[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 72 (Wednesday, June 5, 2002)]
[House]
[Pages H3207-H3208]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            PRESIDENT'S EDUCATION BUDGET IS A BROKEN PROMISE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to question the fiscal 
responsibility of the current administration and to question their 
priorities.
  On May 23, I came to this great House floor to vote for positive 
sweeping changes to our Nation's education programs, along with 384 of 
our colleagues who passed H.R. 1, the Act to Leave No Child Behind. 
H.R. 1 passed this House and it also passed the other body and was 
signed by the President this past January. Members of Congress on both 
sides of the aisle stood next to the President to sign the legislation 
we believed would finally make education what it should be, a number 
one priority.

[[Page H3208]]

  Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor this evening because the 
administration's budget, its budget for next year, does not make 
education a priority. The President's education budget is a broken 
promise. President Bush has stated that he is the education president. 
Yet resources in his education budget did not match his rhetoric.
  Last month, President Bush visited my home State of Ohio and told a 
crowd of citizens in Cleveland that we must make sure every child in 
America gets educated. However, the President's rhetoric does not match 
the resources in his budget.
  President Bush did not mention the education programs that would not 
receive funding in the State due to his budget cuts. Indeed, the 
education budget that President Bush sent to Congress falls $7.2 
billion, not million, billion short of the funds needed to implement 
programs that we passed in H.R. 1.
  The most troubling aspect of the President's budget to me is that it 
spends 50 times more on tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent of 
Americans than the total of new education spending, 50 times more for 
those that already have extremely difficult choices for school 
districts across this country.
  The President's budget cuts 57 education programs authorized in H.R. 
1, 57 programs are cut, and his budget will fall short by $4.7 billion 
needed to support most academically needy students in our country, $4.7 
billion short.
  So one can rightly ask the question, is President Bush's education 
budget a broken promise?
  Mr. Speaker, education must continue to be a priority. Couple this 
with the impact of the recession on State budgets which currently have 
deficits in aggregate of over $40 billion and there is no doubt that 
our governors are going to be forced to place major cuts on State 
education and spending at the elementary and secondary levels as well 
as the post-secondary. We already have seen this in States like Ohio.
  State colleges are facing the worst State budget crunch in a decade. 
Frankly, I cannot understand why the college students across this 
country are not organizing to impact legislation in their State houses 
and here at the national level because we are witnessing the largest 
tuition hikes on our college students in recent history. Why are they 
so satisfied when, in fact, most of them are graduating with a debt of 
nearly $17,000 and in medical school over $100,000 debt for a new 
doctor coming out of med school?
  A congressional survey found that 49 States made $1.5 billion in mid-
year cuts to higher education funding. Public and private universities 
share a grim budget outlook indeed as public support dwindles during a 
faltering economy.
  Ohio students will pay prices for higher education because the State 
of Ohio, as are many other States, is cutting support for higher 
education. Some State campuses, in fact, are facing increases in 
tuition of 3 to 15 percent.

                              {time}  1700

  In the wake of this news, it did not make any sense then for 
President Bush to propose ending the fixed-rate consolidations of 
Federal student loans earlier this spring. The administration stated 
that the funds, once allocated for the student loan program, would be 
used to cover the current $1.3 billion shortfall this year in the 
budget for the Pell grant program, so important for our lower-income 
students. But then the administration, after substantial criticism, 
rescinded that proposal.
  Members of Congress continue to believe that education should be a 
number one priority. As a member of the Committee on Appropriations, I 
very much want to keep it a top priority, but we need the cooperation 
of the White House in this endeavor. And the barbecue tonight will not 
solve the problems of students and school districts across this 
country. Seven hundred thousand borrowers consolidate or refinance 
their total Federal student loans each year.
  It is important to ask what other programs are going to be slashed, 
what other promises are going to be broken. Education should remain a 
number one priority.

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