[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 23, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S431-S433]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             NEW PRIORITIES

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I thank my colleagues for coming together 
on the floor this morning. All Members who were present on Saturday for 
the inauguration of the new President realize it was an exciting and 
historic moment for our Nation. The weather did not cooperate; it was 
pretty miserable outside. We all felt honored to be there, to see once 
again this unique part of American history where we transfer power 
peacefully, even when we have been fighting like cats and dogs between 
the political parties leading up to the election.

[[Page S432]]

  I wish the new President the very best, even from this side of the 
aisle. We are hopeful his leadership will be successful and that he 
will bring our Nation together as he has promised.
  We on the Democratic side have tried to be cooperative. There was a 
brief moment which we affectionately refer to as the ``age of 
enlightenment'' where the Democrats were in charge of the Senate for 
about 17 days and then the leadership was transferred again on Saturday 
back to the Republican side.
  The President has sent us 13 nominations for the Cabinet which, of 
course, is his effort to bring his team together as quickly as he can. 
On Saturday, immediately after the President was sworn in, we approved 
7 of those 13. To put that in context, when last we had a Democratic 
President and a Democratic Congress, on the first day after the 
swearing in, only three members of the Cabinet were approved.
  We are doing our very best on a bipartisan basis to give the 
President his team. There will be several other nominees for the 
Cabinet positions who will be considered this week. I assume most of 
them will be approved by the Senate. There are two or three who are 
controversial that may take a little longer. We are going to try to 
move, I am sure, in a reasonable manner to engage any floor debate and 
to reach a point where the President knows his team will be in place at 
some close date.
  I am happy that President Bush has made education the first issue. I 
think that was the right choice, the right issue. Time and again when 
you ask Americans, rich and poor alike, what is the most important 
issue facing America, the answer is always education. I think it is 
because the term ``education'' embodies so many ideas and concepts 
which we value in America. Education means opportunity. Education means 
giving a person a chance to improve themselves. Education in our 
culture and economy means that a person of very humble origins can rise 
to a position where they can be successful in so many different ways. 
That is why education should be the first issue that we debate.
  I am hoping, after listening to the description of the President's 
education package, there will be a lot of bipartisan agreement when it 
comes to education. Some of the concepts that have been mentioned this 
morning are certainly concepts I endorse. I think about my own home 
State of Illinois and the Chicago public school system. This is a 
public school system which only a few years ago was written off by the 
Secretary of Education, Bill Bennett, as the worst in America.
  I daresay today what is happening in Chicago is exciting, and in 
terms of big city school districts, may be one of the most promising 
programs in the United States of America. The leadership of Mayor 
Richard Daley, the leadership of the President of the school board, 
Gary Chico, and the CEO of Chicago schools, Paul Vallas, really took on 
a major challenge. In the Chicago public school system, 95 percent of 
the students are minority, 85 percent are below the poverty level. 
Imagine, if you will, that as your student enrollment.
  Consider that you inherit a school system that is almost dead last in 
America in achievement. In a very short period of time, a few years, 
they have turned that system around, and they have come a long way by 
just addressing a few basic principles. The principles are fairly 
obvious to all of us as parents who have had children who have gone to 
school.
  First is accountability at all levels so the administrators and 
principals are held responsible for bringing a team of teachers 
together, and the parents and students, in creating a successful 
learning environment; accountability for the teachers so they come to 
the class prepared and are good teachers; accountability for the 
students and their parents. All of these have come together. They have 
conceded that at times these experiments have failed.
  There have been several occasions now when the Chicago public school 
system has announced a school has failed and they have basically taken 
the team of administrators and teachers, brought them in and said: You 
are finished. You had your chance. We are not going to leave kids in 
this classroom if they are not learning. This group is disbanded. We 
will start over. They didn't tear the school down. They didn't close 
the school. They said: We are going to bring a new group of teachers 
and administrators to give these kids a chance.
  If I am the parent of a student in one of those classrooms, that is 
exactly what I want to see. It does me no good as a parent to know that 
the school system is doing well. If my child is not doing well, I have 
a responsibility as a parent to be part of that, too. So they bring the 
parents in to be part of this learning process.
  So when I hear the question of accountability and President Bush's 
education package, I endorse it. I think it is a sound idea. It is one 
that we should include.
  I might also say the idea of testing is one that I think is 
important. I hated tests as a student. Don't most? Most students would 
rather not take a test. A test is the only objective way in many 
respects to measure progress. It is not the only way. Some students may 
not test well but may be learning. We have to make that accommodation. 
But using testing to measure the progress of a student makes sense.
  The big debate around here is whether we have national testing. That 
is voluntary now in the United States and will probably continue to be. 
I invite those school districts that believe they are doing the right 
thing to voluntarily sign up for those tests that Chicago has. We as a 
nation shouldn't take any comfort in the fact that some school 
districts are doing well and some not so well. All those students are 
going to be our citizens and leaders of tomorrow. If they are not 
equipped and skilled, our Nation will suffer. When we have national 
testing to determine whether or not the students in Oregon and the 
students in Oregon, IL, are learning math and learning science, and 
learning what they need to succeed, I think it gives us a good idea as 
to whether our approach to education is succeeding as well.
  We also, I hope, in the course of this bill, will address some 
fundamental changes in our vision of a schoolday. Why in the world do 
we start a school- day at 8:30 in the morning and end it at 3 in the 
afternoon? There might have been a time when that made sense, but it 
doesn't today. The vast majority of kids have their parents working, so 
these kids get off school at 3 in the afternoon, in many cases without 
any adult supervision. Ask the police chief in your hometown what 
happens at 3:30 at the mall or at the shopping center. Ask the people 
who keep statistics at what period of time are teenage girls most 
likely to become pregnant. Don't be surprised; it is in that period 
between 3 o'clock and when the parents finally get home from work.
  So when we talk about afterschool programs, it is to provide positive 
adult supervision so kids can continue their learning experience. It 
might not be the same learning experience as sitting in a classroom. 
Perhaps it will be music or art or sports or developing skills on 
computers. Perhaps it is just supervised time so they can do their 
homework. But I think afterschool programs should be part of modern 
America, to make sure parents can be confident their kids are using 
their time well.
  The same thing with the summer school programs. Why do we still have 
3 months off in the summer? It is hard to explain. There was a time 
when kids had to get out of school to go help on the farm. That isn't 
the big challenge today in most families. I think we ought to have 
summer school, enrichment programs and tutorial programs so kids can 
use that time as well.
  So I think there are many things we can do in order to make our 
educational system better. I am glad the President has brought this 
issue to us. I believe he will find bipartisan support for many of his 
proposals on education.
  There is one thing that was not mentioned on the other side in 
describing the President's plan, and I hope we can consider it. When 
the American Society of Civil Engineers assessed the infrastructure of 
America last year, the schools came in dead last. Our school buildings 
are old and crumbling. In many respects the schools are in worse shape 
than our water treatment systems and our sewage treatment systems in 
America. It suggests to me that school construction is a important part 
of a challenge to local property taxpayers in school districts and I 
hope we can include it in this debate.

[[Page S433]]

  The other issue that is going to be brought before us very quickly is 
the whole question of a tax cut. There is nothing more popular for a 
politician to suggest than: I am going to cut your taxes. Frankly, I 
believe there should be a tax cut in light of the enormous surpluses 
which our good economy, as well as the policies and programs of the 
last few years, is generating. We have created a system where, for the 
first time, we are paying down the national debt. That has not happened 
for 30 years. We are dealing with balanced budgets and paying down the 
debt. But make no mistake, we are still at this point in time dealing 
with a huge national debt.
  I called this morning to the Department of the Treasury to ask them 
what is our current debt. They gave me the debt of America as of today. 
When you add that debt together here is what it comes to: 
$5,728,195,796,181. That is the accumulated debt of America that we 
currently have to pay off.
  How do we pay it off? We reduce it as long as we are running 
surpluses and don't spend them on something else. But each day in 
America we collect $1 billion in taxes from wage earners, from 
families, from businesses, from farmers, and that money is used 
exclusively to pay interest on the old debt. It does not build a new 
school. It doesn't educate a child. It does not buy us any tanks or 
guns or planes. It is used to pay interest on old debt.
  Many of us believe, in the discussion of what to do with the surplus, 
we should not lose sight of the most important single thing we can do, 
and that is eliminate this debt burden which we are passing on to the 
next generation. To celebrate a tax cut and ignore this, I think is to 
ignore the reality of what our children and grandchildren will face. I 
hope we can have a balanced approach with this surplus.
  First be sensible. Don't assume, because some economists can think 
ahead 4 and 5 years, or even 10, and say, oh, you are going to have a 
surplus forever, that that is gospel truth. These economists tend to 
disagree all of the time. We have to be careful that we do not 
overestimate the projected surplus, be careful in how much money we 
think we will have. Then, once we have that money, we have to allocate 
at least a third of it to reducing the national debt so we do not have 
to collect all these taxes to pay interest on old debts which previous 
generations have incurred.
  Second, we have to make sure we invest enough in Social Security and 
Medicare so that these systems will not go bankrupt. Mr. President, 40 
million-plus Americans depend on these systems to sustain them, and 
Social Security payments, to make sure they have quality health care--
seniors and disabled Americans. If we have a surplus lets make sure we 
invest from our surplus into Social Security and Medicare for that 
purpose.

  Finally, of course, I support a tax cut. The Democrats and 
Republicans both support tax cuts. My take on it may be a little 
different than that of some of my colleagues. I do not believe the tax 
cuts should go to the wealthiest people in America. I happen to think 
we ought to focus on struggling working families. I listen to the 
telephone calls coming into my office in Chicago and Springfield and 
Marion, IL. I can tell you right now with what families are struggling. 
They are struggling to pay heating bills. Families have seen a dramatic 
increase in their heating bills in the Midwest. They have seen a 
dramatic increase over the last several years in the costs of college 
education. They are facing ongoing increases in the costs of child 
care. Any working parent wants to leave that son or daughter in the 
hands of qualified people. Yet it becomes increasingly expensive for 
them to pay for day care.
  I receive telephone calls and read letters where people say: Senator, 
I have reached a point where my family is doing well but my parent now 
is reaching a point where he--or she--needs more and more attention and 
care. We are glad to give it, but it is expensive. Can you help us with 
that?
  When you are talking about long-term care, when you are talking about 
child care, when you are talking about the expenses to put someone 
through college or even the expenses of heating your home, the average 
working family is struggling to make ends meet. When we talk about a 
tax cut, let us focus on helping those families first. The wealthiest 
in America are doing OK. They will continue to do fine. They may have a 
tax cut but it should not be at the expense of working families.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.
  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Chair recognizes the Senator from New Mexico.

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