[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 54 (Thursday, April 26, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3968-S3969]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               EDUCATION

  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from West Virginia 
for his heartfelt and wonderful remarks. I thank him for yielding just 
a few minutes this afternoon to me to speak about the subject of 
education to follow up on many of the things our colleague from 
Connecticut, Senator Dodd, said so eloquently just a few minutes ago. I 
appreciate the Senator from West Virginia yielding.
  I could actually spend over an hour speaking about this subject 
because it is so important to our Nation, and it is so important to the 
State I represent, Louisiana. I will come back often during this debate 
to try to help focus our attention on some of the aspects of this 
educational debate that is so important.
  Let me begin by simply saying that we are spending a good amount of 
money on education today. We are spending about $18 billion. That is a 
lot of money. It is a lot of money to the people of Louisiana. And 
title I is $8.6 billion with a ``b''--not a million but a billion. That 
is a huge amount of money, but, unfortunately, I am here to say today 
that it is not enough to do the things we know we need to do to help 
reform and improve our schools and to truly give every child in this 
country a chance to succeed.
  As the Senator from West Virginia knows, there are no guarantees in 
this life. The Government cannot guarantee every citizen a good life. 
But our Constitution, the formation of this country, and the reason we 
come to work I think every day as Senators and Members of this body is 
to try to provide at least equal opportunity and an equal chance to 
succeed, to be a part of this great Nation.
  There are many ways we can try to do that. But one fundamental way is 
through the process of formal education--providing excellence in 
education to every child, whether they be born into a wealthy family, 
or a poor family, a black family, or a white family, whether they are 
born in California or New York or Louisiana or Minnesota.

  Today, as a nation, we believe we have an obligation. We did not 
always believe that because prior to 1965 education was a very local 
enterprise. But since 1965, this Government has recognized that the 
Federal Government does, in fact, have a role to play, not only in 
helping States with dollars but, hopefully, now helping them with 
direction, and moving them to reforms into excellence because while 
some of our public schools are working, too many of them are failing.
  So as we speak about this education debate, yes, we are spending a 
significant amount of money, but it is not nearly enough. In fact, you 
can look at how our money has really not increased.
  For the record, let me share with you that the title I portion, which 
is $8.6 billion of the $18 billion total, since 1965, has barely kept 
pace with inflation. So while every year we come to Washington and say 
education is our No. 1 priority--the polls most certainly indicate that 
on the Republican side

[[Page S3969]]

and Democratic side--our budgets have not reflected that because when 
items are a No. 1 priority, they get greater than an inflationary 
increase. They get significant increases in the budget to reflect that 
No. 1 status. That is simply not happening in the area of education, 
particularly in title I.
  So we want to fight for reform. We want to fight for accountability. 
But we must have those investments to make those reforms real or it is 
an empty promise and we are going to be leaving many children behind--
millions of children, as Senator Dodd said.
  Let me just share with you, first, a chart that shows that money does 
matter. There have been hundreds of studies done, but let me just share 
one with you. This is a New York study that was recently done that 
links the rises in school financing to test scores.
  In New York, 39 low-performing schools were targeted. These are 
schools that were failing to meet academic standards. These schools 
were targeted, and they were given a set of reforms: higher standards, 
testing, all of the things that we want to do; and, in addition, money, 
anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million was invested, for smaller class 
sizes, longer school days, and teacher training.
  Do you know what happened. Children began to learn because the 
reforms were matched with the dollars. In this particular study, we saw 
an increase of 7 percent in reading, and 3.5 percent in math, based on 
the reforms and the investment.
  I could share with you hundreds of studies and case examples in 
Louisiana, New York, and California where it proves the point that 
money matters. Will money correct the problem by itself? Absolutely 
not. We could triple the amount of money in education under the current 
system, and we probably would not see much in the way of results. But 
we are on the threshold of mandating rigorous tests, very high 
standards, and real consequences for failure.
  I believe passionately that if we do not match that historic 
commitment to excellence and accountability with an historic increase 
in funding, we are going to leave many millions of our children behind, 
disappoint communities around this Nation, with unfunded mandates and 
broken hearts and broken promises. We simply cannot do that. We need to 
increase funding substantially.
  Let me share another number for the record. The proposed tax cut will 
return $69 billion this year. The current education budget provides 
only $2 billion extra. Mr. President, with $69 billion for investments 
in tax cuts, $2 billion for investments in education, it is not nearly 
enough.

  The three R's bill that I have been supporting and promoting asks for 
an $8 billion increase in education. That would be a significant 
start--more than the rate of inflation. Not only would the increase 
help to match our commitment to reform and accountability, but the 
targeting aspect is also important.
  Let me share one other chart today.
  One of the problems, as I have tried to outline, is the lack of 
adequate funding and the real need to match these new accountability 
standards--new testing standards and new standards of excellence--with 
real dollars to help our schools to meet these new targets. But equally 
important as the amount of the funding is the way the funding is 
distributed.
  Right now, we are missing the mark. We are missing our targets. The 
Federal Government provides a portion of education dollars to the 
State, and all of us agree--Republicans and Democrats alike--that the 
primary role of the Federal Government is to help level the playing 
field so that whether you are in a poor community or a poor State, you 
have an equal opportunity for an excellent education. Regardless of the 
fact that he or she might live in a district where there is no capacity 
for raising taxes, that student should still have a chance for a good 
education.
  Our targets are missing the mark. Depicted in the center of this 
chart are the schools that are up to 100 percent of poverty. After 35 
years, we are still not funding 100 percent of the poorest children in 
our Nation. We have not reached them. We have tried for 35 years, but 
we are not reaching the target. When you move out to those schools that 
are between 50 and 75 percent of poverty, we are only reaching 80 
percent of our children. When you move out further, to those schools 
that are between 35 to 50 percent of poverty, we are reaching less than 
50 percent of our children. We need 100 percent for the poorest of our 
children. We need 100 percent for those schools between 50 and 75 
percent of poverty. And we need at least 75 to 100 percent for those 
schools at 35 to 50 percent of poverty. If we do not, the promise that 
we make to help the poor children in this country, many of whom live in 
States such as Louisiana, West Virginia, California, and New York--and 
they exist in every part of this Nation--will simply be empty. It is 
not fair.
  As I conclude, let me just say that not only is it not fair; it is 
not smart because our Nation will not function at its highest capacity. 
We cannot remain the supereconomic power that we are. We cannot provide 
our industries with workers who have had skilled training if we do not 
make a commitment at the national level to not only increase the amount 
of funding for education significantly, over and above the inflation 
rate, but that we also target those extra dollars to the communities 
that need the most help, hoping that wealthier communities and affluent 
communities could step up to the plate and do the job, but communities 
that are poor and disadvantaged, the Federal Government would help.
  In conclusion, let me be clear that we want to help every child in 
every district in every State. In our formula that we are 
recommending--and I am going to be offering an amendment that will 
certainly do that--every child, every community, and every school 
district will get help from the Federal Government. But we will give 
special help to those districts that need it the most. This is not just 
about taking temperatures; it is about having the medicine to give to 
our children to help get them well and to give to our schools to help 
make them excellent. If we raise the standards and do not help our 
children meet the standards, we are going to have a high level of 
frustration, anxiety, and pain across this Nation.
  So I commend the President for wanting to move to a system of greater 
accountability. I have supported that. My State of Louisiana is leading 
that effort. But if we do not couple that new accountability with 
increased targeting and increased investment, we will be making a very 
bad mistake that our Nation will pay for dearly in the decades ahead.
  Let us start this new century with a renewed commitment, with renewed 
vigor, with a commonsense approach; yes, with more accountability and 
reform, with real dollars to match, targeted in a way that will really 
bring the promise of this great Nation to each child, whether they live 
in West Virginia or Louisiana. We can do it. We have the money to do 
it. The question is, Do we have the will? I believe we do. With the 
President's leadership, with bipartisan support, we can find the will 
to do right by our children in their schools and in their communities.

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Louisiana. I share 
her enthusiasm for education. I am grateful that she is a Senator who 
is using her foresight and vision and talents to advance the cause of 
education.

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