that 
says that money will be a problem, I think where the challenge is, and 
I am not sure it is a challenge we cannot overcome, I think where there 
may be some resistance to committing themselves to is a numerical 
number. On the other hand, that is what H-1 visas are all about, 
increasing the numbers. I am just saying that as we increase those 
numbers, we should increase the number of a goal that we are willing to 
commit to; that we will educate, and we will train and we will hire 
from rural America and from urban cities. The same numerical goal that 
these companies are requesting the government come and double. That is 
all I am saying.
  It obviously should be something that is workable and that they are 
willing to do, because it is an investment in America. It is an 
investment in our communities. It is an economic stimulus that a young 
person in Wilson County or in Edgecombe County or in the gentlewoman's 
Compton community knows that there is a company that is interested in 
me. And, guess what, they are going to do real well because they want 
to make sure that they fulfill that requirement.
  We will not have to look for that person. We will not have to get a 
recruiter to recruit that person from abroad. They are committed early 
on. This is not something that is brand new. We have done this before. 
We have done this in science. Remember when we wanted to send explorers 
in space? We had a National Science Foundation. We gave scholarships. 
In high schools we had these academies. I am saying we can put that 
same kind of energy, saying that Americans' ingenuity and our talent 
needs to be reinvigorated and give people that incentive.
  I just think this is an opportunity to open that door. And I think 
things in education that we can help in as a government are the 
technology centers. It is critical. Adding new technology, reducing the 
class size, making sure kids know more early on in science and math. 
And we are doing better in science and math.
  Years and years ago, I tell people a hundred years ago, I used to 
head a program at the University of North Carolina for health 
professionals. At that time the issue was how do we get more rural kids 
and minorities to go into the health profession; how do we get doctors 
and nurses. Well, we could not wait until they came out of college. We 
had to get them in high school. So what we did in high school was to 
stimulate their teachers and others, and then some of the college 
students would come early in their career, not at the senior year, but 
early in their career, and give them advanced courses in math and 
prepare them for the MCATs and get them with the expectation that they 
can excel. We just put them on an accelerated path.
  So I think the education system, in marrying it with the 
opportunities, is why education becomes important.
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. If I can just ask the gentlewoman from North 
Carolina to yield for just a second, and then I know the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Cummings) is here, and he has been absolutely a divine 
young man to sit here and wait for us as we talk about this, and he 
wants to get into the fray; but the one thing I am concerned about as 
well with this H-1B bill is that it is inconceivable as to whether they 
are professionals who are coming over or persons, as the gentlewoman 
has just mentioned, straight out of high school.
  Mr. Speaker, I stand before you today to discuss the importance of 
technology in education. We have a great deal at stake when it comes to 
the technological literacy of this nation's teachers and students. A 
strong work force and a strong economy depends on the quality of our 
schools, the preparedness of our teachers and the ability of our 
students to

[[Page H6035]]

compete in an increasingly technical world. The ability to use computer 
technology has become indispensable to educational, career, social and 
cultural advancement. In the new millennium, technological literacy has 
not become only a basic job requirement, but a life skill as well. It 
is imperative that students are equipped with technology skills at an 
early stage in life by teachers who are skillfully trained to 
incorporate technology in their curriculum and classroom learning 
environments.
  According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Internet 
access in public schools has increased from 35% to 95% and classroom 
connections have increased from 3% to 63% from 1994 to 1999. While 
these increases indicate positive responses to the need for technology 
in the classroom, we must be cognizant of how efficiently and 
effectively this technology is being used. According to the President's 
1997 Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology, a ratio of 4 to 5 
students per computer represents a reasonable level for the effective 
use of computers within schools. In my Congressional District, the 
ratios are much higher. In the city of Compton, the ratio is 18 
students per computer. In the city of Lynwood the ratio is 9 students 
per computer and in Long Beach the ratio is 8 students per computer. 
Considering the socioeconomic demographics of my district, these 
numbers are just not acceptable. The children in my district and in 
similar districts across the country are falling behind and something 
must be done to stop it.
  Equipping our schools with technology is the first step in fulfilling 
the challenge to promote technological literacy in our schools. Another 
real challenge lies in filling the vast training gap, and in providing 
trained teachers who can incorporate computer technology in all aspects 
of the learning experience. A study by the National Center for 
Education Statistics found that only one teach in five felt very 
prepared to integrate technology in the subject they taught. This fact 
is not surprising when, according to a study by the Milken Exchange on 
Education Technology, teachers on average receive less than 13 hours of 
technology training year per, and 40 percent of all teachers have never 
received any technology training. In addition, teachers receive far 
less technology curriculum integration training than basic computer 
skills training. 42 percent of teachers had six or more hours of basic 
skills training within the past year, compared with just 29 percent of 
teachers who had an equal amount of curriculum integration training. 
And yet, research shows that training on integrating technology into 
education programs has a greater impact on teachers than basic 
technology skills training. Clearly, the key to successfully 
integrating technology into the classroom will not be in installing 
more hardware or software, or wiring schools to the Internet. The key 
will be in training teachers to be the integrators.
  Now is the time for action. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates 
that by the end of the year 2000, some 60 percent of jobs will require 
proficiencies in the use of a broad range of information technologies. 
By the year 2005, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there will 
be growth of 70 percent in technology related jobs. This issue, 
however, is not focused solely on preparing students to assume the jobs 
of the future. More important is the need to prepare students for 
American life and culture, both of which will be influenced heavily by 
technology. In order to produce a citizenry ready to accept upcoming 
technological challenges, we must be willing to make a significant 
investment in education. By preparing teachers and students we are 
paving the way to a brighter more prosperous future.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Well, I get the understanding, and let me correct 
myself, my understanding is actually there is a requirement they must 
be professionals. I think there is a standard. So I did not mean to 
suggest that. I think they are either engineers and meet a certain 
requirement and may have worked a year. I am not sure, but I think 
there is even a dollar amount for which they cannot go below.
  I am just saying that as we approach this, why do we not look at the 
education system and say how can we use this need in the community as a 
way to stimulate our high schools and colleges and our private sector 
to have a more rigorous curriculum and a commitment to hire so the next 
time around we will be ready to meet this criteria and use the same 
experience we have had before.
  Again, I want to commend the gentleman.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman, and I see now 
that my friend from Maryland is here, and I appreciate his being here 
this evening and I would yield to him.
  Mr. CUMMINGS. I want to thank the gentleman for his leadership in 
this area, and I certainly want to thank my two colleagues with us this 
evening.
  As I was listening to the discussion, I could not help but think 
about a program in my district where Morgan State University works with 
an elementary school. They have about 40 students that work with 
elementary school students, mainly concentrating on the areas of 
science and math. So these young children are exposed to these Morgan 
State University college students, and they become interested after 
school in science and math; and they are doing extremely well.
  I really believe that we have to teach the children's strengths. I 
always think about the story of Steven Spielberg when he was a little 
boy. Apparently his mother did not have very much money, but she got 
him a camera because he had told her he was interested in a camera. So 
he got a little simple camera, and he began to take pictures and make 
little slides and then movies, and the next thing you know, look where 
he is. But she saw where his strength was and she went there.
  As I was listening to the things that the gentlewoman was saying, she 
is so right, because just a few weeks ago I was sitting in a meeting 
with hospitals from Maryland, and they were sitting there talking about 
how they needed to go outside the country to get nurses. Yet I have 
young people who are in my district who, if they were exposed at an 
early age and given some encouragement and nourishment and taken into 
the hospitals or whatever, might very well be the nurses that they are 
looking for. Yet they are going beyond the borders of our community 
trying to find nurses.
  So we are fortunate, and I pointed out to them, that we have another 
project, Johns Hopkins Hospital, which has been ranked number one in 
the country, has a program with a high school, Dunbar High School, 
where they actually bring in young high school students into the 
hospital working with doctors, learning about various professions in 
the medical field. That program has been going on for 20 years, and a 
lot of those students are now going into the medical profession. Why? 
Because they were exposed to something. Why else? Because they had an 
opportunity.
  So the President said today at the National Association for the 
Advancement of Colored People, many of us have the intellect, but not 
all of us get the opportunities. So I do appreciate what the 
gentlewoman has said as well as the gentleman from North Carolina.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from North 
Carolina and congratulate him on the special order he is leading now, 
and to wish all my colleagues a great weekend as they proceed with 
their return to their districts.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. I thank the gentleman.
  I also thank the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Speaker, and if he will 
yield for just a moment more. As we are talking about this whole thing 
of education and mathematics and opportunity for young people and 
giving them a challenge and a vision, I would just tell the gentleman 
that the students in my home State of North Carolina, where we have 
paid a lot of attention, as have a lot of others to this whole issue of 
mathematics over the last several years in education, as I was talking 
earlier on regarding the NAPE scores, which really measures 
mathematics, their national average scores have gone up three times the 
national average over the last several years on the NAPE scores, 
because we have paid a lot of attention to it. We have measured it. 
Some of the greatest gains have come from our minority students, which 
is crucial, because we have absolutely no child that we can waste in 
the 21st century. All of our students are so needed as we get there.
  And we have other good news as well that I will share with the 
gentleman and then yield back to him. Student science achievement is 
improving, and that is important. SAT scores have increased 
dramatically, not only in my State but we have seen them go up across 
the country. A lot of people have battered public education and beaten 
down our teachers and others. They fail to hear these good things

[[Page H6036]]

that are happening. And I want to pay attention to the good things that 
are happening for a lot of children who come from some tough 
backgrounds and tough opportunities who are already achieving. ACT 
scores are up. Students are taking more AP exams.

  I would share with the gentleman what an AP exam is. When people say 
what does that acronym mean, it really means an advanced placement 
course for a student who is in high school. Let us say the school only 
offers a second year of algebra and the student wants to take physics 
or something else. They can actually take an advanced placement through 
a mailing and then they can take that test. It is a college level 
course at high school, and some students can take several courses, 
saving a lot of money when they get to the university. And we are 
seeing that improved tremendously.
  Another point I would make before I yield is that we are all 
concerned that our schools be totally safe, every one of them. And we 
want that, and we should. But the truth is violence is down in our 
public schools dramatically; and public school teachers, by all the 
statistics out, are really better educated than they have ever been. 
And, on average, they are better educated than many of them who are in 
some of the private schools we have in this country. More students out 
of our public schools are going to the universities.
  What folks forget is that we have more children in public schools 
today than we have ever had in the history of this country. Now, the 
challenge we face is if we have more people, guess what that is going 
to mean? Our resources are strained because classes are more cramped, 
we need more teachers, we need all the things to support them, and if 
we are going to have smaller class sizes, we have to run faster just to 
keep up. And that is the point the gentleman was making, as we start 
trying to encourage young people to get into the professions that they 
may not have thought about.
  One of the points the gentleman made as we were talking earlier, and 
the gentleman is absolutely right, is that the challenge we face today 
is recruiting people to teach our young people. How do we recruit the 
quality people we need to get there? There was a time in this country 
when we had a fairly adequate supply of teachers. Unfortunately, it was 
a time when the opportunities for women were not what they are today, 
because they either went into nursing, clerical jobs, or into teaching, 
and we were blessed by that.
  But once we opened the doors to all professions, and we should have, 
not only for women but all others, that then made the job of retaining 
and attracting the people we need in education and in nursing, as the 
gentleman mentioned earlier, more difficult. This means that we have to 
pay more attention to making sure that those professions not only are 
attractive but the conditions they work under are also attractive.
  And number three, we must pay them an adequate wage. We can no longer 
say that they cannot move from point A to point B. They are going to 
move. My son teaches school. It costs him just as much to buy a loaf of 
bread in the local store as it does the president of a local bank that 
may make four or five times as much. Now, obviously, people go into 
education or nursing or into professions or rescue squads or fire 
departments to make a difference, and we are talking about education.

                              {time}  1715

  The truth is we have to start valuing and honoring those teachers and 
say to them, you do a good job, we appreciate what you are doing, 
instead of beating up on them all the time.
  I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.
  Mr. CUMMINGS. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I was just thinking 
about what you were saying. It is important that we do pay our teachers 
wages that are reasonable and that they can live off of. There was just 
an article in the paper in Baltimore that stated that as we move 
towards September, the September opening of school, we have a teacher 
shortage and we are doing everything in our power to find teachers. But 
one of the things that is for sure, we have got to pay them. We have 
got to pay them well.
  I want to go back to something you said about conditions of teaching. 
I was talking to some friends of mine who teach in private school. The 
interesting thing to note is that these folks were actually making a 
little less than they would make in public school. I said to them, why 
did you make that change? They said, because of the conditions. They 
were able to teach smaller classes. Their hearts are into making sure 
that every child succeeds, that no child is left behind, and they felt 
that the conditions, if it got to 34 or 35 kids in a class that trying 
to teach it was very, very difficult, not that they did not want to do 
a good job but it was very hard to be effective.
  I agree with you. One of the things that I was thinking about, too, 
as you were talking is that in Baltimore, one of our first high schools 
to get blue ribbon status was a school that I graduated from in high 
school that just got this national blue ribbon status, Baltimore City 
College High School. One of the things you were talking about a little 
earlier was the advanced courses, college courses. What that goes to is 
high standards, high standards and high expectations. I did not want to 
let that go by.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. For all children.
  Mr. CUMMINGS. For all children. I think what happens so often is that 
if you have low expectations, then children do not even know the 
standard to even reach for the high expectations. But one of the things 
that I have noticed, you and I had a discussion not long ago about when 
we go into our schools and what makes a good school, what do you see in 
a school, what do you experience in a school when you are visiting that 
tells you without anybody showing you any scores that it is a great 
school? One of the things that we talked about was that you had a 
strong principal. You had excitement. You could just see it on all the 
walls, the bulletin boards, that things were happening. But there was 
also an air of high expectations. I think that that is one of the 
things that we have got to get back to, that high expectation. When you 
talk about the schools that you have just talked about doing better, 
that sends a message to other schools and it says, if they can do it 20 
miles down the road, we can do it, too. When Baltimore City College 
High School in Baltimore became one of the few predominantly African 
American schools in the country to become a national blue ribbon 
school, not only did it mean a lot to the students at that school but 
it meant a lot to the entire community. There were other students who 
were at other schools similar to Baltimore City College High School 
saying, we can do it, too.
  We have got to get back to that, to that positive role model stuff. A 
lot of times we hear about negative role models. I think years ago you 
had a lot of positive role models. There are a lot of positive role 
models today, in students, in schools, in neighbors. I think the things 
that we are talking about today are the good things about our schools. 
You are right. We hear so much negative, negative, negative but there 
are so many wonderful things happening since the last time you and I 
discussed this, because we have seen some smaller class sizes, we have 
seen our children in like the first, second and third grade, we have 
seen their scores going up in Baltimore, too, substantially.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. That is absolutely right. That is why it is imperative 
that this Congress not go back on the commitment they made and to keep 
putting that money in there. All of us use the language of the new 
economy. It is true, it is propelling our business cycles, everything 
is revolving around it but we have got to provide national leadership 
in this vital area of education, so that everyone can be a part of this 
new economy. We cannot leave people behind. If we do not make sure that 
every child gets a good education, that we set high standards, we have 
high expectations, they will not be a part of it. If you deny in my 
opinion a child an education, a quality education, you have denied the 
whole family of that because once they get married, you have created a 
whole second class citizenship for those children. Across this country, 
the American people are calling out for greater investment in public 
education. They do not care whether it comes from Washington or their 
State capital or the local. They want the investment in education. When 
we invest that money,

[[Page H6037]]

 there is something else they are asking for and they are going to 
demand, and I think the Republican leadership has missed this because 
they want to talk about vouchers and take the money out of the public 
schools and that is wrong. We do not need to do that. We need to leave 
it in the public sector because it would drain the resources away and 
deny some children the opportunities they need. My colleagues, you and 
others who have participated in this this evening, I think we do have a 
better idea. We want to invest in a national commitment of education 
excellence, where schools are accountable to the taxpayers for raising 
those standards that you have just talked about and that every child 
has an opportunity to learn at a much higher level than ever before. I 
say that because improving education in this country is about creating 
a classroom environment where children can learn and teachers can 
teach. We need to foster greater connection between students, teachers 
and parents. When I say parents, I am talking about the community. Our 
schools can do better. They will do better. But they need our help to 
do better. They need our constructive help. They do not need our 
constant criticism, berating and pushing them down. A child knows when 
you are being positive and you are helping. You can be critical in a 
positive way. A child knows. So do their parents. They know if you 
really want to help. They also know if you are being condescending and 
you are ignoring them. We have a responsibility in my opinion, the 
highest body elected in this country, to provide that kind of 
leadership. We need to work together to get it done.

  I think one of the best ways we can improve education is, number one, 
certainly what dollars we put out to reduce class sizes will not do it 
all. We know that. We are not that dumb. But we know it sends a 
powerful signal that we care. And about school facilities. We cannot 
build all the schools that need to be built. I put a bill in, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel), and Congresswoman Johnson have 
come together on a bill to provide billions of dollars. That will not 
do it all, but it sends a powerful signal that we care. When we started 
in this country making sure that every person, and you remember this, 
would have a telephone, we were not here, but Congress said, by gosh, 
the person at the end of the line is going to have a telephone, we are 
going to have a policy that makes it happen. We were not involved in 
telecommunications until then. We were not involved in electricity 
until we decided that the person at the end of the line in the most 
rural part in the mountains is going to have electric power and it 
changed America. We can do it today. In an age when education is at a 
premium that it has never been at before in this country, we are beyond 
the time when we can educate 25 or 30 or 40 percent. We have to educate 
100 percent. Every child has to be a part of it.
  Mr. CUMMINGS. Someone once said that children are the living messages 
we send to a future we will never see. Children are the living messages 
we send to a future we will never see. As I listened, I could not help 
but think about the other day when I was jogging in a park near my 
home. As I was jogging, I literally ran past my eighth grade civics 
teacher. She waved. I did not realize it was her. Then I thought about 
it, I thought, she looks so familiar. I turned around and I said, Ms. 
Wilder, thank you for all that you have done for me. Thank you for all 
that you have done for me. Because I realized that here was someone who 
impacted my life back in the eighth grade, a son of two parents who 
never got past the first grade, but I knew that that teacher had 
impacted my life tremendously and taught me civics, some of which I use 
in this Chamber today, some 40 years later.
  And so all I am saying to you is that I agree with you, and there is 
something else that I just want to add, a footnote to what you just 
said. The American people want our children to be all that they were 
meant to be. I think one of the saddest things is for someone to have 
the potential and not be given the opportunity to be all that they can 
be. What does that deprive this wonderful society of? Of doctors, of 
heart surgeons. We have a gentleman in Baltimore, Dr. Benjamin Carson 
at Johns Hopkins Hospital who was almost a dropout from school. Now he 
is one of the most renowned neurosurgeons in the world. All I am saying 
to you, when we think about what we are trying to do here and talking 
about our schools and lifting up our children, I just believe in my 
heart that every child when they are born, there are certain things 
that are in that child that an education brings out. When we do the 
things that we are doing, that is, give them fertile ground in which to 
grow, then they can become all that they can be. But if we do not give 
them those opportunities, the things you just talked about, giving them 
classes that are small enough so that they can learn, giving them 
teachers that are skilled, giving them computers so that they can learn 
the best technology, giving them the tools to allow them to grow, then 
they are not only deprived for a few years, they are deprived for a 
lifetime.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. The gentleman is absolutely correct. I remember 
something a friend of mine said when I started down this road to public 
life when I was really earning my living in the private sector where I 
was for 18 years. I was chairman of the board of county commissioners, 
he was on the board, we were here in Washington many years ago at a 
Chamber of Commerce meeting, incidentally, and he made a statement I 
have never forgotten, because we were involved in building schools and 
doing some things. He said, ``Don't ever forget, you are making 
decisions for people who have not yet been born.'' We forget that too 
many times. Here in this building, the United States Capitol, the most 
powerful Nation in the world, we cannot say we cannot take care of our 
children. We cannot say we cannot have a better education system 
because we can afford it and we can require excellence. We need to 
provide support for our teachers as they do their difficult, and it is 
a difficult job, but it is a critically important job, maybe one of the 
most important jobs we ever ask anyone to do outside of what families 
do for our children. We have had enough teacher bashing by people in 
this House, some of them on the other side of the aisle. Rather than 
talk about block grants to people, let us send the money down, I hear 
block grants as if that is the answer, make them compete for it. I was 
a superintendent for 8 years. You cannot plan a program on a block 
grant because you have got to compete for it every year. You only have 
a program when you have got money coming in and you know you are going 
to have it to hire quality teachers. People are not going to take jobs 
if they do not think they are going to have it next year. They will go 
somewhere else.

  The final point that I would make, and it triggered a thought with me 
when I heard you talking about opportunities for all of us. I wonder 
how many of us who now currently have one of the greatest privileges 
any person can have, to serve in the United States House of 
Representatives, would be here had we not had an opportunity for good 
public education when we were growing up. I would not be here.
  Mr. CUMMINGS. I know I would not either.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. I think a lot of my colleagues would not be here. I 
think we have to recognize that someone made a sacrifice for us. They 
paid taxes at my local school when school was really a nice building 
there, one of the nicest buildings in my community. I am grateful for 
that. If I ever complain about it, I hope someone will remind me, 
because I have a great debt to them. But I also have a debt to all the 
young people who are not my children because we only have three and 
they have been blessed to go through the public schools but I owe a 
debt to all the rest of the children. Because someday as one of my 
friends who was very successful, he will never have to worry about his 
Social Security because he is well off, but he made a statement serving 
on a task force that I had appointed my first year as superintendent to 
improve education. He said, I want every child to get a good education. 
I do not care where they come from. I do not care what their ethnic 
background is. I just want them to make a lot of money so I can draw 
Social Security.
  He said that for a lot of folks who were not there because he did not 
need the Social Security. But he was making a statement of values, a 
statement

[[Page H6038]]

of values. We should never forget. We have an obligation to a lot of 
folks who made a lot of decisions for us before we were here and we do 
not need to pull up that net or that rope behind us for all those 
children who are out there.

                              {time}  1730

  We need to make sure they have a quality facility with the things 
they need, the things the teachers need to help. We need to make sure 
in this Congress we stand up and provide the leadership. We do not need 
to lay down and play dead for special interests.
  Mr. CUMMINGS. Because if we lay down and play dead, our children die, 
and it is as simple as that. You are right, we cannot afford to lay 
down and play dead, because we have so many people who are depending on 
us. When you asked that question, when you made that statement, rather, 
you wondered how many of us would be here if we did not have the 
teachers that were involved in our lives and the education. I can tell 
you, I know I would not be here.
  Someone once said that every successful child, if you look at the 
history of any successful child, you will realize that there was at 
least one cheerleader for that child standing on the sidelines rooting 
them on. And, guess what? In many instances they were teachers standing 
on that sideline, but not only standing on the sideline, but getting on 
the field and holding hands and nurturing and encouraging and running 
with them and telling them what they could do.
  So that is what it is all about. I am so glad that the gentleman did 
take this time to dedicate to it. There are so many subjects we could 
have been talking about, but here we are talking about the field of 
education.
  One quick other thing. When we talk about exposing our children to 
opportunities and exposing them to the kinds of things that they need, 
just a few weeks ago in our district, in the 7th Congressional District 
of Maryland, which is basically Baltimore City, what we did was we got 
a few computers, five computers, I think it was, from EPA, and we 
presented them to an elementary school.
  I am going to tell you, the kids, you would have thought we had given 
them $1 million. But in talking to the principal of the school, she 
said you know what our biggest problem is? She said our biggest problem 
is that the children do not want to go home. They stay in the computer 
room.
  She said something else that really touched me. She said, you know, 
we used to have an attendance problems with our little boys. She says 
now our attendance situation is something like 99 percent for our boys. 
Why? Because, again, they are teaching to their strengths. They are 
teaching to their strengths, and that makes a difference.
  It is not only that you expose children to various opportunities, but 
you also need to know what direction are they going in. Some of them 
may want to be an artist, some may want to be a doctor, some may want 
to be a lawyer. But it is those teachers, I am telling you, that see it 
early on, and they can make a lot of judgment calls early on and begin 
to guide those children in the right direction.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. I thank my friend from Maryland. I thank him for 
joining in this special order this evening.
  In closing, I would say that our communities need help in not only 
building quality public schools that have good discipline and foster 
positive learning environments for our children, they need resources 
for teachers to make sure we have reduced class sizes and the tools in 
it.
  The final point I would make, having served last year on the 
Speaker's Bipartisan Working Group on Youth Violence, we came out of 
that talking about some of the things we could do to help make a 
difference. One of the reports that came out of that was character 
education. We put in a bipartisan bill on that now, to talk about those 
things we can do, schools can do, parents can do, communities could do, 
to make a difference in our school.
  I think nothing is more important in our Nation for the public wealth 
than for the training of youth in wisdom and virtue. Only a virtuous 
people are capable of freedom. That is not unique. That was said by Ben 
Franklin. It is still true today, as much as it was over 200 years ago. 
That is important.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues for joining me 
this evening, and would like to call on this Congress to truly make 
education its highest priority this year, as we turn the corner on the 
21st Century.

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