[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 97 (Monday, July 24, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H6764-H6770]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        INVESTING IN OUR FUTURE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kuykendall). 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 trust I will be joined by some of my 
colleagues before the evening is over with to talk on the issue, but as 
my colleague, the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. McInnis) was talking 
about a moment ago on Social Security, I would remind our colleagues 
and those who are listening this evening that Social Security has been 
with us now since the 1930s.
  There have been those who have talked about its demise ever since and 
some who have tried to make sure it was not here, but I would remind 
them as we talk about all of the gimmicks, anytime we take money out of 
the system, if it is 2 percent or 3 percent or whatever the percent we 
take out, that is less money we have for those who are drawing. It 
means that we will meet that date of finality he was talking about, and 
it will run out of money sooner.
  Mr. Speaker, I was home this weekend and had an occasion to see a 
movie. The gentleman from Colorado (Mr. McInnis) talked about the 
turmoil and all the tough times as if it were a turmoil, and that 
reminds me of a movie I saw called the Perfect Storm. When these 
fishermen went out to catch their final catch and they made the fatal 
decision to head into a storm without really having all the facts, if 
you have not seen the movie, the Perfect Storm, I will not give away 
all the plot.
  I would say to my colleagues, just like dealing with Social Security, 
anything else, we better know where we are headed because the Perfect 
Storm was a total disaster, one of the worst in our history.
  Mr. Speaker, this evening I want to talk about investing in our 
future. As the former chief of my State schools, I want to talk this 
evening about a critical issue facing our Nation, and that is the 
education of our children, and the buildings in which we put them as 
well, because it is about investing these dollars that Congress is 
talking about now that we have or we may have over the next 10 years.
  Before we get too far along this road of making some decisions on tax 
relief, at a time when we better be investing in the next generation, 
there is no question that we can have targeted relief; but we better be 
making the investment in our young people.
  Mr. Speaker, all too often in this town we hear politicians making 
speeches about how the schools are supposedly no good, how they ought 
to have competition, how it is really in the private sector that things 
are really happening, it is really not in the public sector.
  I am here this evening to tell my colleagues that I am one of those 
who will defend the public schools as the best opportunity for 
excellence in education for all children, and we need to stand up and 
be counted and spread the good news about those quiet successes, those 
stories that are happening in communities all across this country that 
are not being told.
  Too many times we like to talk about problems. It is easy to talk 
about negatives; people will listen. This morning I had the opportunity 
in my district to visit one of those success stories, and I would say 
that any Member serving in this body can find a success story in their 
district any time they want to find it. We can always find the glass 
half empty. The question is, do we really want to find it half full?

[[Page H6765]]

  Education, and public education is that great leveler in society that 
helps people have an opportunity to move up. As I said, I visited one 
of those successes this morning; and I am honored to have an 
opportunity this evening to brag a little bit on those students, and 
those teachers, on those teachers' assistants, an outstanding 
principal, and an awful lot of people that contributed to the success 
of a bunch of children.
  This morning I visited Harnett Primary School in Dunn, North 
Carolina, to participate in a teacher appreciation day that was put on 
by the local PTO and business people in that community.
  I can say I was amazed at the success that principal Linda Turlington 
had with her wonderful faculty staff and students, but I probably would 
not be totally honest, because I know them. They are outstanding people 
and they work hard; but I think if they were here this evening talking 
with my colleagues and others, what they would say is they represent 
millions of teachers and staff who go in to an awful lot of nice 
schools, some not so nice schools, and some buildings that children 
ought not to even be in, because of the condition they are in; and they 
work hard every day and go home in the evenings and prepare for the 
next day to help children meet the challenges of the 21st century.
  Let me talk for just a minute, if I may, about Principal Linda 
Turlington and about her wonderful staff and her faculty and all of 
those students. Just 4 years ago, 4 short years ago, they had a 
performance that they were not happy with. Only about 50 percent of her 
students, or their students, were performing at what is called grade 
level on the North Carolina end-of-grade test. They decided that was 
not acceptable; they could do a better job with their children if they 
worked together.

  And I spoke to them about that this morning, because it is fine to 
have one outstanding teacher, one outstanding principal; but it is what 
we have to have as everyone working together as a team to make a 
difference. We can have a great athletic team, and we can have a 
superstar; but if all we have is one superstar, they may make a 
difference in some games. They will not win all the games. We have to 
be a team.
  So they started to work. They started identifying students. They 
started making sure their curriculum was rich, it was strong, that they 
were helping every children achieve. So last year they went from 50 
percent to raise that level or the year before last, last year, almost 
80 percent of their children, 77.4 percent, had reached grade level.
  This morning they were saying that is not good enough. They are 
working for all their children; that is real progress. It is the kind 
of improvement we ought to go about making in every community, in every 
county, in every State across the country; and we can do it. But we can 
only do it when we talk about the successes and help people achieve the 
best they can achieve.
  We cannot do it when we always talk about all the problems that run 
people down. This did not happen by accident. It took dedication, hard 
work on the part of teachers implementing the best practices they could 
get, not only in their school, but in their system, pulling down the 
best ideas all across the State and across the country.
  They practiced the things they learned, and they shared it on a 
collective basis; and they brought in some of the best minds to work 
with them. Everyone was committed and focused on achieving and sharing 
the goals of one thing, to improve student achievement.
  Now, did this school achieve all of these great successes because 
they had the best students in the county system? The answer is no. They 
had outstanding students. Every school does. Remember, this is the same 
school that only had 50 percent 4 years before. What was different? It 
was certainly attitude on the part of the teachers, and everyone on 
that staff. And it was also the attitude on the part of parents and 
students who said we can do better, and we will do better.
  I am so proud that this school has achieved the exemplary status for 
the people in Dunn and for Harnett Primary. But I say to my colleagues 
this evening that rather than bad-mouthing our public schools, like 
many politicians in this town do, Congress needs to support the sincere 
effort under way on the ground.
  As we work to improve our schools for all of our children, every 
child, whether they come from a background of parents who have 
resources to help them, or whether they come from parents who want 
their children to do well but just do not have those resources, every 
parent in the 8 years I served as superintendent, I never met a parent 
who did not want or desire for their children to have a good education.

                              {time}  2015

  They may not have known how to get there, but they wanted it for 
them.
  Mr. Speaker, we have that challenge today, we have it next week, and 
we will have it next year. Certainly Congress has no business, in my 
opinion, trying to be a national school board. That is not our charge 
nor our responsibility. It is a state-funded responsibility and local 
delivery of education, but there is no reason that Congress should not, 
cannot, and ought not to put resources in to help those young people in 
those schools and areas where they are not achieving, where they should 
be achieving.
  We made that decision years ago, and the Federal funding for 
education has slipped since the 1960s. We went through a period where 
we saw it drop, and now it is coming back, and we need to continue that 
push. It is so important.
  The 21st century, in my opinion, will be a century that will belong 
to the educated. Let me repeat that again: The 21st century will belong 
to the educated. There was a time when you could get a job if you 
dropped out of school. Those days are fast disappearing.
  We spend a lot of time in this town arguing back and forth about 
appropriations, budgets, et cetera, et cetera, but what gets lost too 
often in all the sound and fury of legislative debate is the central 
meaning of the choices we make.
  The choices we make are about our priorities. They also say something 
about our character, what we care about. Where we put our resources, or 
our money, if you please, tells people what is important to us. If you 
go into a town and you see a nice school building where the parents and 
the community are invested and involved in, it says education is 
important in that town. I happen to believe if you go into a town with 
a rundown building, children recognize very quickly, that is not the 
most important priority on the part of the people in that town. If the 
businesses are in order, it says that business is important. I think 
you can have a partnership of all. The budget and spending choices we 
make here define what our priorities are. As I said earlier, they truly 
express our values.
  I would say to you that many of my colleagues in the Democratic 
Caucus and I have been working all year to try to give greater priority 
to education in this budget process. Why education? As I said earlier, 
because education is the key to the future for every child, every 
child, no matter what their ethnic or economic background may happen to 
be. You deny a child an educational opportunity and you have denied a 
future family an opportunity to prepare and invest in the next 
generation. It is as simple as that.
  Certainly we value education, and we value it because we know that 
lifetime learning is the key to the American dream and today it is that 
ultimate ticket to the middle class. Everyone wants to get there. 
Whether a child is born into poverty today, if they get an education, 
they can be in the middle class tomorrow. But if we deny them an 
educational opportunity, they are relegated to poverty and so are their 
future children.
  We talk about the global economy and America's international 
competitiveness. Certainly we are in a global economy. What happens on 
the other side of the world, through telecommunications we know about 
it now almost instantaneously. But it also means that what happens on 
the other side of the globe economically impacts us, and we are going 
to have to deal with them educationally, and our ability to have a 
knowledge-based job economy is important.
  That does not mean agriculture will not be important in the future. 
Certainly it will be. It will continue to be. I grew up on a farm in my 
home State. As I tell my colleagues from time to

[[Page H6766]]

time, I grew up on what we call a small family farm. I knew what it was 
to get up at 3 o'clock in the morning and take out tobacco and prime 
tobacco all day.
  But those jobs have changed. Those small farms are much larger today 
when we talk about family farms. Where I grew up on a 50-75 acre farm, 
now when you talk about a farm, the farmer is talking about hundreds of 
acres. It has changed. Technologically it has changed. The equipment 
you use is different.
  It means that even the farmers have to be better educated to compete 
today. They have to know financing, they have to have computers. Their 
equipment is driven technologically. The combines, the tractors, all of 
those are the same thing, just like the factories, are computer driven. 
That is why children need to have technology in the classroom and 
teachers need to have it so they can teach it and integrate it in the 
curriculum.
  So in this new economy of this information age, what people can earn 
will certainly depend on what they have learned. We see that each and 
every day. We see more young people today becoming millionaires on the 
dot-com, but, in the end, we have to make something. They are speeding 
up the process.

  It comes back again to what I started talking about, Mr. Speaker. It 
is about education. It is about access so everyone has a chance at this 
table. I used to tell folks when I was superintendent, this thing we 
call public education in America is one of the great opportunities in 
the world. It is one of the few places in the world that I know of that 
every child, no matter what their ethnic or economic background may 
happen to be, they can step up to the great smorgasbord, and, if they 
are willing to work and learn, they can go as far as their ability will 
carry them.
  We have opened that door of opportunity. We ought to keep it open, 
and we need to swing it open even wider, right on beyond high school, 
because today just having 12 years or 13 years is just not adequate. We 
are going to need 2 and even 4 or more years beyond high school as we 
move into this 21st century.
  So we have been trying here in Congress to get this Congress to give 
higher priority to strengthen our neighborhood schools and demonstrate 
how much we value education for our children. Yes, it takes resources, 
yes, that is money. When you have children who have special needs, they 
will be contributing members of society if we give them an opportunity 
to get an education. Yes, those children who have been deprived early 
will do better if we open the doors and give them pre-kindergarten and 
special care early on. They will be contributing members and they can 
make a difference in society and be good students in school. But a 
child who starts school behind, I am here to tell you, will have a 
tough time, and many of them may never catch up. That is why Head Start 
is important for every child who needs it. There are those who would 
tell you, well, we cannot do it. We cannot afford it. Can we afford not 
to? Can we afford to have losers? I don't think so.
  I think we are a big enough society, we are a big enough country, we 
have the resources to do all those things if we do it. But, 
unfortunately, the House Republican leadership has said that we need a 
lot of other things first. I happen to believe that we need targeted 
tax cuts. But everything I read lately tells me that what we decided, 
last year we had almost $800 billion. This time we are talking about 
doing it in pieces so we will have more and we want to starve them so 
they will not have the resources.
  I grew up on a farm and one of the things I never forgot that my dad 
told me, he said, ``Son, don't feed the seed corn. Use your best corn 
to replant it so next year you can have a good harvest.'' What this 
majority wants to do is eat the seed corn so that our next generation 
will not have the opportunities, and that is wrong.
  We need to make the kind of educational investments so that we can 
make our schools world class, so we can have high quality curriculum 
for every child in every classroom. And, yes, we ought to hold them 
accountable. We ought to have high standards, because, just as I told 
you at the outset earlier today, the school in Dunn, North Carolina, 
Harnett Primary School, is holding their children accountable, holding 
their parents accountable, holding themselves accountable, setting high 
standards, and those students are reaching it.
  I certainly oppose these misguided priorities. We ought to invest in 
education, we ought to hold the system accountable, and we ought to get 
it done.
  I am pleased at this time to yield to the gentleman from New Jersey 
(Mr. Holt) to discuss more about our priorities in education. He 
certainly has been a leader in the whole area of education, but he has 
focused his attention on science education. He is one of the true 
scientists here in Congress and brings a lot to the table.
  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join with my colleague from 
North Carolina, who has been a leader throughout his career on 
education, and has brought that lifetime of experience here to the 
House of Representatives.
  The number of school children is growing now at a record-setting 
pace. We are experiencing the echo, the baby-boom echo, where the 
children of the baby boom are in school. I can tell you in my 
congressional district, there are some school districts where the 
number of children in kindergarten outnumbers the number in the 12th 
grade. You do not need to have higher mathematics to understand the 
implications of that for school construction and the need to provide 
good classrooms for those teachers and students.
  With more than 52 million students in schools today, an all-time 
high, we are experiencing real crowding in the classrooms. To alleviate 
the crowding, many of the schools in my district are using the 
temporary solution of temporary structures, long, narrow, trailer-like 
facilities that are really unsuited for classrooms. But many schools 
are forced to use that.
  New Jersey communities, as in many other parts of the country, need 
assistance to help provide the space for the children to learn, for the 
teachers to teach, and we really cannot postpone that any longer. The 
civil engineers point to this as the number one infrastructure problem 
facing the country today. We are investing billions of dollars in new 
prisons, we are investing billions of dollars in military 
installations. We should be investing resources in our schools for the 
sake of our children. It is the seed corn that my colleague speaks of.
  I visited more than 80 schools in this term that I have been in 
Congress, and everywhere I go I hear from parents and teachers and 
students who feel that there is a role for the Federal Government. We 
can help.
  Together with my colleague, the gentleman from North Carolina, I am 
working to help these fast-growing school districts, such as he has in 
his district, such as I have in mine, helping them to afford new and 
modern schools with what I think is a very attractive concept, tax 
credit for the holders of school construction bonds, in effect using 
Federal tax credits so that the school districts are reduced from the 
pressure of having to pay the interest to raise the capital for the 
school construction. These interest-free capital bonds will leverage 
the amount of money available to the school districts. My colleague has 
been a leader in devising and advocating this really very creative and 
attractive way of funding school construction.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time on that point, for our 
colleagues I hope they remember that that is H.R. 996, and, so they do 
not misunderstand, as the gentleman has indicated, all this does is pay 
the interest through a tax credit. It would allow the States and local 
jurisdictions to build the schools, to issue the bonds, but they would 
pay the principal only and no interest.
  It is a way to help the local units not only build the new buildings 
they need, and we have 53 million students coming into our public 
schools, the largest number in the history of America, but it will also 
allow them to renovate and provide for the technology that they so 
sorely need.
  I thank the gentleman for being such a strong proponent of this and 
being one of the earliest signers on this legislation with me, and 
trust before this Congress adjourns, that the Republicans will agree to 
bring this out of the committee, put it on the floor and let us vote it 
and help the schools.

[[Page H6767]]

  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, we certainly should have the opportunity to 
debate this and vote on it on the floor. It takes away no local 
authority. The local school authorities will determine what needs to be 
built and where it needs to be built and when it needs to be built, but 
I know in my district, many of the towns have difficulty justifying to 
the taxpayers the large increase in property taxes that would result 
from the necessary school construction.
  Now, this is not a free lunch. Of course, what we are doing in effect 
is deferring Federal revenue, but in the case of the school districts 
in central New Jersey it would be a shift away from property taxes, 
which would allow school districts to get on with the school 
construction that they know, that we all know, that they need to do.

                              {time}  2030

  I think it is a very attractive concept. I only wish, as my colleague 
says, that we could get this to the floor to be debated as it should 
be.
  The gentleman has been a real leader in advancing this idea and I 
think this will find favor all across the country.
  One other thing I would like to comment on is technology education, 
science education, and the importance of teachers. I think one of the 
greatest disservices that we do to students and to teachers is 
sometimes when people will talk about a born teacher, so and so is a 
born teacher, there are no more teachers born than there are born 
lawyers, born doctors, born engineers.
  When we talk about it that way, we lose sight of the fact of what 
hard work it is to be a teacher, and how a teacher must work to keep up 
with developments in their field and developments in learning, learning 
how children learn.
  So that if we are going to invest in the children of this country and 
in their education, we must invest in the professional development of 
teachers.
  In most businesses, it is customary to spend several percent, maybe 5 
percent, maybe 10 or even 20 percent of salaries in the training and 
development of the employees. In the field of education, in schools, 
that is typically 1 percent or less that is invested in the 
professional development of teachers.
  We must recognize that teaching requires continuous learning, 
continuous development, so that teachers can be the professionals that 
we want them to be.
  In the area of technology, our cars now have more computing power 
than the Apollo spacecraft had. Computers can send billions of dollars 
of capital around the world at the touch of a key, and our economy is 
booming with growth in high-tech industries, and yet a recent survey 
published by the Department of Education tells us that only 20 percent 
of teachers feel qualified to use the technology that is now available 
to them. Not some future technology that is coming but what is 
available to them today.
  That is why I am cosponsoring legislation to help teachers teach 
technology education. We must do more. In order for our country to 
continue growing and prospering in this century, we must ensure that 
our students receive a quality education in science and mathematics and 
technology. We must do what we can to help the teachers be prepared to 
teach those subjects.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I commend the gentleman for those 
important comments. I particularly agree with the gentleman on the 
issue of school construction that is so badly needed, not only in those 
growth areas but in a lot of our urban areas where children are going, 
as the gentleman said, trailers and substandard buildings that we would 
not operate a business out of.
  I used to go to civic clubs, and still do, and say to the folks, if 
they really think rundown buildings are good then why do they not 
invite the next business who comes to town and wants to expand, take 
them down to the old warehouse front and ask them to put their business 
in there and just say to them it is the buildings; it does not make 
that much difference. It is the people that are put in there, and see 
if they come back and open their factory in their town. They will not 
come back.
  I think the children deserve a quality place to go to school and 
teachers need a good place to learn.
  Mr. HOLT. If I may comment on that point, nationally schools now have 
an average age of about 45 years. In New Jersey, it is a little closer 
to 50 years. The average school age in any other business that would be 
considered obsolete.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. That is correct.
  Mr. HOLT. There is nothing that should lead us to believe that 
teaching techniques cannot advance just as business and manufacturing 
techniques advance.
  We have learned a lot in the last 50 years, in the last 100 years, 
about how children learn. Some of that has implications for how we 
construct a classroom and how we run a class. We need modern 
facilities.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. The gentleman is absolutely correct. Architects are 
doing that, and I would say to our colleagues who have not been into a 
school lately, go into one. Talk with the teachers, spend some time 
other than visiting. They will find out that just because the buildings 
still may be square or are have corners, it is an entirely different 
place on the inside.
  I happen to agree with the gentleman on this issue of technology. As 
the gentleman indicated earlier, as a former superintendent of my State 
schools I also know firsthand of a lot of amazing stories and a lot of 
good things happening in our schools.
  For example, contrary to all the bad-mouthing our schools tend to get 
from partisan politicians, student mathematics achievement has 
improved. We need to do better. Between 1982 and 1996, students 
improved their achievement in mathematics as measured by the, as the 
gentleman well knows, National Assessment of Education Progress, one of 
the most respected testing services we have.
  Students in my home State, as an example, have made gains that are 
three times the national average of gains on NAEP. Some of the greatest 
gains have come from our minority students, which is crucial because we 
do not have a single child to waste in the 21st Century. We must bring 
everyone along. Today when unemployment is low and we are searching for 
workers, we need everyone.
  We have other good news as well, let me just say to the gentleman. 
Student science achievement is improving. The gentleman has been a 
leader in trying to make sure we get more dollars out there to improve 
it even more. SAT scores have increased every year since 1990. ACT 
scores are up. These are things people do not want to talk about when 
we are doing good things.
  Students are taking more AP courses. As the gentleman well knows, AP 
is the advance placement courses. In high school, one takes college 
level courses that they can use their first year in college.
  School violence is coming down, and that is important. Public school 
teachers are better educated than private school teachers.
  Some would want to say that is not true. These are statistics from 
the Department of Education. I think they happen to be accurate.
  More students are going on to higher education. We need even more to 
go in this 21st Century. More women are going on to graduate and to 
professional degrees. As I said, we have no one we can leave behind. It 
is making a difference.
  We have a lot more examples, but if America is going to seize the 
opportunity of this new economy that the gentleman was talking about 
earlier, Congress must provide national leadership in this vital area 
of education. We cannot shirk our responsibility because across this 
country American people are calling for a greater effort in investment 
in education, not less.
  Now the Republican leadership is proposing private school vouchers 
all over again, the same thing we have heard before. They want to take 
billions of dollars out of tax money and use it to finance private 
school vouchers. I happen to believe that is wrong. We do not have 
enough money in the public schools today. We should not be draining 
those resources away and leave our children behind to be condemned to a 
bleak future of failure. That is absolutely wrong, and my colleagues 
and I who have been working on this special order this evening we do 
have some ideas about how we can do better things.
  Yes, we must invest in a national commitment on education. Yes, we

[[Page H6768]]

must hold schools accountable. Yes, we must be accountable to the 
taxpayers. Yes, we must raise standards and every child must have an 
opportunity to learn, and we have to put the resources under them so 
they can get there.
  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, and 
the gentleman has worked on that. The gentleman has been a leader in 
it.
  Mr. HOLT. The key is what the gentleman referred to just a moment 
ago, is every student. That is our national ideal, that we provide an 
excellent education for all students; not just science education for 
future scientists; not just smaller class sizes for those who can 
afford private schools; not just reading for those who are fortunate to 
have good pre-school access and exposure to books. No; for all 
children. That is the ideal that we should be upholding in everything 
we do here in the Congress, is that this general education, which is 
special to America, is what has made us so successful and what we must 
at every opportunity talk about and try to ensure in every school 
district across the country, that we are talking about education for 
all.

  Mr. ETHERIDGE. I thank the gentleman for that. The gentleman is 
absolutely correct. When some people use the words they talk about 
students and children, they really are not talking about all children. 
They do not mean all children. The gentleman does. I do. I trust that 
is what we are talking about when we talk about public education.
  I used to tell folks when I was superintendent, and I still do it as 
I talk, the difference between public school and any other school, than 
any other, is that when those yellow school buses show up in the front 
of that school, they do not ask those children have they had breakfast; 
they do not ask them if they came from a wealthy household with two 
parents; they do not ask them anything. They take all comers with all 
their opportunities, with all their challenges, and those teachers go 
in those classrooms every single day and work their heart out to make 
sure that every child does the best they can do.
  It is a tough job being a teacher. I have a son who is a fourth grade 
teacher. It is a tough job. I admire him for it because I have been in 
and seen some of the challenges they face. My daughter was a high 
school teacher. She is now going to law school. I guess for whatever 
reason she wants to go into education law.
  One of the best ways that we can improve education is one of the 
things the gentleman just talked about is providing smaller class sizes 
that are orderly, disciplined and where every child can get that 
additional attention that they so badly need. When we talk about 
private schools, or any other area, we really are talking about 
personalized attention, smaller class sizes, because when a child has a 
smaller class size, they can get more individualized attention. That is 
why this Congress is working with the President trying to get 100,000 
new teachers, and we are not talking about block grant so the money can 
be used for a lot of other things.
  I was a superintendent. I know what will happen when block grants are 
sent. I was at the State level when Congress decided we are going to 
send a block grant, and the next thing we are going to do we are going 
to cut that sucker because we decided less can be used in 
administration; so we will cut it. Then when they cut it, they will 
come back and say a good enough job was not done with the money we sent 
so we are just going to cut it out; teachers or staff cannot be hired 
in block grants.
  People tend to want to have a career path if they come into 
education. They are not looking for a one-year job to move somewhere 
else, and I do not think Members of this Congress still understand that 
when teachers are hired, the money ought to be categorized that they 
can use for that. Children show up in the classroom as kindergartners. 
The last time I checked, and the gentleman has been a proponent of 
this, they tend to stay 13 years. They need to be taught for those 13 
years.
  Mr. HOLT. Smaller class sizes, particularly in the early years, are 
essential. It is when students learn how to learn. The educational 
literature is clear on this. Smaller class sizes help students, and the 
advantage lasts for years and years. In fact, it may last a lifetime.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. I agree.
  Mr. HOLT. If we could get class sizes down to an average of 18 
students in kindergarten through third grade, it would benefit not only 
those teachers and those students during those years, it would benefit 
those students when they get to high school.
  The literature is clear on this, and that is what the President has 
been talking about in his effort to get 100,000 new teachers, 
particularly in the early years, so that we can have an average class 
size that appears to be optimum at about 18 students. That is what 
teachers tell me. One does not need to be smaller than that, but they 
should not be larger than that. It is a worthwhile goal.
  As the gentleman knows, we are two years into this process now. We 
have appropriated funds for 30,000 new teachers around the country, but 
we still have more to do.
  This would be in addition to hiring the teachers necessary to just 
keep up with retirement and attrition. This would be to actually reduce 
class sizes.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. The gentleman is absolutely correct. When we talk 
about the number of teachers we are going to need over the next 4 or 5 
years that are retiring and the openings and the challenges this 
country faces in having teachers in front of those classes who are the 
best teachers we can get who are certified in their curriculum area and 
doing the things we need to really raise our standards, that probably 
is a special order for a whole other day, and I hope we can talk about 
that because I think it is important as we are looking at 53 million 
students this year and more coming next year and over the next 10 years 
we are going to see growth.

                              {time}  2045

  It is what we are calling the ``baby boom echo.'' I used to tell 
folks we are growing so fast in North Carolina, we have low 
unemployment, a lot of folks moving in. We can always tell because 
school folks tend to want to project out how many teachers they are 
going to need, how many schools they are going to need. They can do a 
pretty good job based on live births; take the births in a community 
and go 5 years out and they can expect them to be coming to 
kindergarten. We have a lot of folks moving into our community coming 
from other places, who have a habit of bringing their children with 
them. That expands the opportunity, the need for more school buildings.
  But I think that we need to provide more support for our teachers, 
because they do have a very difficult but a critical job that has to be 
done. Because if we do not have the best people in those classrooms and 
we do not support them with the resources they need, we do not give 
them the kind of environment to teach in with the tools to teach our 
children, we are going to pay a heavy price in years to come.
  Mr. Speaker, there is nothing in, my opinion, outside of protecting 
our borders with our military and our national defense, the second most 
important thing we have is educating the next generation to be able to 
inherit the greatest country in the world. Because if we do not do 
that, we will rue the day that we did not do that.
  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, there is no better investment for the future. 
The gentleman speaks about the need for more teachers, and the 
gentleman is right. This is a subject for an entire day's discussion, I 
think; but let me just point out, as the gentleman knows well, in the 
next 10 years we will need to hire 2.2 million new teachers just to 
stay even. Not for smaller class sizes, but just to keep up with the 
current needs as teachers retire, as teachers, for various reasons, 
leave the profession. 2.2 million teachers.
  We have to make sure that we provide the training. As they enter the 
profession, that they are provided the mentoring in the early years and 
that we provide a climate of continuous improvement. That is what we 
talk about in industry; we should have the same thing in the teaching 
profession as we have in the medical profession and the legal 
profession.

[[Page H6769]]

  Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield back to the gentleman.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, as the gentleman from New Jersey was 
speaking, I was thinking as we were going through that what the 
gentleman is talking about is 2.5 million. That does not include the 
growth numbers we are going to need for whatever that baby boom echo 
carries out for years. As we think about education, and the gentleman 
has been a real leader in this certainly in math and science education, 
but the gentleman has expanded to all education and I thank him for 
that, bringing his background to this hall of the people's house.
  But we recognize that when we talk about hiring more teachers, even 
with the 100,000 that we are providing in resources, so that our 
colleagues understand and those who may be watching this evening, we 
really are talking about them being hired where they teach. They are 
not hired in Washington. In my case, when I was in Raleigh as State 
Superintendent, they were not hired at the State capitals. They were 
hired in the communities where the people are.
  That is why it is important when we talk about categorical money, so 
that people understand, that is money sent down specifically for 
teachers. When we send a block grant, that is a money that can be 
pulled away. That is why we think it is important to send that string 
for teachers so when they hire an individual, if they hire them to 
teach, they have a job this year and that money is going to follow next 
year.

  Mr. Speaker, when a person makes a commitment to a career in 
education, they know they are not going to get rich but they are going 
to be rich in rewards and responsibilities. My son reminds me that his 
groceries cost just as much when he gets his paycheck as a teacher as 
the groceries of the president of the largest bank. So we have to 
recognize if we are going to keep good teachers in the classroom and 
continue to attract the quality of people that we need to teach our 
children, we are going to have to make a decision.
  Congress certainly cannot do that. It is a local-level and a State-
level decision, but we ought not to be bad mouthing them. We ought to 
be raising them up and empowering them. And any way we can help, if we 
can fund 100,000 teachers, certainly we can do that. Can we help with 
school construction? Yes, we can help with that. Can we help with staff 
development at the university level? Absolutely, we can do that.
  Mr. Speaker, rather than talk about these things that I think are 
irresponsible, and block grants and vouchers, we ought to be talking 
about how we can help and hold up and encourage.
  Young people respond. I remember something in a book I read by Coach 
John Wooden of UCLA, one of the great basketball coaches of all time in 
his book entitled, They Call Me Coach. He had several great lines, only 
one of which I will share this evening. He said: You know, children 
need role models, not critics.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe teachers need encouragement, not criticism 
from public officials and certainly not from this body, the body that 
people around this country and around the world look to for leadership 
from time to time. We ought to be their greatest cheerleaders saying to 
them, ``We are here to support you and help you. We are going to do 
what we can to help make your life better.'' And, yes, we are going to 
send 100,000 teachers and, yes, we can afford to pay that interest to 
make sure that we have quality classrooms all across this country for 
children to go to and teachers to teach in.
  People recognize in America education all of the sudden again is one 
of the most important things we have in every community and help our 
people. As the gentleman from New Jersey indicated earlier, it 
certainly will not go all the way to correct all the needs, but it will 
be a start. It will say it is a high priority with those of us in 
Washington. And, yes, it will have some impact on that local property 
tax. Mr. Speaker, I yield back to the gentleman.
  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, I must say that we are fortunate to have the 
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Etheridge) in the House of 
Representatives keeping us focused on these issues. There is no one in 
this body who has more experience, more knowledge, and more dedication 
to the providing of excellent education for all of America's children. 
I thank the gentleman, not just for tonight's special order, but for 
what the gentleman does day in and day out to keep the House of 
Representatives focused on the most important investment that we as a 
country make: The investment in the education of our children.
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey 
(Mr. Holt), and I would say this evening is a very appropriate time as 
we do this order and talk about education simply because in some 
communities right now, school is getting ready to open. I went this 
morning to one where teachers were coming back and over the next 
several weeks, schools all across America will be opening up. There are 
some that are year-round schools that are going to be there all year, 
but there are those who will open up.
  Mr. Speaker, 94 Members in this House have signed this bill to build 
new schools. The gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel) and the 
gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Johnson) have signed on this 
bipartisan bill. It enjoys the support of an awful lot of Members of 
this House, and if we can get it to the floor, I think it will pass. I 
trust that the Republican leadership will give us a chance to vote on 
it.
  But when school opens for many places across America in the next few 
weeks, as I have already said, America will have more schoolchildren in 
our classrooms than at any time in the history of our Republic. More 
than even during the height of the baby boom. I guess one way to say it 
is that it is getting better; some might say it is getting worse. I 
happen to say it is getting better, because we have more children in 
our public schools.
  Mr. Speaker, we are in the best financial condition and have the best 
opportunity in this country that I can remember. As the U.S. Department 
of Education has documented, this explosive growth will continue for 
the next decade, and we ought to use this time and use these resources 
and opportunities we have to invest in our future, and invest in our 
children.

  It is wrong, it is absolutely wrong that we ask children to be in 
cramped closets, on stages, in leaky buildings, in trailers that we 
would not put a prisoner in, but we put our children in it and we tell 
teachers to teach there. They are hot in the summer and they are cold 
in the winter and that is wrong, absolutely wrong and unacceptable in a 
country that has the resources that we have.
  We ought to be investing. It would not take a lot. It would only take 
just a few small pennies of what we have here to make a difference all 
across America. The baby boom echo presents an immediate crisis in many 
states. My home State happens to be one of those. It is one of the 
fastest growing States in America.
  Mr. Speaker, this Congress must take action to build quality schools 
for our children. We not only have that responsibility, we have that 
obligation. As these 53 million-plus students head back to school this 
fall, they will know that we did not live up to our obligation last 
year. I trust we will not adjourn in October without meeting that 
obligation this year. We have that responsibility and that obligation. 
Too many of these children again this year will be stuck in trailers, 
shoved in closets, crammed into bathrooms that were converted to 
classrooms, and gyms and other substandard facilities and in some cases 
buildings that do not have glass in the windows. That is not 
acceptable.
  Mr. Speaker, how do we tell a child that education is really 
important when they just rode by a new prison to go to an old rundown 
school building? That is not right. It is not right in America. It is 
not acceptable.
  Our communities need help to build quality schools where good order 
and discipline fosters a positive learning environment for our 
children. Our teachers deserve it also.
  Mr. Speaker, let me close this evening finally by saying there is 
another issue I want to touch on just briefly that my State has worked 
on, and I have introduced legislation in this Congress and trust that 
it will pass. That is on character education. We did a survey in my 
State of 25,000 students, teachers, parents and school

[[Page H6770]]

employees and nearly one-third of them indicated that they did not 
treat their teachers with respect. This was in 1989-90, 10 years ago.
  Mr. Speaker, we put in place character education. We started out with 
ethics education and turned it into character education. It is now part 
of the curriculum in our State and it is making a difference. It is 
integrated into the curriculum. It is not separate.
  It teaches such thing as trustworthiness. Who can disagree with that? 
Respect. Who can disagree with that? Responsibility, caring, fairness, 
citizenship, perseverance, courage and self-discipline. We can all 
agree with that. Those are American traits. Every child should be 
taught that. It makes a difference in their life, they are better 
students as a result of it, and those classrooms and schools across 
North Carolina that have instituted it, they are seeing discipline 
problems go down and academics go up. All we need to do is look at what 
is happening in North Carolina. It is making a difference.
  Mr. Speaker, as I close this evening, I would call on my colleagues 
to step up to the plate, as we say in baseball, and face up to the 
responsibility that we have an obligation to fund the 100,000 teachers 
so children can be taught in smaller classes and make sure that we have 
the classrooms children can learn in and teachers can teach in. So that 
parents once again will have the kind of respect they need to have 
because they feel we put the money where we ought to put it and invest 
it in the future and we ought to be putting the character opportunities 
to teach.
  As the parent of two teachers, with a wife who teaches, and children 
who have gone through the public school, I will say this evening that 
our future is in the K-12 public schools in America where 90-plus 
percent of all of our children go. We cannot turn our backs on the 
opportunity for all of our children.

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