[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 13 (Wednesday, January 31, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H136-H137]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    EDUCATION PLAN OF PRESIDENT BUSH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Guam (Mr. Underwood) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my support as 
well as concerns regarding President Bush's education plan. The plan 
represents a comprehensive and broad-reaching initiative, which is 
expected to gain the support of both sides of the aisle and both Houses 
of Congress. And it deserves it. But I must raise the reality that the 
U.S. territories, like Guam, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the 
Northern Marianas are not even mentioned.
  There is no mention in the President's proposal regarding the 
treatment of territories. It is not unusual that territories are often 
overlooked and sometimes misrepresented in the crafting of national 
policy. But when national policies have ambitious titles and 
objectives, the territories should not be overlooked.
  The goal of President Bush's plan is that no child be left behind. I 
would like to restate that goal so that it rings clear to everyone. No 
child in America should be left behind. And that should include all 
American children no matter where they live.

[[Page H137]]

  I would like to emphasize the special needs of public schools in the 
territories, which, apart from the remoteness from the U.S. mainland, 
share in the same struggle to meet the basic needs of operating a 
school system. But due to our geography, we face special challenges in 
maintenance, school construction, acquisition of school supplies and 
equipment, recruitment and training of professionals.
  In Guam, we face the additional burden of dealing with typhoons in an 
unforgiving tropical environment, unforgiving for buildings, that is. 
The people of Guam have crafted a reasonable 10-year plan for the 
system's infrastructure, and we look to Federal programs and unique 
bonding arrangements which will jump-start our effort to bring Guam 
schools into the 21st century.
  The territories are generally included in most national programs, but 
only as afterthoughts and educators in Guam must follow a patchwork 
system of funding arrangements and frequent bureaucratic indifference 
in order to obtain needed and fair funding. This was the message 
conveyed to me in a meeting last week with Guam's top-level 
administrators in the Department of Education.
  We also frequently try to apply national programs to our local 
jurisdictions which face very different and difficult circumstances. It 
is for this reason that territorial school systems which have a unique 
relationship with the Federal Government deserve special consideration 
and mention in the President's plan and any plan which leaves Congress.
  As stated in Title VI of the President's proposal, ``The Federal 
Government has a special obligation to certain schools that educate the 
children of families who serve in the U.S. military and those that 
educate Native American children.'' This initiative to rebuild schools 
for Native Americans and children of military families should be 
extended to all territories, as all territories have a unique 
relationship with the Federal Government.
  As an educator by training, and my mother is an educator and my wife 
is an educator and my daughter is an educator, I must also state a 
concern about the emerging nature of the accountability to mention the 
President's proposal. I am concerned about the overreliance of testing 
as the only measure of educational success. Guam schools, like many 
other school districts in the Nation, are struggling to meet very basic 
needs and have a very diverse student body and we need to account for 
different ways of measuring success.
  I believe in standards and agree that the failure to include high 
standards will mean that schools will not meet designated goals. But we 
must think about other ways to measure the school environment than 
simple reliance on standardized testing, just that alone.
  As a former educator, I give President Bush high marks for 
introducing a comprehensive educational measure at the beginning of his 
administration. This demonstrates his solid commitment to improve 
education in public schools for all American children. I know my 
colleagues in the territories will agree that this administration and 
this Congress should work in concert to move our Nation's educational 
agenda forward so that no child is left behind whether they live in Los 
Angeles or Washington, D.C., Hagatna or Yara.
  I urge my fellow colleagues and President Bush to consider the 
special needs of U.S. territories as we work in crafting an educational 
plan that truly meets the needs of all Americans.

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