[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 73 (Thursday, May 24, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E930-E931]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT OF 2001

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. ROBERT A. UNDERWOOD

                                of guam

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 23, 2001

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1) to close 
     the achievement gap with accountability, flexibility, and 
     choice, so that no child is left behind:

  Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to express my concerns and 
to urge my colleagues to consider the children who will be left behind 
on H.R. 1. The President's Education Plan to ``Leave No Child Behind'' 
is woven into the language of H.R. 1, which is our blueprint for 
elementary and secondary education in this country. While I support 
many of the initiatives in this legislation, I must raise again the 
reality that the children living in U.S. insular areas like Guam, the 
Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern 
Mariana Islands will be left behind in this reauthorization bill.
  While H.R. 1 addresses the needs of children living in rural areas, 
the needs of American Indian and Alaska Native children, the needs of 
children with Limited English Proficiency, the needs of children of 
military families, it fails to begin addressing the needs of children 
living in the insular areas. And, although the insular areas have a 
unique status under Federal law that requires special policies to serve 
the educational needs of children, there is no Federal education policy 
that focuses on the specific and unique needs of insular area school 
systems.
  It is difficult for insular area educational systems to compete for 
Federal funding distributed by competitive grants because schools lack 
the personnel needed to prepare grant application and the resources to 
higher specialists in the writing of Federal grant proposals. They are 
also faced with unique challenges in hiring and retaining qualified 
administrators and certified school teachers. This is alarmingly the 
case in American Samoa where 77 percent of school teachers are 
uncertified.
  Children living in insular areas rank among the lowest in the nation 
in educational achievement. In particular, the jurisdictions of Guam 
and the Virgin Islands rank among the lowest in the nation in NAEP 
scores. Consequently, the high school drop out rates of children living 
in the insular areas are among the highest in the Nation.
  Insular area educational systems face other challenges such as 
geographical barriers, high unemployment rates, shrinking economies, 
aging buildings which are strained by the acceleration of weathering 
caused by tropical storms and typhoons, high costs of importing and 
providing equipment and supplies, and a host of other limited 
resources.
  If the goal is indeed to leave no child behind in education, then 
Congress and the Federal Government must work to ensure that no child 
is left behind, whether they reside in the states or the territories. 
The current language of H.R. 1 neglects to take into account the 
special needs of children living in the territories and the special 
challenges insular area educational systems must undergo to provide 
quality education in the insular areas.
  As the Delegate from Guam to the U.S. House of Representatives, and a 
life-long educator who taught and served in the administration of 
public high schools and later served as the Academic Vice President of 
the University of Guam, I have always advocated for improvements in the 
manner that federal policy is developed by the Federal Government in 
its treatment of the insular areas.
  The insular areas are generally included in most national education 
programs, but mostly

[[Page E931]]

as afterthoughts. As a result, educators in the insular areas must 
follow a patchwork system of funding arrangements, varying from state 
shares to special formulas for outlying areas, in order to obtain 
needed and fair funding of federal program resources.
  I am pleased that we will be included in most of the increases, 
including the President's proposal to increase spending by $5 billion 
on reading programs for Kindergarten to 3rd grade. And, I am 
particularly pleased that local school districts will be given greater 
flexibility to transfer up to 50 percent of the Federal education 
dollars they receive through ESEA programs. I am also pleased that the 
bill will help states and local schools with their development of 
annual reading and math assessments for students in 3rd through 8th 
grade and that there will not be a uniform ruler to measure all 
achievement because one size does not fit all. However, I remain 
concerned that the over-reliance on standardized testing as the only 
measure of educational success might only lead to failure. In a place 
like Guam, standardized testing as a single measure can be particularly 
misleading, therefore, additional measures should be employed.
  I have long been an advocate for establishing a Federal educational 
policy for the insular areas that would help to bring consistency to 
their treatment throughout H.R. 1. In the absence of such policy, I 
have worked to develop language and legislation to extend the 
opportunities provided to all Americans to those living in the insular 
areas. Thus, I proposed an amendment to H.R. 1 which provides the 
framework for Federal education policy to the insular areas and calls 
for the reestablishment of the Territorial Assistance Program to 
provide teacher training to help students graduate from high schools in 
the insular areas. Unfortunately, this amendment was struck down along 
with more than a hundred other amendments proposed for this 
deliberation today.
  I am here before you to urge your consideration of the special needs 
of children living in the insular areas. The Federal Government has 
recognized that special attention must be given to the challenging 
circumstances of insular area educational systems. It is my hope that 
Congress will work to resolving these longstanding issues which impede 
the delivery of education to children living in the insular areas. Why 
should our educators be left to searching for information in footnotes 
and obscure references to find the policies which apply to them?
  We need to work in concert to level the playing field for all 
American children in the states and in the territories. I hope my 
colleagues will join in supporting my legislation to ensure that no 
American child is left behind in our national education programs no 
matter where they live, and urge support for the inclusion of this 
policy in any final agreement of H.R. 1.

                          ____________________