[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 54 (Thursday, April 26, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E645]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         STILL A NATION AT RISK

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                           HON. BOB SCHAFFER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 26, 2001

  Mr. SCHAFFER. Mr. Speaker, today marks the eighteenth anniversary of 
``A Nation at Risk.'' The sobering report on declining student 
performance in American public schools was first published in 1983 by 
the National Commission on Excellence in Education (NCEE). Its impact 
on the American education empire has been tragically negligible.
  Created in 1981, the NCEE was appointed by then Secretary of 
Education T.H. Bell and was comprised of university presidents, high 
school principals, teachers, a former governor, and school board 
members. The commission's purpose was to ``help define the problems 
afflicting American education and to provide solutions,'' according to 
its chairman, David Pierpont Gardner.
  In its report entitled ``A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for 
Educational Reform,'' the NCEE noted the United States, which once 
enjoyed ``unchallenged preeminence in commerce, industry, science and 
technological innovation, is being overtaken by competitors throughout 
the world.'' Eighteen years later, the United States is still a nation 
at risk.
  Last October, a subcommittee of the U.S. House attributed the 
nation's stagnant student achievement to the government's failure at 
prioritizing student performance and its reluctance to reward results. 
America's poorest children are too often trapped in schools that can't 
teach. Moreover, the Congressional ``Education at a Crossroads'' report 
exposed rampant waste, fraud and abuse within the U.S. Department of 
Education. While states and local schools are held to strict standards 
for use of federal funds, the Department cannot account for hundreds of 
millions of dollars.
  Despite the NCEE's early warning that America's education system is 
at risk, little has changed. The government's monopoly on public school 
services remains unchallenged. Except for poor children in a few 
courageous communities, real school choice is a privilege for only the 
rich.
  Yet while state and local schools receive billions more in federal 
spending, they are constrained by new burdensome regulations, unfunded 
mandates and paperwork requirements which divert scarce resources from 
classrooms. Today there are more
  The federal government's first big offensive into local school 
management occurred in 1965 with the passage of the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Since that time, federal policy has 
consistently expanded its bearing on America's classrooms and has tied 
the hands of state legislators and local school board members, despite 
the U.S. Constitution's suggestion of state and local primacy of 
authority. Results have been pathetic.
  For example, the federal government's most massive program, Title I, 
was designed to improve the academic level of poor and underserved 
students. Federal investments totaling $118 billion since 1965 have 
left 19% of Title I schools still failing to make adequate annual 
achievement gains, officially classified as ``in need of improvement.''
  In testimony before Congress, Colorado's state schools chief, Dr. 
William Moloney explained the government's failure: ``ESEA has 
remained, as always, a neutral phenomena based on inputs rather than 
results, more on accounting than accountability, an entity always more 
interested in what you were rather than what you were doing.''
  Eternally hopeful for their children's futures, taxpayers have shown 
remarkable patience with the government's education monopoly. So have 
Republicans. Since capturing the majority in Congress, the GOP has 
substantially outspent Democrats pumping billions into government-owned 
schools. In 1983, the average expenditure per student was $3,300, while 
the average today tops $8,000. Still, American students trail their 
international peers considerably.
  According to the 1999 Third International Mathematics and Science 
Study Repeat (TIMMS-R), American students have not improved in the 
areas of math and science since the first TIMMS test in 1995. The 
comparison included students in 38 industrialized countries. According 
to the Center for Education Reform, American 8th graders are outranked 
by 18 other nations in math and by 17 others in science.
  President George W. Bush has boldly called on Congress to ``leave no 
child behind.'' He outlined his desire to empower parents, emphasize 
local control of schools, send dollars to the classroom and improve 
basic academics. Incredibly, Congress has so far drafted a 900-page-
thick bill, translating Bush's sensible objectives into sizable new 
programs, fresh mandates, scant choice, and an outrageous 11.5 percent 
increase in federal education spending over last year.
  Before another year of dust begins to settle on ``A Nation at Risk,'' 
President Bush and the Congress should reassess Washington's education 
spending and regulatory frenzy. Republicans should stake their majority 
on free-market solutions to school reform, dramatically shrink the 
bureaucracy, and give real decision-making power--money--to parents of 
school-aged children.
  America's schoolchildren deserve to be treated like real Americans; 
like they matter. So long as Republicans look to the federal education 
empire to rebuild the nation's academic prominence they do nothing to 
distinguish themselves nor maintain the public trust. They will only 
become part of the problem further betraying America's children to 
languish in a nation at risk.

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