[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 60 (Saturday, April 12, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E771]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                INTRODUCTION OF THE TEACHING FELLOWS ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. DAVID E. PRICE

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, April 11, 2003

  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing the 
Teaching Fellows Act of 2003 with fourteen original cosponsors.
  The most critical education issue we face is the recruitment and 
retention of high-quality teachers. In order to keep pace with 
anticipated retirements and the growing student population, local 
school districts will need to hire an estimated 2.5 million teachers 
over the next ten years! These projected shortages are especially 
serious in some states and districts--especially inner cities and the 
rapidly growing West and South--and in subjects such as special 
education, mathematics, physical sciences, and foreign languages.
  While all the education improvements and reforms we envision are 
dependent on a first-rate teaching force, neither political party has 
given teacher recruitment and retention top billing on its education 
agenda or has moved beyond stereotypical responses to the challenge.
  Neither offering federal stipends or student loan forgiveness to 
prospective teachers--as proposed by the Clinton administration--nor 
exhorting individuals to pursue teaching careers--an approach favored 
by the current administration--is likely to produce the kind of 
intensive, sustained effort we need to nurture prospective teachers, 
strengthen their professional identity, and help them succeed once they 
enter the classroom.
  There is no single, simple solution, but I believe that North 
Carolina's successful Teaching Fellows program offers a model for 
national emulation. The Teaching Fellows Act would create two federal 
programs to encourage our best and brightest students to enter and 
remain in the field of teaching by offering them scholarships as well 
as professional development and mentoring assistance. One program would 
offer fellowships and intensive training for high school seniors and 
college sophomores who want to become teachers, while another would 
enable teaching assistants and other community college students to earn 
their four-year teaching certificates. In exchange, these scholarship 
recipients would be required to teach for at least four years in a 
public school or three years in a low-performing school following 
graduation.
  The No Child Left Behind Act requires that every teacher be ``highly-
qualified'' by the 2005-06 school year. In order to meet that need, we 
must embark on an unprecedented teacher recruitment and retention 
effort. The Teaching Fellows Act gets to the heart of the need for 
quality and quantity in America's teaching force. We know that such 
programs work, and with the federal support this bill would provide, 
these state programs could be building blocks for the intensive 
national recruitment and retention effort that is essential to 
strengthening our public education system.
  I would like to invite all members of the House to cosponsor the 
Teaching Fellows Act, and I look forward to working with my colleagues 
to make sure our schools will have the teachers they need to be 
successful.

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