[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 58 (Thursday, May 9, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S4108]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                THE PRESIDENT'S COMMITMENT TO EDUCATION

  Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. President, before I begin discussing the judicial 
nomination, I wish to respond to the colloquy that took place on the 
other side of the aisle regarding our President's commitment to 
education.
  I serve on the Education Committee, and I was privileged to serve on 
the conference committee on the Leave No Child Behind legislation which 
reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and which was 
signed into law in January. I saw for more than a year the President's 
and this administration's deep commitment and involvement to reforming 
and fully funding our education legislation and our commitment to our 
elementary and secondary education, special education under IDEA, and 
the bilingual and other programs that were reauthorized in this 
legislation.
  We have incredible leadership in the White House, and that is why 
this bipartisan legislation passed by over 80 votes in the Senate. It 
disappoints me and hurts me to hear my colleagues on the other side of 
the aisle attack this administration and question its commitment to 
education. We saw in 30 years under Democrat control an education 
policy that got us nowhere, in which the learning gap between high-
achieving and low-achieving students never narrowed, in which test 
scores, instead of rising, continued to fall.
  Now we have a President who has said: Let's try something different; 
let's put real accountability into education; yes, let's increase 
funding, with dramatic increases in title I, dramatic increases in 
IDEA, special education, and dramatic reforms and increases in 
bilingual education; but let's accompany spending increases with 
accountability; let's not just spend more, let's spend smarter.
  I, for one, stand and applaud the President for his leadership. I can 
only say as the President's poll numbers soar on leadership in 
education and Republicans in general score better on education than 
ever before, that is the only explanation for the misguided attack on 
the President on the education issue which we just heard today.

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