[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 9 (Thursday, February 7, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S489-S491]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. COLLINS (for herself, Mr. Frist, Mr. Lieberman, Mr. 
        DeWine, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Sessions, Mr. Carper, and Mr. Breaux):
  S. 1918. A bill to expand the teacher loan forgiveness programs under 
the guaranteed and direct student loan programs for higher qualified 
teachers of mathematics, science, and special education, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today with my colleagues, Senators 
Frist, Lieberman, DeWine, Roberts, and Sessions to introduce the Math, 
Science, and Special Education Teacher Recruitment Act of 2002. I 
particularly want to thank the Senator from Tennessee for his tireless 
efforts and his leadership on this issue. The legislation we have 
before us today is, in large part, a product of his commitment to 
affordable education. I would also like to thank the Senator from 
Connecticut for his assistance and his dedication to solving America's 
teacher shortage.

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  The legislation we are introducing is designed to recruit teachers 
with an expertise in math, science, or special education to work in 
schools with high concentrations of low-income students by offering 
substantial assistance with their student loan payments.
  All across our Nation, public schools are struggling to fill teaching 
positions with qualified teachers. In the 2001-2002 school year, 
administrators had to hire an estimated 200,000 new teachers just to 
maintain the current teacher/student radio. Although universities 
continue to produce a greater number of teachers each year, the 
profession is losing too many of its most qualified and experienced 
personnel to retirement. In Maine, for example, 30.2 percent of 
teachers are over the age of 50. With such a large portion of the 
profession nearing retirement, additional replacements will be needed 
in the next few years. The national teaching shortage is expected to 
continue throughout the next decade, making it more and more difficult 
for schools to find qualified instructors.
  Attracting new faculty is difficult enough, but finding applicants 
with backgrounds in math, science, or special education can be 
particularly demanding. Among first year teachers, approximately 55 
percent graduated from college with a bachelors in general education. 
Many more graduated with liberal arts degrees or majors unrelated to 
the curriculum they teach. The result is a system where only 38 percent 
of public school teachers hold subject-matter specific degrees.
  In Maine, the shortage of qualified applicants is most severe with 
regard to math, science, special education, and foreign languages. 
Eighty nine percent of our high schools reported a shortage in math 
teachers, and 87 percent reported a shortage of science teachers. With 
the recent developments in technology and computing, it is becoming 
more important than ever that our schoolchildren enter the workforce 
with a firm grasp of math and science. Yet, it is more and more 
difficult to attract math and science specialists to the teaching 
profession. As for special education, the Council for Exceptional 
Children reports that 50,000 special education positions were unfilled 
or filled by teachers without a full certification.
  If this teacher shortage is a burden on suburban school districts 
with ample resources, you can imagine the strain it puts on high 
poverty school systems. Problems are amplified in high-need areas: 
Teachers are likely to be the least experienced, often just out of 
school, they are less likely to hold a masters degree, and they are 
less likely to have majored in their field of instruction.
  To help deal with this epidemic, Senator FRIST and I put together a 
proposal that would expand the current loan forgiveness program for 
math and science teachers who are willing to teach in high-poverty 
areas. Under the Act, teachers who commit to teach for five consecutive 
years in a low-income/high-need area would be eligible for $17,500 in 
loan forgiveness instead of the current benefit of $5,000. To meet the 
pressing need for special educators, the proposal would also make 
special educators eligible for the loan assistance for the first time. 
We expect this legislation will expand upon the successes of the 
current program and encourage a greater number of college graduates to 
enter the teaching profession. We are also hopeful that it will 
encourage more of the best qualified teachers to consider teaching in 
high need areas.
  We are delighted that the President has included $45 million in his 
budget for a similar proposal. Once again, President Bush has chosen to 
make education a priority, and I look forward to working with my 
colleagues and the Administration on this important piece of 
legislation.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I rise to speak about a bill being 
introduced today by Senator Collins, a bill that would expand loan 
forgiveness for math, science and special education teachers. I am 
proud to be a cosponsor of this legislation.
  At this time, I would like to share with you some startling 
statistics regarding the status of teaching skills in our country. More 
than 1 in 4 high school math teachers and nearly 1 in 5 high school 
science teachers lack even a minor in their main teaching field. About 
56 percent of high school students taking physical science are taught 
by out-of-field teachers, as are 27 percent of those taking math. And 
these percentages are much greater among high-poverty areas. Among 
schools with the highest minority enrollments, for example, students 
have less than a 50 percent chance of getting a science or math teacher 
who hold both a license and a degree in the field being taught. One 
survey taken among 40 large urban schools, for instance, showed that 
more than 90 percent of them had an immediate need for a certified math 
or science teacher.
  This shortage of strong math and science teachers is having a direct 
effect on the performance of our students. The most recent NAEP science 
section results showed that the performance of fourth- and eighth-grade 
students remained about the same since 1996, but scores for high school 
seniors changed significantly: up six points for private school 
students and down four for public school students, for a net national 
decline of three points. Moreover, a whopping 82 percent of twelfth-
grade students are not proficient in science and the achievement gaps 
among eighth-graders are appalling: Only 41 percent of white, 7 percent 
of African-American and 12 percent of Hispanic students are proficient.
  The disappointing overall results for seniors on the science section 
of the NAEP prompted Education Secretary Rod Paige to call the decline 
``morally significant.'' He warned, ``If our graduates know less about 
science than their predecessors four years ago, then our hopes for a 
strong 21st century workforce are dimming just when we need them 
most.'' I couldn't agree with the Secretary more.
  An enormous improvement in mathematics and science education at the 
K-12 level is necessary if today's students want good jobs and the 
United States wants to stay competitive in the world economy. With 
globalization, that means that the good jobs will go to the people who 
can do them best. If those people are not in the United States, then 
those jobs will also not be in the United States. At present, the law 
allows 195,000 immigrants to enter the United States on H-1B visas each 
year in order to take jobs that cannot be filled by workers in the 
United States.
  We have to do more to make sure that our students are learning math 
and science skills. And to do so, we must improve the quality of our 
Nation's math and science teachers. These sentiments are echoed by the 
National Research Council in its 2001 ``Educating Teachers of Science, 
Mathematics, and Technology'' report. The Council notes: If the Nation 
is to make the continuous improvements needed in teaching, we need to 
make a science out of teacher education--using evidence and analysis to 
build an effective system of teacher preparation and professional 
development.
  President Bush has taken note of the startling statistics I shared 
with you today, and that is why he has provided $45 million in his 
budget to expand loan forgiveness for math and science teachers from 
$5,000 to $17,500 for those teachers who commit to teach for 5 
consecutive years in high-need schools. The President also provided 
this expansion of loan forgiveness for special education teachers in 
his proposal.
  I wrote like to praise Senator Collins for following his lead and 
introducing a bill to provide the authorizing language to make his 
proposal become a reality. I am very proud to be an original cosponsor 
of the bill. The bill would provide that $17,500 of loans would be 
forgiven for those that have math, science, engineering and special 
education majors or graduate degrees, have been certified to teach in 
their states, and agree to teach in a school with a 50 percent or 
higher rate of poverty. The bill is very simple, but it could make a 
tremendous difference for many of our young students' lives.
  I have had the benefit of an amazing education in my lifetime and 
also have had the wonderful opportunity of being inspired by 
tremendously talented and dedicated teachers. I want to make sure that 
all children have that same opportunity: to be inspired by smart, 
gifted and devoted teachers who actually know and understand math and 
science. These teachers make a difference. They can lead a child to 
like math, to like science, or they can

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cause a child to forever stray from the life sciences and run toward 
the liberal arts.
  Our society needs more engineers, more technicians, more doctors and 
more scientists. We as a society should do all we can to encourage kids 
to enter these professions. That means we have to start early and make 
sure that those individuals who have the ability to shape their 
knowledge actually encourage them to become future scientists, not 
dissuade them from ever considering it. And, having spoken with so many 
teachers, school board members and educators who must grapple with the 
demands of the special education students, no one can underestimate the 
need to encourage more of our best and brightest to teach special need 
children.
  I hope others join Senator Collins and me in this effort to make a 
difference in a young child's future. Please cosponsor this initiative 
and help us to pass this important legislation.
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