[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 56 (Monday, April 30, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4019-S4021]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      CONSIDERATION OF THE ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, this week we are going to take up one of the 
most important pieces of legislation that will occur this entire 
Congress--not this year, not next year, but the entire Congress. That 
is the Elementary and Secondary Education Act--extremely important.
  In the last Congress, we did not complete it. We were refused the 
opportunity to debate and amend this legislation--we, the Democrats, in 
the minority. Things have changed now. The Senate is divided 50-50. The 
time has come that we work together on this and all legislation.
  Last week, we did some very important work. We only had one vote last

[[Page S4020]]

week, but it was an extremely important vote. It was on brownfields 
legislation, legislation that will allow people all over the State of 
Nevada and all over the State of Minnesota to clean up spots that are 
lightly polluted. They are not Superfund sites, but they are sites that 
right now people are afraid to go onto and develop a shopping center or 
a park, the reason being, if they go upon the land, there will be a 
liability under the Superfund legislation. So the brownfields 
legislation, which passed last week 99-0, will allow these 
approximately 600,000 sites all over America to be cleaned up. It will 
create over half a million jobs. It will create tax revenues for local 
governments of about $2.5 billion. It is important legislation. It is 
not the number of votes we have; it is what we do with them.
  There is presently pending before the Senate a cloture vote. We are 
scheduled to take that tomorrow morning. I hope that will be vitiated, 
that we can just go to consideration of the bill.
  There have been negotiations on this bill that continued even during 
the weekend. Staff and members of the committee worked very hard to 
come up with something on which we can all agree. There has been, as I 
understand it, general agreement on the substance of the bill. And that 
is important.
  So I repeat, I hope we will be able to vitiate the cloture vote 
scheduled tomorrow. The cloture vote is not only unnecessary; it is 
unproductive. It is counterproductive. All the parties have been 
working in good faith in a bipartisan manner to work out the 
differences, just as we did with the brownfields legislation.
  When this bill was reported out of committee, there were some 
problems with it. It passed 15-3, but there were still some minor 
problems. Even though we had an overwhelming majority when it came out 
of the committee, we said to those people who had some concerns, let's 
try to work them out; and we did. That is why the bill passed 99-0. The 
same can happen with this education legislation. People worked in good 
faith, in a bipartisan manner. Let's try to copy what happened in 
brownfields legislation.
  There are two key areas in this legislation. The language differences 
I understand are pretty well resolved. There are some funding 
differences, and they have not been resolved. But I think we should do 
it the American way, the way we have been doing it in this country for 
over 200 years. Let's bring this bill to this body, and then we will 
have votes as to what we should do for the children of America as it 
relates to education.
  It would be most unfortunate to not turn to the bill. It seems to me 
it is wrong not to work on this legislation, debate it, however it 
needs to be debated. We need to work out the policy differences. It is 
my understanding that that has pretty well been done.
  As I indicated, when this bill was last worked on, we did not 
complete the legislation. That was unfortunate. We cannot repeat the 
mistake that was made in the last Congress. As I have indicated, this 
is potentially the most significant legislation this Congress will 
consider. It has the potential to be a landmark act that will greatly 
improve our Nation's educational system.
  No one--not Democrats, Republicans, or this administration--disagrees 
about the need for educational reform. The question is, How are we 
going to do it? Our schools are desperate for reform.
  Just take the State of Nevada as an example. In one school district, 
which is the sixth largest school district in America--the Clark County 
School District--we have to build one new school every month to keep up 
with growth. Twelve new schools a year just barely makes it. We need 
some help. We not only need help in building and renovating schools in 
Nevada--as I indicated, we are building new schools--but around America 
the average school is almost 50 years old. We need to renovate those 
schools.
  In some of the schools we talk about high tech and digital divide, 
and you can't put this equipment in these old schools. So we need help 
with construction moneys. We need smaller classrooms and we need 
curriculum reform.
  I am not one who runs from people saying, well, this is a local 
problem; Congress, stay out of it. Education is a national problem. I 
don't apologize to anybody in indicating that Nevada needs help with 
education. Take, for example, the schools in Nevada. They are no 
different than in Minnesota, the State of the Presiding Officer. In the 
State of Minnesota, we are educating students because of a Federal 
edict for disadvantaged children, those who are handicapped because of 
emotional problems, physical problems, mental problems. I am glad we 
are doing that; they deserve an education just as any other child. But 
in Minnesota, Nevada, and the other 48 States, it costs a lot of money 
to educate these children--about 40 cents to a dollar more for every 
child. But the Federal Government has not lived up to its 
responsibility. We are paying less than 10 cents--far less than that--
and because of that, local school districts have to get this money from 
other programs.
  In the State of Nevada, in the Clark County School District, which I 
have talked about, they are actually considering having children pay to 
play football or basketball. They are actually considering having 
children pay to play sports. A lot of people can't afford to pay to 
have their kids play football. But poor kids need character-building 
athletics just as much as do well-off kids. How can we say this isn't a 
national problem? If in the Clark County district the Federal 
Government fully funded the program for educating the handicapped, they 
would have this money, which is millions of dollars, to enrich these 
curriculum programs, to do some of the things we know need to be done.
  It is time to carry out reform. But we can't build a Cadillac model 
and fund it with a Model-T budget. We need to make sure that if we are 
going to have reforms, the reforms are something other than just words. 
If we are going to do a lot of testing--and I think we do now, but some 
experts believe testing in certain areas is needed--and we are going to 
hold back certain children from progressing--I was in my office today 
with a nice looking little boy from Nevada. He is 9 years old. He is 
here with his grandfather. I said: How are you doing? You are a fine-
looking young boy. What grade are you in?
  He said: I am in the third grade, but I was held back.
  I said: Don't you ever tell anybody that you were held back. There is 
nothing wrong with being held back.
  Well, this is the point I am making. Holding children back makes them 
embarrassed. He had to blurt out to a Senator that he was held back. He 
talked well and he was fine looking, and I am sure he will do fine. 
Some children need to be held back, but we need curriculum changes so 
if they are held back, they have summer enrichment programs so when the 
new school year starts, they are right with their buddies, their 
friends, with the little girls in the neighborhood. We have to make 
sure if we are going to do all this testing, this curriculum advantage 
stuff, they have enough money to give school districts the resources to 
help these children, so if they are held back, it is only on a 
temporary basis.
  I hope we all understand--and I know everyone does--how important the 
education issue is. We can't play around with it. This cannot be a 
political game for the Republicans or the Democrats. Wouldn't it be 
nice if we buckled down and said, OK, this is what needs to be done, 
and then do it. Then we would all walk out of here--Democrats and 
Republicans--and have a joint press conference for a change, have our 
arms around each other saying we have improved education for kids in 
Minnesota, in Nevada, and every place else.

  To do this, we are going to have to get off this kick that you can do 
it on the cheap. If we are going to do education reform right, it is 
going to cost money. It is going to cost taxpayers money--me, the 
Presiding Officer, all of us.
  As Robert Kennedy said in a speech to a bunch of doctors when he was 
telling them about the needs in health care reform, as he talked about 
some of the things that needed to be done in education, the first 
question he was asked was: Who is going to pay for this? He said: You 
are.
  Well, Mr. President, that is how it works. If we are going to do the 
things that need to be done to take care of children in America, we are 
all going to have to pitch in and pay for it. It may mean that we are 
going to have a tax cut that is less than $1.6 trillion. It may mean 
that over the 10-year period we are going to have to have a few billion 
that will go to education rather

[[Page S4021]]

than tax cuts. Approximately 50 percent of the taxpayers will get the 
advantage out of the Bush tax cut. The top 1 percent will get 40, 50 
percent of the tax cut. I will bet you we could go to every one of 
those so-called rich people and there isn't a single one of them who 
would object to lowering their tax break a little bit to help the kids 
of America have a better education. There isn't a single one. If there 
are, they would be very few. People in America want kids to have a good 
education.
  So I say let's forget about the cloture vote, stop the posturing, and 
let's all join to reform education and pay for the reform. Let's not 
reform education and leave it without the resources to do so. Let's not 
have reform in name only. That would not help anyone.
  We are very close to reaching agreement over the general principles 
that would serve as a foundation of this legislation. I hope the 
majority leader will vitiate the vote set for tomorrow, allow these 
issues to be resolved and just bring it to the floor, and we will start 
debating the issues. I expect that we can work this out without a lot 
of trouble. We could do it orderly. It would be a way to efficiently 
consider the bill.
  So, again, I hope we realize that if there was ever an issue that 
calls for a bipartisan approach, it is educating the kids in our public 
school system. I am very favorably impressed that President Bush 
dropped his voucher proposal. He dropped it because it would not work. 
The money that was called for would only help rich people because, with 
the amount of money the poor student would get, they could not go to 
the private schools anyway. I appreciate the President backing off of 
that.
  Now what we need to do is stop quibbling over a few dollars. I say a 
few dollars because when you compare the few billion dollars--less than 
$10 billion--it would take to have a meeting of the minds on this bill 
to a $1.6 trillion tax cut, it is really not much money. I hope we can 
do that. I think it would set such a great tone for this country. In 
every poll conducted in America, the No. 1 issue is education. Let's 
join together so we can say we improved education for the children of 
America. I think that would make a pretty good Congress and make us all 
happy and make the American people happy.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed for 30 
minutes as in morning business.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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