[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 76 (Thursday, June 9, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1193-E1194]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        INTRODUCING THE TEACHER EXCELLENCE FOR ALL CHILDREN ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 9, 2005

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to 
introduce an important piece of new legislation, the Teacher Excellence 
for All Children Act, that is the next step our country needs to take 
to ensure that every teacher in every classroom, teaching every child, 
is highly qualified.
  First and foremost, I want to thank our teachers for their dedication 
and commitment to taking on the overwhelming demands of their 
profession. We ask them to perform miracles every day in our 
underfunded and overcrowded system. And we owe it to them and to their 
students to provide more than rhetoric about our commitment to 
encouraging talented people to enter the field and stay there.
  Let me also thank the organizations, and their members, who go to 
work every day with the commitment to help our schools and our students 
succeed. They are a great constituency for this legislation, and I 
welcome their support and their input in its development. Thank you to 
the Alliance for Excellent Education, the American Federation of 
Teachers, the Business Roundtable, the Center for American Progress 
Action Fund, the Children's Defense Fund, the Council of Great City 
Schools, the Education Trust, the National Council on Teacher Quality, 
the National Council of La Raza, the National Education Association, 
New Leaders for New Schools, the New Teacher Project, Operation Public 
Education, Teach for America, the Teacher Advancement Program 
Foundation, and The Teaching Commission.
  We know the dismal effects on students when they lack the highest 
quality teachers. And we know that there are many reasons why people 
decline to enter the teaching profession, or decide not to remain 
there. Reasons such as low pay, lack of professionl development, 
unreasonable burdens, or little opportunity for advancement. Congress 
cannot afford to ignore this immediate and mounting crisis in the 
teaching profession that will grow exponentially as an unprecedented 
number of teachers retire in the next five years.
  My 45 colleagues who are original cosponsors and I are prepared to 
respond to this challenge facing American education with an innovative 
approach that matches the seriousness of the challenge with the ``The 
TEACH Act of 2005''--the next step our country needs to take to ensure 
that every teacher, in every classroom, teaching every child, is highly 
qualified.
  The most important single factor in determining a child's success in 
school is the quality of his or her teacher. We all remember a 
teacher--or even several teachers--who made us proud of ourselves for 
what we accomplished and helped us face our future with hope and 
confidence. Imagine if every one of our teachers over the years had 
given us that same strength.
  The TEACH Act will accomplish four critical goals: Increase the 
supply of outstanding teachers; Ensure all children have teachers with 
expertise in the subjects they teach; Identify and reward our best 
teachers; Keep the best teachers and principals in our schools.
  This bill is a major legislative initiative that will attract our 
most talented teachers to the classrooms of our nation's toughest 
public schools--and encourage them to stay there.
  When our nation's school doors close for the summer later this month, 
more than 200,000 teachers, nearly 6 percent of the teaching workforce, 
will leave the profession. Over the next decade, we will need to hire 
more than two million new teachers to serve in our public schools. Yet 
today, we have no national plan for attracting outstanding students 
into the teaching profession, or keeping them there.
  A large proportion of those who do enter teaching remain a short 
time, discouraged by low salaries, inadequate opportunities for 
professional development, and low public esteem. By failing to address 
this problem, Congress is shortchanging our children and costing 
taxpayers more than $2.6 billion annually replacing teachers who have 
dropped out of the profession. We need to act immediately to assure 
that we have an adequate supply of exemplary teachers for the next 
generation of students.
  My bill addresses this need by helping school districts to pay more 
competitive salaries and by offering up-front tuition assistance to 
talented undergraduates committed to a career in education, to 
established teachers working in fields like math and science, where the 
teacher shortage is most acute, and to retirees with math and science 
expertise who would like to join the ranks of our nation's teachers.
  The TEACH Act also offers up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness to highly 
qualified teachers wbo are working in high priority communities.
  The TEACH Act also helps new teachers transition into the classroom 
and build their skills through state-of-the-art induction programs that 
include proven strategies such as structured mentoring, common lesson-
planning, and intensive professional development.
  My bill also addresses the problem that poor children are far less 
likely to be taught by expert teachers. Nearly three-quarters of math 
classes in high-poverty middle schools are taught by teachers who lack 
a major--or even a minor--in math. The TEACH Act provides higher pay 
for exemplary highly qualified teachers and principals who transfer 
into the hardest-to-staff schools where they can help the children who 
need them most. Making sure these children are taught by a well-trained 
teacher is crucial because over a five year period, it can close the 
performance gap between low-income and high-income students.
  The TEACH Act also helps create true career ladders that allow 
teachers to advance in the profession as they gain new knowledge and 
skills. The bill would augment the salaries of teachers who seek out 
opportunities to advance their own professional development and to 
mentor colleagues who are new to the profession.
  We also know that nothing is more important in attracting--and 
keeping--outstanding teachers than outstanding principals. My bill 
raises standards and improves recruitment and training for new 
principals.
  Teaching is not just another job. Teaching is a career that must be 
satisfying in itself, that must attract the best people, and that must 
instruct our children to succeed in an increasingly competitive world.
  We can have a dynamic and exciting future for America's schools and 
their students. We have the national resources. Now, we must make the 
commitment.
  We must dedicate the necessary resources, demand the necessary 
results, and stay with it to the end to make sure that every child in 
America has a teacher we can all be proud of and that every teacher in 
America can say they are proud of us too for the support we give them.
  I would also like to acknowledge three reports that were particularly 
useful. The Teaching Commission's report, Teaching at Risk: A Call to 
Action; the Center for American Progress report. Ensuring a High 
Quality Education for Every Child by Building a Stronger Teaching 
Force, and the National Academy of Education report A Good Teacher in 
Every Classroom: Preparing the Highly Qualified Teachers Our Children 
Deserve. All three reports were extremely instrumental, particularly in 
identifying practices that are working well and need to be taken to 
scale.
  The TEACH Act will take us where research and experience say we need 
to go: stronger teachers, stronger principals, stronger schools. I look 
forward to achieving the vision of a better school system for all of 
our children.

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