[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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