[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 113 (Thursday, September 21, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H7971-H7977]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EDUCATION IN TODAY'S WORLD
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 6, 1999, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Roemer) is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. ROEMER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, who we are proud of
as a Hoosier; and, as he has announced his retirement this year, he
will be missed.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about, in a bipartisan way, an
issue that I think is the most important issue to my constituents in
the great State of Indiana, whether I go to South Bend or Elkhart, La
Porte or Michigan City or Middlebury or all over Indiana. Business
leaders, parents, workers are talking about the importance of a great
education system.
{time} 1415
It has been said, as education goes, so goes America. We need in this
great hallowed Chamber to be able to discuss in civil and bipartisan
ways new ideas that will lead to a better education system.
Today in the Committee on Education and the Workforce, we were
fortunate to have, not so much an expert on education issues as an
expert on economic and fiscal issues, the chairman of the Federal
Reserve, Alan Greenspan testify before our committee.
We talked at length with Mr. Greenspan about how intimately education
is tied to the health, competitiveness, the betterment of our civil
society. We can have low inflation. We can have low unemployment rates.
We can have low mortgage and interest rates. But if we do not have a
prepared citizen rate, if we do not have great schools and quality
teachers, if we do not have discipline in the schools and parents being
involved in our children's education, then we are not going to have a
continued productive economy.
So Mr. Greenspan was up before Congress to say to us, Democrats and
Republicans alike, that we have to do a better job in math and science
education and enticing our best and brightest people into teaching,
whether that be at 18 years old or at 48 years old in mid career.
Now, I have a number of my colleagues that want to join us on the
floor today to talk about the importance of education, some of the new
ideas that we have talked about and fought for and articulated through
the months.
We have talked about parental involvement which is one of the biggest
indicators to success. We have talked about quality teachers and making
sure that we get the best and brightest into the teaching profession.
We will talk a little bit more about a bill that the gentleman from
Florida (Mr. Davis) and I have introduced to try to entice people who
want to move from Main Street into our classrooms with math and science
and technology expertise.
We will talk, maybe, a little bit about class size and how class size
is such a large determinate about how effective a quality teacher can
be. There is a huge difference between a class of 16 and a class of 26.
About professional development opportunities for our teachers, a
recent survey indicated that 80 percent, 80 percent of those teachers
that were polled said that they did not feel comfortable integrating
technology into the curriculum and that they needed more opportunity
for professional development.
We will probably talk a little bit about safe schools, drug-free
schools, and discipline in our schools, and all of that within the
context of local control of our schools, making sure there is
accountability at the local level, that we give resources and we target
programs for our local communities, and they make decisions.
So let me include some of my colleagues, Mr. Speaker. I know the
gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind), my good friend who serves on the
Committee on Education and the Workforce, has talked at length about a
number of these issues, including his concern for academy for
principals and teachers, for leadership programs for these individuals
running schools, about parental involvement in schools as being such an
important indicator. He was in the committee hearing this morning when
we had Mr. Greenspan.
Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr.
Kind).
Mr. KIND. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Indiana (Mr.
Roemer) for yielding me this time and for allowing me to participate
during this special order on what really should be the top priority,
the top issue for this country of ours.
We have had a tremendous run with economic success and growth in
recent years. We have heard testimony today from the chairman of the
Federal Reserve Board, Alan Greenspan, on the Committee on Education
and the Workforce, very enlightening and in-depth testimony about the
important role of ramping up the quality of education and the
implications for maintaining economic growth and expanding the
opportunity for economic achievement in this country.
We also had a wonderful second panel that testified as well with
leaders in the education field who came, Mr. Haseltine, who is CEO of
the Human Genome Science project; as well as Mr. Barrett, CEO of Intel
Corporation talking about some of the innovative things that the
private sector is doing to partner with the public sector to improve
the quality of education.
There is no question that we face challenges as a Nation in order to
meet the growth needs that this economy has, but to expand the
opportunities for success for all people and especially for our
children in this country as we embark on what appears to be an
incredible journey in the 21st century of scientific discoveries and
wonders that are hard to imagine at this time.
Mr. Haseltine from the Human Genome project, for instance, testified
about the implications of not emphasizing enough math and science and
engineering and technology in the classroom and the adverse effects
that could have, then, on our ability to stay at the forefront of these
discoveries.
I happen to think that it is, not only good economically to do this
to prioritize education in the country, but there are national security
implications as well.
I do not think it is too bold to predict today that, with the Human
Genome project, the mapping of the human body, the possible discovery
of water on Mars, and a moon off from Jupiter, and the tremendous
amount of biotechnological discoveries, medical breakthroughs,
scientific breakthroughs, we are probably going to see more of those
discoveries in the next
[[Page H7972]]
10, 15, 20 years than we have seen discoveries in the last 300 years in
this world.
With that comes the challenge that this democracy and other
democracies have around the globe that we need to do everything we can
to get there first in making these type of scientific and medical
breakthroughs, because they will have a profound effect on the course
of human events. There are no guarantees that these scientific and
medical discoveries will necessarily be used for good purposes to
improve the human life.
But I have more confidence that the democracies, if we make these
discoveries first, will better shape these new discoveries for the
betterment of mankind as opposed to some type of authoritarian or
dictatorial regimes somewhere else on the globe making these
discoveries.
So it is kind of a national security issue that we are talking about
as well why we need to have a national effort to improve the quality of
education for our kids, an effort not unlike what we saw during the
challenges posed to this country and to the free world during the
Second World War where everyone in this country had a role to play, and
the collective energy and resources of a Nation were brought to bear in
order to achieve the common objective of defeating Nazism, fascism, the
Japanese Empire in the Pacific. It was an incredible event in world
history that the democracies were able to rally and accomplish that
feat.
I think we face the same type of challenge in the education system
now where it is not going to just take policymakers or just parents or
teachers or principals being involved but every member of this country,
everyone in our society should have a role in improving the quality of
education.
A couple of weeks ago I had a chance to tour a lot of the elementary
schools back in my district. At the time, I was releasing a report, a
survey, a district-wide survey on the progress of reducing class size,
knowing the success that that has reached in areas that have been
successful in reducing class size, resulting in enhanced student
performance as a result.
The survey for western Wisconsin shows that we are doing a pretty
good job. There are some holes. Improvements still need to be made. But
we are doing a pretty good job of bringing those class sizes down so
that the teachers have more individual attention with the kids. There
is better discipline with the classroom, more safe school districts as
a result, but we need to do more in that area as well.
We heard some testimony today about the important role that parents
play in the child's education. That is the number one factor to
determine how well a child is going to succeed in the education system,
how involved parents are going to be in their own children's education.
Now, with the advent of technology and e-mail in particular, more and
more parents are able to get more directly involved in the school
system and what is happening in the individual classroom affecting
their child through increased communication with the teachers of their
kids and through the principals and superintendents of school
districts, being able to communicate in a much more effective and
efficient manner through the Internet and e-mail messages back and
forth. I think it is a wonderful development.
But we also know that, after parental involvement, the next most
important determinate is the quality of teachers in the classroom. We
heard consistently from Chairman Greenspan and others on the panel
today the importance of professional development making to ensure we
get the resources to the teachers so that we have the best and the
brightest, as the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Roemer) indicated, in the
classrooms making the difference that they can.
There, too, we face a huge challenge as a Nation, a 2.2 million
teacher retirement over the next 10 years. It is both a challenge and
an opportunity. The challenge is to fill those vacant spots. The
opportunity is to fill it with good quality people that are going to
make a difference in the classroom.
That is one of the reasons why I and many other Members, the
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Roemer) and also the gentleman from North
Carolina (Mr. Etheridge), introduced the Ed-Tech bill, Education-
Technology bill, which will provide more resources back to local school
districts for the professional development of teachers of how best to
use this new powerful learning tool, the technology and the Internet,
and the numbers that that brings to the classroom and how they can
better integrate that technology into the classroom.
Now, computers and the Internet and all these fancy programs on the
computer are not going to replace good teachers. That will never
happen. But it can certainly empower the teachers to be much more
effective and efficient in connecting with the kids and enhancing
student performance in the classroom. So those are just a few of the
issues that I wanted to raise today.
Mr. ROEMER. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, the gentleman from
Wisconsin (Mr. Kind) probably has very similar businesses and schools
and farms to what I may have in Indiana. I constantly find, as I visit
both my small businesses and my big businesses and my unions and my
chambers, that there is an overwhelming concern, probably the number
one concern within the business community, and it was expressed very
well today by the second panel, by people from Intel and other major
corporations, international corporations, that we need to do a better
job in this country of training our people in technology and math and
science and school.
The business community makes this oftentimes their number one
concern; that when one walks out of an Indiana high school or Wisconsin
or Florida or North Carolina or California high school, that that
degree means that one should be able to walk right into a business at
the local community and have certain requisite skills so that one is
employable or can continue one's education someplace else.
We need to continue to challenge our public schools, which are doing
a very good job, but we need to have them do an even better job in this
challenging global economy.
Mr. KIND. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield again?
Mr. ROEMER. I am happy to yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.
Mr. KIND. Mr. Speaker, just for one final thought on this subject. I
was very encouraged. In fact, we are seeing a new awakening within the
business community about how inextricably linked their future success
and growth needs are to the education system.
We are seeing many more private-public partners being formed and
creative ideas coming out of the private sector of how they can assist
in improving professional development with the teachers, getting the
technology into the classroom, making sure that every child, regardless
of where they happen to be living and growing up, are going to have
access to the important technology so we can close this digital divide
and raise all our kids up so they can be competitive in what is going
to prove to be a very tough and very competitive marketplace following
their education careers.
So that is, I think, a very positive and encouraging development, and
I know many of us on the committee and within the new Democratic
Coalition in particular are finding creative ways of how we can foster
and encourage this type of private-public partnership to achieve common
objectives. I think it is the direction we need to be going in. Right
now, from what I see, there is a lot of hope and promise in this
direction.
Mr. ROEMER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr.
Kind). I believe that that really leads us to an issue that is a very,
very important one and vital one to me; and that is the quality of
teachers in our schools.
The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Davis) and I have introduced a bill
that seeks to find some new ways to bring people in mid career, maybe
off of Main Street, maybe an accountant, maybe somebody with expertise
in computer technology, somebody with expertise in math or science,
from the private sector into the public realm of teaching. It is not a
way to circumvent tough standards or teaching requirements, it is a way
to still demand that that teacher has to be able to meet stringent
tests to convey knowledge to kids in the classroom. But they do not
necessarily have to go back, as a 20- or 21-year-old, to Ball State or
Indiana University or Saint Mary's and go back
[[Page H7973]]
to graduate school; that there are other ways of doing this in this new
global economy.
{time} 1430
The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Davis) and I have worked for about a
year now on this bill. We have some bipartisan support for this bill.
We almost got it enacted into law last year; we hope it will be enacted
this fall. I know that he has worked very, very hard on this bill and
had a number of conversations with the White House and with Republicans
and Democrats and almost anybody who will listen.
I would be happy to yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Davis)
to talk about the importance of quality teaching.
Mr. DAVIS of Florida. I think it is important to emphasize exactly
what the problem or challenge our Nation faces. Over the next decade,
we are going to have to hire over 2.2 million new schoolteachers in
this country. It is a result of demographics, as many of our very fine
teachers begin to reach retirement age, and also the terrific growth we
are experiencing in all levels of grades today. In Hillsborough County
in Tampa we are going to have to hire 7,000 new teachers over the next
10 years, and we are still struggling to find teachers to fill classes
that started several weeks ago.
So how do we go about meeting this demand and treating this as not
just a challenge as far as quantity but also quality? What can we do to
really ensure that we attract the very best people to our classrooms to
teach our children?
The Federal Government has sponsored a program known as Troops to
Teachers, which was started by Senator John McCain and others, which
has encouraged military retirees to move from the military into the
classroom. Over 3,000 men and women have done this, about 270 in the
State of Florida; and there have been some very good results. A lot of
these men and women are there because they want to be there, they bring
their life experience into the classroom, and they really have done a
lot of great things.
In my hometown, I know of one Vietnam veteran who started a course on
the Vietnam War, as a social studies class in high school; something
the school district never could have provided otherwise.
So building on that success, the bill that my colleague, the
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Roemer), and I have introduced, along with
other Democrats and Republicans, and that Senator Bob Graham has
introduced with other Senators in the Senate, would expand the program
to anybody. It could be a retired fire fighter, a retired policeman, a
retired businessman or businesswoman, or lawyer. We are trying to move
people from the fire house or the police station on Main Street to the
schoolhouse on Main Street, from the board room to the classroom.
Increasingly we are hearing from lots of people who have said this is
something I am willing to do. I want to give something back to the
community. I feel my life experience qualifies me to be a teacher. I am
not afraid to meet those same high standards that every other teacher
has to meet. Because we do not change those standards. We are simply
trying to encourage people to make that transition into teaching.
Our bill provides up to $5,000 as a grant to cover tuition and fees
for someone who wants to go back to school to be a teacher and to pass
the certification in their State. Our bill, also very importantly,
provides funds that are available to any group that wants to encourage
people to consider teaching as a second profession. It could be a
chamber of commerce, it could be a university, it could be a labor
union, it could be a not-for-profit organization. There are a lot of
people out there that want to do this, and there is no reason why
Congress should not take the lead and step up and call attention to
this and facilitate people who really, on an individual basis or on
behalf of a group, want to step up and help deal with this challenge.
So I simply cite this as one example of what we can do, among many
others, if Democrats and Republicans will come together in the closing
days of this session of Congress and deal with things that will really
help our school children at home.
Mr. ROEMER. If the gentleman will yield, and the gentleman has
probably had this happen to him on occasion too, but I have
constituents in my home State of Indiana that know how active I have
been on this issue and how enthusiastic I am about this idea, who walk
up to me saying, when can we do it? I was fortunate enough, they say,
to make a little bit of money over the last 20 years of my career in
accounting, and now I want to give back to the community and I want to
go into teaching. And if I can pass that stringent exam at the State
level and if I can do an able job in that classroom of conveying that
knowledge, I want to teach.
The business community is very excited about this idea. The high-tech
community is very excited about this idea. As the gentleman noted,
Democrats and Republicans have supported the idea. I know the gentleman
has probably seen some success in Florida with this idea and people
trying it too.
Mr. DAVIS of Florida. I have, and I have talked to men and women who
have said to me, I want to make the transition; but before I start my
job and earn a salary, I need a little help paying my tuition.
That is one of the purposes of the bill, to provide up to a $5,000
grant. And in return, and this is important to taxpayers, in return for
receiving this grant, that teacher will have to spend at least 3 years
teaching in a school that has a high need for teachers. Many of these
are our most challenging schools. Many of the teacher positions that go
unfilled are in math and science and special education, and there are
people who have excelled in math and science who want to give something
back who will make terrific teachers.
There is no reason we should not get this done. We have a perfect
opportunity to be a part of the solution. The President has proposed
$25 million to fund this. Senator Mike DeWine in the Senate is a strong
supporter of this proposition. We need to get it done in this session
of Congress, and we need to be part of the solution in dealing with the
increasing shortage of teachers.
Mr. ROEMER. I appreciate the gentleman's hard work and articulation
of why this is such an important piece of legislation. And the
gentleman has noted that we have Senator DeWine, a Republican from
Ohio, and Senator Graham, a Democrat from Florida, trying to work the
Senate side on this. We are certainly working with Republicans and
Democrats here in the House to try to get this passed as well.
The gentleman mentioned that we based our bill on a previously
successful program called Troops to Teachers, where we have somewhere
between 3,000 and 4,000 individuals, many of them still in high-need
areas where we have a paucity, a shortage, of qualified teachers; where
turnover and retention is even higher in some of these rural and inner-
city areas. These individuals have brought specific, for the most part,
math and science skills into many of these schools. So it has been a
winner for public education, it has been a winner for a transition from
military to other civilian life, and it has been a winner in terms of
retention problems that we are having to deal with in public education.
Mr. DAVIS of Florida. The most recent example of this, if the
gentleman will yield, is the New York City School District. The
chancellor of the New York City School District, Mr. Hal Levy, has
instituted a program he calls the New York Teaching Fellows; and he is
succeeding in inspiring men and women to leave their jobs and go into
teaching.
We need to be a part of that solution by having financial aid
programs that are tailored to help people pay their bills while they
are making the transition into teaching.
Mr. ROEMER. I thank the gentleman from Florida for his time and his
hard work on this bill.
The gentleman from Florida talked about men and women going into
teaching, and I think Mr. Greenspan today also touched on that, in
responding to a very important question from the gentlewoman from
California, who also serves on the Committee on Education and the
Workforce with me. I would like to yield to her to talk a little about
a program she is working on about equity, about fairness, about women
getting into math and science programs; and maybe she will further
[[Page H7974]]
articulate on what Chairman Greenspan talked about today in reference
to her question.
Ms. WOOLSEY. Well, I thank the gentleman for inviting me to be part
of this conversation with him this afternoon on this special order.
I will be talking about my ``Go Girl'' bill, but before I do that I
have a few other thoughts on education that I would like to share with
the gentleman in this conversation. Because I think it all works
together, by the time I get to my ``Go Girl'' thoughts, and how
important it is that we have women in math, science, and engineering in
this country.
When I first came to Congress in 1993, my number one priority was to
make education the number one priority in this Nation, and I was
honored and delighted to be placed on the Committee on Education and
the Workforce with the gentleman from Indiana. We sat side by side, if
I remember correctly, and that was when the gentleman's first child was
being born. So now 8 years later, the gentleman has a much larger
family, and I have a few different ideas about education. My commitment
has not changed, but what has changed is my understanding of what it
takes for our children to be ready to learn when they enter the
classroom.
We can have the best schools and the best teachers in the world, and
we must; but our children will not enter the classroom ready to learn
if we do not take some steps that are missing right now. If we have the
best schools and the best educators, it will not matter if they are not
ready to learn. So let us face it, if today's children are lucky enough
to have two parents living with them in their home, chances are that
both parents are in the workforce, they work outside of the home, and
it is our children that are being left behind. It is not parents'
fault. They are working hard, they are commuting long hours, they are
working long hours, and they are doing that for one reason only and
that is to support their families.
The fact is that 66 percent of our mothers with children under age 6
are working; 77 percent of mothers of school-aged children have jobs.
Compared to 30 years ago, parents are spending nearly 52 fewer days a
year with their children. Fifty-two days less a year with their
children. That is almost 2 months in time. So we have to give parents
the tools they need to bridge the gap between work and family so that
their children will be prepared to succeed when they become adults. I
would suggest that there are some tools that we must include so that
parents can do a better job and so that we can do a better job for
parents and relieve some of their pressures.
First of all, I believe we need to have universal voluntary
preschool. I also would support paid family leave, school breakfasts,
and quality child care programs, thinking of those four programs as
being key to preparing children to be ready for school when they enter
the classroom.
I am the Chair of the Democratic Caucus's Task Force on Children, and
we are heading up an effort to ensure that our children's needs are
considered in every vote we take in this Congress, and that we develop
a comprehensive children's agenda that will help to prepare our
children for the challenges that they will face now and the challenges
that they will face as adults.
Paid family leave is a key tool. It is a tool we can use to make sure
that our children get off to a positive start. Study after study has
shown that the first three years are critical to a child's development.
Provisions must be made for families to be with their children at this
critical time at the beginning of their lives.
I have introduced legislation with Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut
to allow States to establish paid leave programs so workers can care
for newborns or newly adopted children. We know that the Family and
Medical Leave Act has done a lot to help families, but most families
cannot afford to go without a paycheck. In fact, a recent study found
that nearly two-thirds of employees who needed family leave did not
take it because they could not give up their family's income. It is our
children who are paying the price because their parents need to earn a
living, and that is not right. Parents should not have to choose
between financial stability and their children's emotional stability.
We also have to look at the fact that learning does not start on the
first day of kindergarten. Children are growing and changing from the
day that they are born. By providing parents the option of
participating in a voluntary universal preschool program, we will be
giving all children, not just the parents who can afford to send their
children to preschool, but all children a chance to start school ready
to learn. Programs like Head Start and Early Head Start show us that
pre-K programs work, and parents should have the option of enrolling
their children in a structured, quality pre-K program.
{time} 1445
As I have said, with parents working hard, children are spending more
and more time in child care. So we must ensure that child care is
available to all children and that child care will be able to ensure
for these children that they will be ready to learn, also, so that the
child care is quality child care, and oh, my, would it not be nice to
pay child care workers what they really should be earning?
But in particular, I want to talk about parents with infants and
toddlers. They have the hardest time finding quality child care because
they are working, especially those in the workforce that work
nontraditional hours, weekends and nights, we need to do more so that
there is child care available for children under age 3 and for parents
that work nights and weekends.
But it is just not young children who are coming to school
unprepared. Our children in school also face challenges. Now, we have
title XI of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act which I wrote
and saw signed into law in my first term in 1995. We need to expand
title XI, because title XI allows schools to use more of their Federal
funds for in-school support services, so that their students and
families have those services available and convenient to them, services
such as after-school programs, mentoring programs, tutoring and
counseling programs, really services that could help young people
address their fears, their angers, their frustrations before they
result in tragic consequences like we have experienced this last year
at our high schools.
Also, students cannot learn when they are hungry. It is proven that
students who eat breakfast do better on tests, they are more well
behaved in the classroom and they miss less school than those who do
not eat breakfast. In spite of the good economy and because parents are
so busy, many children, not only poor children, start the day off
without breakfast. My pilot Federal school breakfast program which is
under way in five school districts around the country is the first step
toward universal school breakfast.
So even within the classroom, many children face challenges. They
face challenges that make it hard for them to receive a quality
education, and we must have quality education accessible to all
children. So that means building new, modern schools that are welcoming
to those who are disabled, that provide the technical background and
experience and equipment that they need so that they are all learning
on a level playing field. And in the high-tech global economy we have,
those that graduate without computer skills are going to be left
behind, pointblank, they will be left behind, as if we were teaching
kids without books or without pencils or without paper.
That is why we have to make sure that minorities and women do not
continue to lag in training in math, science and technology. Females
make up slightly more than 50 percent of our country's population, but
less than 30 percent of America's scientists and less than 10 percent
of engineering graduates are women.
That is why I have introduced, now we will talk about Go Girl, that
is why I have introduced the Go Girl bill to encourage a bold new
workforce of energized women who will go into math and science and
technology careers, careers that pay well, careers that are in great
demand. Go Girl is legislation that will create a mentoring program to
help girls from the fourth grade, because it is shortly after the
fourth grade when they become sixth graders and on that for some reason
girls lose
[[Page H7975]]
interest in science and math. We have to do something to encourage them
to become interested and to stay interested in high tech careers.
I do not believe, as our colleague said earlier, that education is
only a job for our teachers. We have to have parents involved in their
children's education. It has been proven that parental involvement is
what makes the difference quite often in a successful student and a
failing student. Parental involvement needs to be made a national
priority for all schools, all families, and all people. These are just
some of the fundamental ideas that I have that I think we in Congress
can do something about to ensure that education in America is the best
in the world. We must not only look at school buildings but we have to
have school buildings. We also have to look at the problems children
face before they enter the classroom. Only by seeing the whole picture
can we give every child a chance to learn and a chance to succeed.
Children are only 25 percent of our population but they are 100
percent of this Nation's future. Our children must have every
opportunity to succeed because there are going to be many challenges in
this 21st century. Their future depends on it and the future of this
Nation depends on it.
Mr. ROEMER. I thank the gentlewoman for her articulate comments in
looking at education across the spectrum and across the board. She did
mention the need to try to get to children at earlier and earlier
stages because there is so much great, ripe potential there for our
children to learn at 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 years old. She also serves on
the Committee on Education and the Workforce. When we looked at the
existing Head Start program that is about 35 years old and we tried to
put more emphasis in the Head Start program on what we found out about
how much more children can learn now in the year 2000 than what we
suspected in 1965, we tried to move it a little bit more away from some
sitting services to more quality education. But still we only have
sometimes 40 or 45 percent of some of the eligible children enrolled in
that Head Start program, and I know she is a big proponent of that
early education and quality Head Start programs.
Ms. WOOLSEY. It was a hearing with Dr. Ed Ziegler, the father of Head
Start, that started me on the road to preparing children for school,
even though I know my major effort is that all children have the best
education in the world, but getting them ready for this education. We
had a child care hearing and, of course, he was there to talk about the
successes and some of the learning experiences of Head Start. Dr.
Ziegler said, before we even started, ``I have learned that no matter
how good we make Head Start, if we don't take care of our children and
have parents involved with them the first, from zero to 3 years old,
the best Head Start programs in the world will have less of a chance of
success.'' When I talk about universal preschool, I use Head Start as
my model. So the gentleman is right. We have to make that available, on
a voluntary basis. We do not want to force people to send their
children to preschool if they can keep them home and want to.
Mr. ROEMER. I thank the gentlewoman from California. In reclaiming my
time, with respect to Head Start and parental involvement, what we have
also tried to do with that Head Start program is devise some programs
at night for parents to come in and work with the children directly so
that they gain some of the skills and education to help teach their
children some of the things, or reinforce with the children some of the
things that the Head Start programs are trying to teach their children.
But the gentlewoman is absolutely right. The key indicator, the very
most important indicator for a child's success in education is parental
involvement. If those parents are not involved, we can have the teacher
quality and we can have the professional development and we can have
the local control and the good ideas to reinforce charter schools and
public choice, but that parental involvement is so critically
important.
Ms. WOOLSEY. I think what the gentleman is referring to, teaching the
parents at Head Start, is parents being the first teacher. That is
where it starts and that is where it ends with our children. The better
the parent knows how to parent and how to teach their children by
example in general, the better that child is.
Mr. ROEMER. I thank the gentlewoman from California for her very
helpful comments.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to segue into, we talk about parental
involvement in terms of being a key in respect to helping our education
system improve, but we also need legislators here in this body that
have direct experience with our schools and know what role we should
play and what role we should not play. The gentleman from North
Carolina (Mr. Etheridge) who I am going to yield to has got not only
experience as a parent with some of his children teaching but he has
got experience as a superintendent. The gentleman from North Carolina
has worked tirelessly on education issues in this Congress,
construction issues, education issues, quality teaching issues,
technology issues.
I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina.
Mr. ETHERIDGE. I want to thank my friend and colleague the gentleman
from Indiana (Mr. Roemer) for yielding and secondly for hosting this
special order today.
I was seated there as the dialogue was going on and could not help
but think, when I was the State superintendent of schools in North
Carolina back in 1996 contemplating running for Congress, I could not
help but think it is amazing what a few years have done to the dialogue
in this body. In 1996, I was so irritated as State superintendent
trying to work in my State of North Carolina with 1.1 million children
and listening to the teachers and administrators so beaten down here in
Congress, talking about abolishing the Department of Education, doing
away with child nutrition, cutting moneys, block granting, all those
things that scared the people to death who were out there nurturing and
caring for children, many of whom came to school each day to the safest
place that they would arrive, and we have talked about that, where the
teachers had to feed them breakfast and love them before they could
teach them because unfortunately they did not get the kind of nurturing
that every child did have to come.
It is good to know now we are having more dialogue now across the
aisle about the ability of this Congress to do something. I am glad our
colleagues on the other side of the aisle are starting to pay some
attention. I hope that before we finish this 106th Congress that we
will heed to a number of the issues that have been addressed already
but which I will not try to repeat. But I think it is important, a
number of the pieces that you have worked on and been a cosponsor on.
The whole issue of character education that we have included not only
in higher education but now we have included in the reauthorization
act. I thank the gentleman for his help on that. We have used it in
North Carolina and it absolutely works in increasing academic
achievement and reducing discipline in our schools.
I sought this office when I came to Washington for only one reason
and really one reason only. I wanted to come and help change the tone
of the debate. I wanted to help make education work at the national
level. Since I have been here and was sworn in, I have worked, as the
gentleman knows, with my colleagues really on both sides of the aisle
to help shape, where I could, meaningful legislation that will help our
communities do a number of things, one of which that you are a
cosponsor of as are, I think, most of the Members who have been here
today, the truth is about 228 Members have now signed on to a bill for
school construction.
All these things. New teachers. We are talking about 100,000 teachers
we have to fund this time, and I happen to believe we ought to fund
those teachers and not block grant it. Funding for teachers, that is
what parents tell me they need. I got a letter out of my local paper
today that I am going to share with our friends in a few moments. But
it is so important that we make sure that we help build schools and we
do help reduce class sizes.
The gentleman and his wife have several children. How would you like
to be teaching 28 or 30 of them in your house each day?
Mr. ROEMER. I do have. We just had our fourth child, a little girl,
Grace. I
[[Page H7976]]
have Patrick, Matthew and Sarah. The job of a teacher today, and I
think the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Etheridge) in talking to
his wife and talking to him on many occasions late at night around
here, I have heard about his children who are no longer the age of my
children, 7, 6, 3 and 40 days old, but they are teaching, they followed
you into the education profession. Oftentimes the gentleman and I have
talked at length about the importance of parental involvement. Some of
our children are going to school without that parental involvement,
without one parent following through on homework, on keeping them
diligent about what they need to do to follow up on school work. We are
demanding of our teachers not just to teach the three Rs, reading,
writing and arithmetic but they are responsible for ethics, character
education, values. Some of the children are bringing problems from the
home into the classroom.
{time} 1500
And when that classroom has 26 of those children in it, that is quite
a challenge. So the gentleman brings up an excellent point.
Mr. ETHERIDGE. If the gentleman would yield, I have a letter here
that was a letter to the editor. It was in our State paper, the News &
Observer, just this morning on this very issue. A teacher had written a
letter talking about class size and how important class size is, and in
addition to that, how important it is to have a classroom large enough
to teach.
My colleagues know we will hear so many people talk about, well, this
school was fine when I was there. It was a different world then. We
were talking earlier about high tech and our people in the business
community, not only just high tech, the people who work, run small
businesses.
It is important for them to have a well-educated employee who comes
in, but it is important also for them to understand that their business
is different than it was 25 years ago, and so are our schools and so
are their needs. But this parent said, her name is Kimberly Clay, in
Raleigh, North Carolina, she said, just a few days ago I visited my
daughter's class. She happens to be a 4th grader.
She had 31 students in the classroom, 31, and those children come
with any multitude of issues. The gentleman talked about those who come
from different backgrounds, and that is true; and we have children who
need special help in languages, specialty help as a result of a number
of disabilities they might have; but the other side of it is also a
number of students who may come to school sick, we sort of forget that
sometimes, simply because the parents cannot afford to put them in
daycare, and they have to work and the teachers have to handle that.
Medication has to be dispensed and the list goes on and on.
I do not think we have a lot of colleagues who really understand that
today, what we really place on the shoulders of a teacher; and then we
say to them, but we want you to turn out the best students in the
world, and we want them to be better than they have ever been; and by
the way, we cannot control your salaries up here, so we are not going
to pay you too much, but we still want you to do a good job.
This parent was saying, it is impossible, talking about this teacher
being able to teach them with all they need to do, and nurture 31
children. It is impossible for the teacher, who is excellent, let me
repeat that again, the teacher, who she has already identified as an
excellent teacher, to address those children's needs, let alone the
remainder of the class. Because there were a couple of children with
very special needs in this class.
And she talks about Wake County, which is a county this was written
about. They subsequently improved their test scores, and they have been
over the last several years one of the leading ones in our State; and
she talks about the need for better facilities. The facilities are
inadequate as we continue to increase student enrollment.
I think we have a lot of colleagues who forget that. We talk about
needs, but we forget enrollments are the largest today in America they
have ever been in the history of this country. Fifty-three million
students are in our public schools today, as a result of what we call
the baby boom echo. That means the baby boom who is having babies.
And if my colleagues will remember, Secretary Riley has released a
report that over the next 10 years that number is going to grow even
more dramatically, and in my home State of North Carolina, the
projections are that we will be the fourth fastest-growing State in
America for students in that age group.
We are growing fast now. We have children in closets and converted
gyms. You name it, they are there. It is very difficult to teach. One
of the real challenges, and I saw it this morning on the local news
here in D.C., a Maryland school, where we are starting, and it happens
in North Carolina I am sure it happens in Indiana and if the Members
will check in their home schools, they will find it is happening all
across America because our schools are getting bigger. And they were
built years ago. We have not increased the size of the media center.
We used to call them libraries. We have not increased the size of the
cafeteria where children have lunch. Can my colleagues imagine a small
child having to eat lunch at 10 o'clock in the morning? And that
happens in this country. It happens in my home county, my home State;
and we passed a $1.8 billion bond issue, incidentally, at the State
level in 1996 to help the local units, and they are raising taxes to
build schools, but they are growing so rapidly across America that they
need help.
Mr. ROEMER. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman mentioned this case from a
teacher in his home State, North Carolina, of 31 children in one
classroom; and it just brings home what we have been saying over the
last hour: parental involvement, class size, quality teacher,
discipline, character education in that school and some professional
development opportunities for the teacher are keys for that school room
to work.
Let us say with those 31 children that six of them are at risk of
dropping out, five of them may have some kind of learning disability or
have a prescription of Ritalin, and then there might be another five
that are gifted and talented, and the teacher needs to spend more time
with them. So right there, we have a number out of that 31, we probably
have 16 children or so that are somewhere in between.
What does that teacher do with 31 kids? Should there be some role in
a partnership, not mandating from Washington, D.C., that we say this to
our local schools, but giving local schools some of the resources and
some of the opportunity to say, if this is a big problem in our local
community in North Carolina with 31 kids in the school room, we want to
do something about it?
Mr. ETHERIDGE. I think the gentleman is right, and as the gentleman
knows, we have a number of things we are working on, one of which the
gentleman is a part of. I have introduced legislation, a number of
others have, there was one yesterday the Rangel-Johnson-Etheridge bill
for school construction at the Federal level providing that at the
Federal level we will only pay the interest, $25 billion, to be
allocated across the country. The local units will sell those bonds,
build the buildings to help give that relief. Because in a lot of
places, the real problem the schools have is space.
Teachers are a problem. Space is a problem. All these other things
are a problem, but even if we allocate the 100,000 teachers, we have to
do it hand in hand with the locals and help them build the space; and I
think it is absolutely imperative that we do it.
During the recess, we released the report, not unlike the report
mentioned by the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind), on K through 3
showing the number of schools, classrooms that had more than the 18
optimum we are trying to get to in K through 3. What we found out,
there was over 90 percent.
Now, I mentioned the gentleman's children and mine earlier, we love
all three of ours. And they were great youngsters. They were great
youngsters, and they are outstanding young people today. But I shudder
to think if I had to teach them everyday and I had 28 or 30 of them
with their varying personalities as bright as they are and their
different interests, I admire the teachers. God gave us mothers, and
that was great. But he also gave us
[[Page H7977]]
teachers, and that is even better. Because they are great people; they
deserve our admiration and all of our praise.
I visited one school, and I will not forget it, I went in. They had
so many trailers on the campus they called it the trailer park. Now,
teachers can teach in that, but the problem is we do not have the
space, we do not have the opportunity to move around and interact with
students like we would like to. The real problem is, when it rains,
guess what happens? They get wet and go into the main building. They go
to the bathroom. They go to the cafeteria. They go to the media center.
They present a part of the linkage of that school, and we can do better
and we have some wonderful teachers in this country with hearts of gold
doing the Lord's work in all kinds of conditions.
I think at a time when we have the opportunity in this body to form
that partnership, we ought to do it. We have a bill pending now, as the
gentleman well knows, with 228 congressional sponsors from those on
both sides of the aisle. I think it is incumbent upon the Republican
leadership who runs this House to bring that bill up and allow us to
vote on it.
It would pass. The President would sign it, and we could send that
money out to help local schools. It is in no way meddling, because they
would have total control over it; all we would do is pay the interest.
Those are the kind of partnerships that the business community would
applaud. They are the things that the parents want to happen.
The years that I served, 8 of them as State superintendent of the
schools in North Carolina, and my colleagues have heard me say this on
the floor before, I have never had a child, I never had a student ask
me where the money came from. They do not really care. They just know
they do not have as much in some communities as others. We have a great
country. We have one of the wealthiest countries ever in the world, and
there is no excuse at a time of prosperity when we cannot do the things
we need to do for children to prepare for the 21st century and give
every child that opportunity.
Because I truly believe education is the one thing that levels the
playing field, and that is what you fought for all of your life. I
would not be here today if it were not for public education, and most
Members of this body, if they would be honest with us, would not be
here either.
And I think we have an obligation to the next generation to reach out
and help when we can. There have been times when we could not do that
in the past. We did not have the resources. We now have it. We can join
with the President in making sure we put out that 100,000 teachers; we
can do the staff development we need, start planning for the future and
also provide the resources to build schools.
Mr. ROEMER. I thank the gentleman from North Carolina for his remarks
and for engaging in the colloquy with me, as I have engaged with my
friends from California, Florida, and Wisconsin here over the last 50
minutes or so; and I want to conclude where I started, and that is as
education goes, so goes America.
As we are able in a bipartisan way in this body to work together in a
civil manner, Democrat and Republican alike, to try to work to give our
local public schools more arrows in their quiver to try to solve some
of the problems that they are engaged in right now, whether it is
parental involvement, which we quite frankly do quite a lot about; but
if it is the quality of teachers, we have some ideas that they might
want to try, class size reduction.
There are some ideas out there, many of them have started at some of
the local levels that we have shared with other communities:
professional development opportunities, such as the Eisenhower program,
character education, discipline, safe schools, safe schools from drugs
and drug dealers.
These are some of the things that the Democrats and Republicans
should be able to work together on as we did work together in a few
instances on charter schools and public choice; on the education
flexibility bill that my good friend, the gentleman from Delaware (Mr.
Castle), and I worked on and we worked on some of the ESEA together
before the agreement fell apart.
So for the benefit of these children, for the benefit of an economy
that needs better-educated children, for the benefit of our civil
society and the way that this body and this Chamber should work in
working together and sometimes we will politely or adamantly disagree,
let us try to get Democrats and Republicans to work together on the
single most important issue to most citizens today, and that is
improving our public education.
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