[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 53 (Wednesday, April 25, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3869-S3870]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           QUALITY EDUCATION

  Mr. BAYH. Mr. President, I rise this morning to address what I 
believe to be most important issue facing our country today; that is, 
improving the quality of education received by every child across this 
country. It will affect not only our future prosperity but the kind of 
Nation in which we live and the vibrancy of our very democracy.
  I thank all colleagues who helped bring us to this historic point, 
starting with my friend and colleague, Senator Joe Lieberman, with whom 
I have enjoyed working on this issue for the last several years; our 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle, Senator Gregg, Senator 
Frist, Senator Jeffords, and others; and the Democratic members on the 
HELP Committee, Senator Dodd and others, but principally Senator 
Kennedy.
  I want to say a special word about Senator Kennedy this morning. His 
dedication to improving the quality of America's educational system is 
truly remarkable. He has proven himself to be not only principled but 
pragmatic. He fights for what he believes in, but he is not willing to 
sacrifice real progress for America's schoolchildren for the older 
ideological ideas. Without his hard work and dedication, we would not 
be where we are today.
  I thank all of these leaders for bringing us to where we are. It has 
been a long road for me personally and a long road for many of us in 
this Chamber.
  My thoughts go back to 1989, my first year as Governor, when 
President Bush called us to a national summit in the city of 
Charlottesville.
  For only the third time in our Nation's history, all 50 Governors had 
gathered together to focus on a single subject. The first time was 
Teddy Roosevelt's focus on the issue of the environment. In this case, 
it was President Bush's first focus on the subject of education. We 
came out of that summit dedicated to the standards and accountability 
movement, and we established the National Education Goals Panel, of 
which I was an initial member. I had the privilege of serving, in later 
years, as chairman.
  From there I went on and had the privilege of serving as the chairman 
of the Education Commission of the States, a collection of State and 
local officials who work to improve the quality of our schools at the 
State and local levels.
  Finally, I had the privilege of serving on the National Assessment of 
Educational Progress Board, the NAEP Board, trying to devise the very 
best assessments for our children, authentic assessments, that tell us 
more than if they can memorize rote knowledge, but instead whether they 
can think and reason and express themselves intelligently.
  It has also been a long road for this Senate. I, again, thank Senator 
Lieberman and my colleagues at the Progressive Policy Institute, who 
helped fashion the principles that lie at the heart of the bill we will 
soon take up. We stand on the precipice of historic progress saying 
that the status quo that leaves too many of our children behind is no 
longer good enough. The consequences of failure today are greater than 
ever before. We must do better. I believe we can.
  During the campaign last year, I was very pleased when President Bush 
adopted many of the principles that lay at the heart of our bill. That 
was an important step in the right direction. I give him credit for 
that. I am proud that the thinking in my own caucus has evolved on many 
of these critical issues. So there has been a convergence of thought, 
and now a consensus exists on the part of most of us of what needs to 
be done to improve the quality of our local schools. The principles and 
the values are the same, even if occasionally we have differences of 
opinion about how to embrace those principles and give them full 
meaning in the context of education today.
  We stand on the threshold of great progress, the most significant 
educational progress in a generation. Accountability lies at the heart 
of our agenda. We redefine the definition of ``success.'' No longer 
will we define success for America's schoolchildren merely in terms of 
how much we spend, but instead we will define success in terms of how 
much our children learn.
  There will be high academic standards and assessments to determine 
how every child is doing toward meeting those standards. Everyone in 
the process will be held responsible for making progress--every school, 
every school district, every State--each and every year.
  For the first time, there will be real consequences--real 
consequences--for academic failure. In relation to some of the new 
money dedicated to new administrative funding, if progress is not made, 
it will be reduced, because it only makes sense that if the funding is 
not achieving the progress for which it was intended, it should be 
redirected into ways which will achieve real progress.
  For the first time, America's parents will be given an important 
choice. If your local school is not doing well enough for several 
successive years, you will be allowed to send your child to a better 
performing public school. You will begin to have an option of receiving 
supplemental services, additional instruction on top of that provided 
in your local school, to give your child the reading, writing, and 
scientific knowledge that your child will need to be successful in 
meeting the challenges of the 21st century.

  We inject competition--true competition--into the system, embracing 
market forces for the innovation and additional accountability they can 
bring. We seek to achieve the best of both worlds, with charter 
schools, magnet schools, robust public school choice, but not 
withdrawing the important resources necessary to making our public 
schools flourish.
  We avoid the false choices of those who say that the only way to 
improve the quality of education is to abandon our public schools, on 
the one hand, and, on the other hand, those who say the status quo is 
good enough and that the answer to the challenges facing America's 
schools is simply to add more money.
  We embrace the notion of additional flexibility for our local schools 
and States. We cut through the redtape

[[Page S3870]]

that too often has bogged us down at the Federal level. We only ask in 
return that our local schools and school districts give us additional 
progress for the flexibility that we provide.
  We invest in professional development. Every study I have ever seen--
I know the Presiding Officer has labored in these vineyards as a 
Governor, as did I--every study I have ever seen indicates the two most 
important variables in determining a child's academic success is, 
first, whether a parent is involved or engaged in that child's 
educational activities, making it a priority at the home; and, 
secondly, whether there is a well-prepared and highly motivated 
classroom professional teacher in that classroom, helping to provide 
the individual instruction every one of our children needs and every 
one of our children deserves.
  These are the principles that lie at the heart of our bill: increased 
accountability for everyone; more competition in parental choice within 
the context of public education; more flexibility for our States and 
local school districts; and investing in professional development, to 
ensure that every classroom has a motivated, highly trained teacher 
that every child deserves.
  But now, my friends, we come to the critical moment. Now we face the 
acid test which will determine whether our actions will truly live up 
to our words. We are all for reform. We are all for accountability. But 
will we do what it takes in a practical sense to make reform and 
accountability work? I believe we must. We are all for holding everyone 
else responsible--the classroom teachers, school principals, district 
superintendents, Governors; everyone else in this process--but will we 
hold ourselves, this institution, accountable? Will we hold this 
President and this administration accountable to doing what it takes to 
give meaning to the words that we speak? I believe we must.
  Last week I visited schools across my State, in Evansville, in South 
Bend, in Fort Wayne, in Indianapolis, in Floyd County. I saw the 
difference the Title I dollars are making in the lives of our children 
and in the quality of instruction taking place in our classrooms. It 
was a wonderful thing to behold. I compliment those teachers and 
principals and school superintendents who are using those dollars to 
give those children hope and educational opportunity.
  But as I visited those schools and saw what was working and making a 
difference, I was also saddened to remember that 6.8 million children--
6.8 million of our young people--who are qualified to receive that 
assistance are instead receiving none. What about them? Will they be 
left behind? If we do not rise to this challenge, I am afraid they 
will.

  President Bush, during the campaign last year, pledged to leave no 
child behind. I commend him for that pledge. Now it is up to us and to 
him to redeem it. And so we must. We will enact a system of standards 
adopted by the States, assessments to determine how each and every one 
of our children are doing. We will insist upon results.
  But what do we do with the results of those assessments when they 
tell us so many of our children need to do better? Do we simply pat 
them on the head, wish them good luck, and say: Now you are on your 
own? Of course we must do better than that.
  Throwing dollars at our schools without accountability is a waste; 
but accountability without the means to truly improve the quality of 
instruction our children are receiving is nothing but a cruel hoax.
  I call upon my colleagues in this Chamber and our new President to 
join with us, to join with us in a historic effort of improving the 
quality of instruction for our children who need it most, to join with 
us in embracing reform, but also what it means in a tangible, practical 
dollars-and-cents way of making reform work.
  Our actions in this great Chamber must be more than a facade of 
reform. The bill that we enact and that the President signs must offer 
more than an illusion of progress. We must not individually or 
collectively participate in perpetuating a hoax upon America's 
schoolchildren. It is important for me to acknowledge that from time to 
time on this side of the aisle there has been a diversity of thought on 
this subject. But when it comes to the commitment of resources to make 
the reform work, to make progress become a reality, we stand united and 
determined.
  This debate is not about accountability versus spending. We are all 
for accountability. We are all for reform. This debate is a question of 
priorities and whether we will do what the American people have been 
asking of us for so very long now; and that is, to make the quality of 
our children's education our No. 1 priority. I believe we must.
  The President's tax package this next year calls for devoting $68 
billion to the cause of tax relief.
  That is a cause which I embrace, as do many of my colleagues. We 
believe some tax relief for the hard-working taxpayers of America is in 
order for a variety of reasons, but it is not our only priority.
  The President's proposal, as it currently stands, calls for investing 
$2.6 billion in improving the quality of education, 25 times more for 
reducing taxes than investing in the quality of our children's 
education. I support tax cuts. I support tax relief, but it is not 25 
times more important than our children's education. We can and should 
have both. We should not be forced to make this unnecessary choice 
between two alternatives, both of which can be accommodated if the 
administration will be more forthcoming with resources.
  In conclusion, this debate is about education reform, and it is about 
the resources to make education reform work. More important than that, 
it is about the credibility of this institution and those of us who are 
privileged to comprise it. Will we do more than read the polls and put 
together a construct to satisfy our constituents, to make them believe 
we are doing something about improving the quality of education for our 
children, when, in fact, we are not; or will we make the difficult 
decision and allocate the resources that are necessary to live up to 
the challenge we face, to fulfill the expectations they have a right to 
expect of us? I believe we should.
  I call upon the Members of the Senate and the administration and this 
President to join with us to redeem the pledge he made in the campaign, 
the pledge that all of us embrace of leaving no child behind and to 
devote the resources to our schools to make accountability, reform, and 
progress be more than empty words but a reality in the daily lives of 
our schools.
  I am privileged to be in the Chamber with my colleague from 
California with whom I have worked on this issue and so many others. I 
yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ensign). The Senator from California.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I begin by thanking the junior Senator 
from Indiana for those remarks. He stands in the leadership of this 
body in terms of his views on education. I, for one, am very 
appreciative of them.

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