[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 7 (Monday, January 22, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S315]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. HUTCHISON (for herself, Mr. Frist, and Mr. Crapo):
  S. 40. A bill entitled ``The Careers to Classrooms Act of 2001''; to 
the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.


                   careers to classrooms act of 2001

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I have another bill to introduce. This 
is cosponsored by Senators Frist and Crapo. It is the Careers to 
Classrooms Act of 2001. Once again, this is a bill that has already 
been passed by Congress, but it has never made it into law. I am very 
hopeful that this President will sign a comprehensive reauthorization 
of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and included in that I 
hope will be Careers to Classrooms.
  There is no question that many, if not most, of our States are facing 
huge teacher shortages. This is one of the most critical needs in our 
public schools today. It is most pressing in our inner-city and rural 
communities.
  Ironically, the biggest enemy to hiring a sufficient number of 
teachers is our booming economy. A recent college graduate with a 
degree in math might expect to make $25,000 to $35,000 in a starting 
position as a high school math teacher. That same graduate could easily 
make twice that much in the private sector, especially in the red hot 
computer field. We have some issues we have to deal with--increasing 
teacher salaries, increasing teacher benefits--and we know that, but 
there is more we can do.
  What we need in our public school systems in America is more 
creativity. What we want to do with our reauthorization of the 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act is to put more incentives for 
creativity in our public schools.
  I am a total product of public education. I grew up in La Marque, TX, 
a small town of about 15,000 in Galveston County, and attended and 
graduated from its public schools. Then I attended the University of 
Texas and the University of Texas Law School. You will find no bigger 
advocate for public education than this Senator. I owe so much of what 
I am to the teachers who took the time to help me become the best that 
I could be.
  Teachers are the backbone of our schools. You can design a state-of-
the-art, fully computerized school connected to the Internet 24 hours a 
day with every modern textbook and piece of science equipment, but at 
the end of the day, if you do not have quality teachers, all of that 
equipment really does not mean that much.
  Adding to the growth in the population of our public schools is an 
effort in many public school systems to hire more teachers to reduce 
class size. The approach I am putting forth today will ensure that more 
teachers are available, more can be hired, and that they are better 
teachers, qualified teachers, teachers with real world experience and 
knowledge that can be taken into the classroom.
  Careers to Classrooms builds upon a tremendously successful 
Department of Defense program that takes experienced, qualified 
military service men and women and helps them transition into the 
classroom as teachers. That program is known as Troops to Teachers. it 
has placed over 4,000 qualified, certified teachers in our Nation's 
public schools, including over 600 in my home State of Texas.
  The Troops to Teachers Program seeks out and helps place into schools 
members of the military with at least 10 years of military service and 
skills in high-need areas, such as math, science, computers, and 
languages. Typically, these experienced service personnel obtain their 
certification in a year or less utilizing one of the many different 
alternative certification programs now in place in over 40 States.
  My provision essentially builds upon this proven model and extends it 
to the application in the context of civilian professionals and others 
with skills. What we want to do in Careers to Classrooms is take 
individuals with demonstrable skills in high-need areas and give them a 
chance to go into the teaching profession, especially mid-level 
professionals who would like to change careers and go into teaching.
  The program would provide limited stipend assistance for individuals 
enrolled in State alternative certification programs, and those who 
agreed to teach in rural schools, schools with the most pressing 
teacher shortages and schools with the highest percentages of students 
from low-income families, would also get stipends to help them with 
this alternative certification to get them in the classroom faster than 
if they were going through the whole college course and curriculum that 
includes all of the teacher education courses.
  High-need schools would also receive funding assistance to help 
compensate for the added teacher mentoring, training, and other costs 
associated with bringing-in prospective teachers under an alternative 
certification process.
  Our legislation specifies priority disciplines in which we want to 
focus to recruit teachers. In particular, the proposal emphasizes 
sciences, math, computer literacy, and foreign languages. These are 
where our teacher shortages are most acute.
  I particularly thank my colleague from Tennessee, Senator Frist, who 
suggested adding outstanding recent college graduates to be eligible to 
participate in the Careers to Classrooms proposal. Senator Frist 
correctly pointed out that in addition to encouraging midlevel career 
professionals, we want to have these young, top-flight college 
graduates who did not go through their college's education degree 
program but who do have the academic achievement and the mastery of 
these skills to be able to become excellent teachers.
  I also thank Senator Crapo of Idaho who has also been helpful in 
adding the provision that encourages individuals to go into our rural 
areas with this Careers-to-Classrooms-added incentive to become 
teaching professionals.
  Our Nation's parents and teachers do not need more Federal control, 
they do not need more bureaucracy, they do not need more red tape. What 
they need is to be empowered with greater choices and options to find 
the education path that is best for them. We need to make those options 
available to them, to do so in a way that is new, that is innovative, 
that is flexible. Simply heaping more money on failed systems and 
programs has been exhaustively proven to lead to failure. The policies 
of the past have failed.
  No. What we need to do is work with our new Secretary of Education, 
Rod Paige, who has made creativity the benchmark of his success in the 
public schools in Houston, TX. We need to go forward in a bipartisan 
Congress, with President Bush, to make public education the best 
education in our country.
  Careers to Classrooms will put our qualified teachers in the 
classroom. It will give them the ability to be certified in an 
alternative certification program very quickly so that they will be a 
resource to our young people.
  We want to encourage more people to go into the teaching profession 
because if we do not have good teachers, we are not going to have a 
successful country. We will not have young people able to go into our 
great economy and the opportunities that our economy would offer if 
they do not have the basic skills that are given by good teachers.
  I hope this year Careers to Classrooms will become law. I hope we 
will see more and more of the qualified people in our country decide to 
take up the teaching profession and be mentors and role models and 
teachers to our young people.
                                 ______