[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 161 (Tuesday, November 27, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H8397-H8399]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD ASSIST STATES TO MAINTAIN ADVANCEMENTS IN 
                               EDUCATION

  (Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Madam Speaker, due to the faltering

[[Page H8398]]

economy, State education budgets are being squeezed all across the 
country. According to last week's report of the House and Senate 
committees which deal with education, this year States will cut $11 
billion in real education reductions. More cuts are likely, since State 
budgets are now showing a deficit of some $25 billion, and this does 
not take into account the full impact of the September 11 attack.
  Elementary and secondary education is one-third of the States' 
budget, so obviously they are going to have to be cut. But we ought to 
do all we can in the stimulus package to make sure that we support 
education.
  Over the last couple of years, schools have started to make progress 
in closing the achievement gap between poor and minority children and 
majority children and suburban children. We have made efforts on 
education reform. Children are doing better on the State exams and on 
the national exams.
  We ought to make sure that we do not lose this progress that we have 
made. We must understand that we cannot allow our children's education 
and the educational resources of this Nation to be set back because of 
the short-term recession.
  The Federal Government ought to do all it can to help States out at 
this time so we do not lose the advancements that have been made.
  California faces a $4.5 billion budget shortfall this year. 
California's revenues are projected to fall by 12% this year, the 
largest decline since World War II.
  To balance the budget, Governor Gray Davis has been forced to propose 
$843 million in education cuts, including after-school programs and 
initiatives to help low-performing schools.
  The cuts are likely to be worse next year, when the state projects a 
$12.4 billion shortfall.
  According to Brett McFadden of the Association of California School 
Administrators, ``It took years to recover from the budget deficits in 
the early `90s. If we have to go through that again, that is going to 
create lasting damage to the entire system.'' (San Francisco Chronicle, 
Nov. 15, 2001).
  Yesterday's New York Times described the impact the cuts will have on 
Harvey Elementary School in Santa Ana.
  After-school literacy classes for native-Spanish speakers has helped 
increase the proportion of fourth-graders reading above grade level 
from 7% to 25% in two years.
  One teacher called the progress her students had made in just three 
months ``remarkable.''
  But state and local budget cuts may force the program to replace 
certified teachers with college students, and cut the number of 
students served in half next year.
  According to the schools' principal, ``There was a window of 
opportunity here, and that is closing.''
  Congress is planning to spend tens or even hundreds of billions of 
dollars to respond to the economic recession and the effects of 
September 11.
  Clearly, we must make sure that we provide adequate assistance to our 
public schools so that they may continue the advancements in quality 
that we expect them to make.

               [From the Washington Post, Nov. 20, 2001]

                    Schools Lack Funds, Study Warns

                        (By Michael A. Fletcher)

       The slowing economy is preventing states from spending the 
     money needed on education to keep pace with inflation and 
     surging enrollments, and the federal government should do 
     more to fill the funding gap, according to a report by 
     congressional Democrats.
       The report said that education spending in 47 states has 
     fallen a combined $10.5 billion behind what would be needed 
     to keep pace with rising costs. Also, 11 states have cut a 
     combined $800 million from their budgets, in some cases 
     eliminating remedial classes, after-school tutoring and 
     summer school.
       The budget problems are likely to multiply as states 
     confront the economic problems they have suffered in the wake 
     of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the report said. 
     California alone is facing $843 million in proposed education 
     spending cuts to help balance a $12 billion revenue shortfall 
     over the next two years.
       ``The faltering economy is putting at risk the advancement 
     that many states are making to improve the quality of their 
     educational systems,'' said Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), 
     the ranking minority member of the House education committee.
       The report was released by Miller and Sen. Edward M. 
     Kennedy (D-Mass.), the key Democrats involved in negotiating 
     an education package that overwhelmingly passed both chambers 
     of Congress but is now making slow progress in a conference 
     committee.
       The bill, one of President Bush's top domestic priorities, 
     would require annual testing of students in grades three 
     through eight and hold both students and educators 
     responsible for the results. The bill also would give states 
     more flexibility in spending federal education aid and 
     increase the amount of money the federal government spends on 
     literacy programs and on programs for the disadvantaged.
       But while there is wide agreement on many tenets of the 
     bill, congressional Republicans and Democrats have clashed 
     over the amount of money needed to make the reforms 
     effective. The conference committee is expected to meet again 
     next week, and despite the disagreements on funding and other 
     issues, members have expressed optimism they can produce a 
     final bill by the end of the year.
       ``Education reform is a high priority in Congress and a 
     high priority for the American people,'' said Kennedy, 
     chairman of the Senate education committee. ``But we need to 
     provide more than lip service in dealing with this challenge. 
     This report will be a wake-up call that persuades both 
     Congress and the administration that greater federal 
     investment in the nation's schools is an indispensable part 
     of education reform.''
       Republicans countered, however, that money is only one 
     element of what is needed to improve schools. Moreover, they 
     said, the federal government provides just 7 percent of the 
     nation's education funding and significant increases have 
     already been approved.
       ``The education reform bill isn't just about money. It is 
     about what happens with that money,'' said Dave Schnittger, a 
     spokesman for Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), chairman of the 
     House education committee. ``What's essential is not just 
     that states have new resources, but that they have the 
     flexibility of using those resources as efficiently as 
     possible.''
       Amy Wilkins, a lobbyist for the nonpartisan Education 
     Trust, called the report an attempt by Democrats to bolster 
     their case for increased education funding--a goal she 
     supports. But, she added, ``money will not solve 
     everything.''

                [From the New York Times, Nov. 26, 2001]

                 Economy Puts Schools in Tough Position

                         (By Jacques Steinberg)

       Santa Ana, Calif., Nov. 19.--Nearly all 600 students at 
     Carl Harvey Elementary School arrive for class for the first 
     time speaking Spanish, not English, which is why the school's 
     three-hour after-school literacy classes have been so 
     critical.
       But with substantial budget cuts coming from the state and 
     the local district, and the prospects of federal help 
     uncertain, Harvey Elementary's principal has already 
     projected that after-school enrollment will have to be cut in 
     half, if not more, by next fall.
       ``There was a window of opportunity here,'' the principal, 
     Christine J. Anderson, said of the classes, which the school 
     has given for the last two years, ``and that is closing.''
       Having capitalized on a swelling economy to initiate new 
     programs aimed at improving student performance, schools 
     across the country like Harvey Elementary are now being asked 
     to curtail those very efforts because of the nation's 
     shrinking economy. In response to budget cuts, schools from 
     New York to California are undertaking such measures as 
     increasing class sizes, trimming bonuses for good teachers, 
     putting off purchases of faster computers, postponing 
     monetary rewards for high test scores and, as is the case 
     here, scaling back after-school classes.
       For the schools, the timing could not be worse: at the very 
     moment that states and school districts are demanding greater 
     academic performance, particularly by insisting that students 
     make the grade on an array of new standardized tests, the 
     states are asking students and teachers to make do with less.
       In New York City, where a substantial part of a $400 
     million school budget shortfall is a result of tax losses 
     since Sept. 11, administrators have pared Saturday sessions 
     for struggling students, extra training for thousands of new 
     teachers and art classes.
       In Las Vegas, which has one of the nation's fastest-growing 
     school systems, district officials have cut alternative 
     education programs for elementary school students with 
     disciplinary problems.
       School administrators in Fairfax County, Va., have delayed 
     some textbook purchases and placed limits on teachers' salary 
     increases, all to help the state absorb an estimated $80 
     million in education budget cuts. In Memphis, schools have 
     been told to prepare to delay all but the most pressing 
     classroom repairs, as the state government tries to wean 
     itself from dependence on dwindling sales tax revenues.
       In California, which was already experiencing a costly 
     electrical power shortage before the economy turned downward, 
     Gov. Gray Davis on Nov. 14 announced plans to delay support 
     for poorly performing schools, cut assistance for novice 
     teachers and reduce after-school programs like those here in 
     Santa Ana, which is among the poorest districts in the 
     nation. Those cuts are expected to exceed $800 million.
       All told, the Education Commission of the States, a 
     nonpartisan research organization, has identified education 
     cuts of more than $3 billion in at least 15 states. Those are 
     among the cuts detailed in another report, by the Council of 
     Great City Schools, a coalition of the 60 biggest districts.
       ``It's the poor schools that are so badly hit,'' said 
     Delaine Eastin, the superintendent of education in 
     California. ``They were starved for a quarter-century. 
     They were just starting to come back.''

[[Page H8399]]

       If there is a silver lining for the schools, it is that 
     Senate Democrats have taken note of the states' retrenchment 
     on education spending, and are trying to use the schools 
     plight to wring more money from the Bush administration and 
     the Republicans who control the House of Representatives.
       Senate and House leaders have been deadlocked for months 
     over how much to spend on elementary and secondary schools in 
     the next year. House leaders have agreed to spend nearly $30 
     billion, an increase of about $5 billion over the current 
     year. But Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts 
     Democrat who is chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and 
     Pensions Committee, has called that figure at least $10 
     billion too low.
       To buttress his argument, Mr. Kennedy's aides released 
     their own study of state education budgets on Nov. 16, which 
     predicted that states will spend $11 billion less on schools 
     this academic year than is needed, when inflation and 
     enrollment growth are taken into account.
       Representative George Miller, a California Democrat whose 
     staff worked with Mr. Kennedy's said, ``The faltering economy 
     is putting at risk the advancements that many states are 
     making to improve the quality of their educational systems.''
       Given the realities of the economy, few districts have 
     sought to challenge the state and local governments that are 
     often ordering the cuts.
       ``What are we going to say?'' said Anthony Shorris, the 
     deputy chancellor of the New York City Board of Education. 
     ``This is a terrible catastrophe that hit New York. Our goal 
     is to live with what we've got, and still help our students 
     meet these new demands.''
       In California, the more than $800 million in school budget 
     cuts identified by Governor Davis have jolted systems that 
     had grown accustomed to receiving more money from Sacramento 
     each of the last few years.
       Ms. Anderson, the principal of Harvey Elementary, a wood-
     beam-and-stucco building that is crammed to four times its 
     intended capacity, said she was sometimes inclined to agree 
     with those researchers who have found that more money does 
     not necessarily lead to improved student achievement, But, 
     she said, the $300,000 the school spent on its afternoon 
     literacy program in each of the last two years--it now 
     serves 150 students, most of them Mexican-American--was 
     followed by a relatively steep rise in reading scores.
       Last year, the school's students, who are among the most 
     disadvantaged in the state, exceeded the overall scoring 
     target set for them by state officials by a factor of five. 
     Driving that improvement were the school's fourth graders, 25 
     percent of whom were found to be reading above grade level 
     last year, compared with 7 percent three years ago.
       Amy McDonald, a third-grade teacher who sends 16 of her 19 
     students to the intensive after-school program, said that the 
     impact on their English in just three months this year had 
     been remarkable. She said that her students arrive in class 
     in the morning eager to discuss what they learned the 
     previous afternoon.
       Lizbett Mejia, 9, whose mother was born in Mexico and can 
     barely communicate in English, said she had become hooked by 
     her after-school teachers on a popular collection of books 
     known as the ``Little Sister'' series.
       ``I didn't know that much of reading,'' Lizbett said. ``Now 
     I know how to read more.''
       By replacing certified teachers with local college 
     students, Ms. Anderson said, she believe she can keep this 
     year's after-school program running at full capacity. But 
     when the proposed state cuts, including those to badly needed 
     subsidies for school electrical payments, are combined with 
     anticipated reductions in public and privately financed 
     grants, Ms. Anderson estimates that she will have no more 
     than $90,000 to spend next year on the program, which would 
     probably cut enrollment in half.
       ``These last few years have been heaven,'' she said. 
     ``Hopefully we've learned enough to be able to sustain what 
     we think works without having the money we thought we needed 
     to pay for it.''

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