[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 53 (Wednesday, April 25, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H1602-H1603]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           EDUCATION, AN IMPORTANT ISSUE IN THE STATE OF UTAH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Rehberg). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Matheson) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. MATHESON. Mr. Speaker, the House is going to be taking up the 
issue of education over the next couple of weeks, and I thought it 
would be important to communicate some of the thoughts that I have 
learned, having spent a significant amount of time in my district over 
the Easter recess talking to teachers and superintendents, talking to 
students, and talking to parents. I can say, I come from a State that 
is unique. Utah's needs are not often represented in national 
discussions on education, and I think it is important to point out some 
of the unique characteristics in my State and how national policy may 
affect that.
  I represent the State with the lowest per-pupil expenditure in the 
United States. I represent the State with the largest student-teacher 
ratio in the United States. Utah schools are struggling to keep up. The 
State Office of Education estimates Utah will add over

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 100,000 new students over the next 10 years. It is going to require 
124 new schools to be built in my State.
  These challenges that I mention, these challenges we face in the 
State of Utah, make the Federal-State relationship very critical. We 
believe in Utah, and I firmly believe, that education is fundamentally 
a State and local issue. So as we talk about education policy here in 
Congress, I want to make sure that we talk about it in the context 
where we are not creating Federal programs with a number of strings 
attached. It is important that we maintain local control.
  Let me talk about five quick issues that we should consider during 
our education discussion. The first is class-size reduction. The 
Federal class-size reduction program has been a great success in my 
State. That program takes Federal dollars and puts it directly in local 
school districts. I have talked to all the school districts in my 
congressional district. They have talked about what a positive program 
it is, that they have the flexibility to decide what to best do with 
that money. Some schools hire teachers to create new classes. Other 
schools hire a reading specialist to move from class to class. But that 
flexibility has been very important in my State.
  The second issue I would mention is the issue of teacher development. 
As I meet with teachers, they think it is important that they have the 
opportunity to improve themselves throughout their careers. That is 
something a lot of people do in the private sector. We should make sure 
our teachers have that opportunity. We should make sure that the 
Eisenhower Professional Development Program is maintained and 
strengthened in the future.
  The third issue I want to talk about is the notion of accountability. 
We all think accountability is a good idea. We just need to be careful 
that we do not enforce a one-size-fits-all solution at the Federal 
level. Every State, every community has their own circumstances; and we 
ought to make sure that those local circumstances can be accommodated 
in whatever accountability measures that we have.
  I can say that in Utah, we have already created a new State testing 
program. We are in the process of implementing that, and Utah teachers 
are not afraid of accountability; but we want to make sure that 
accountability is measured in the broadest sense possible that 
accommodates all the variables that affect student performance.
  Finally, I would like to talk about the notion of decreased 
bureaucracy. I have met with so many teachers and administrators, and 
they talk about the problems with special education in terms of the 
paperwork. The paperwork is such a burden on our teachers and our 
administrators; and while it is clearly also important that we fully 
fund the Federal commitment to special education, I think it is also 
important that in the context of looking at funding for special ed we 
also ought to look at trying to reform special ed to reduce the 
paperwork. That is a view from my own home district, and I think it is 
important that we put that in the Record, these issues and concerns 
about educators in the State of Utah as we discuss education.

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