[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 131 (Thursday, September 6, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H10204-H10205]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                REAUTHORIZATION OF NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, with all the various 
important issues that we have been debating on the floor, we should 
remember one very important issue dealing with education of our 
children that will be considered here in the House very soon, and, most 
specifically, that deals with the reauthorization of NCLB, No Child 
Left Behind.
  So I come to the floor tonight to address some of the concerns and 
problems with NCLB and offer a possible solution. That solution, by the 
way, is the legislation I have submitted, H.R. 3177, the LEARN Act, the 
Local Education Authority Returns Now, allowing States and parents and 
local communities to regain control of their education and not have it 
be here in Washington, DC.
  As we're all aware, NCLB is really simply a reauthorization of the 
Elementary and Secondary Act, that's ESEA, from the 1960s. What I've 
done is I've looked back over the past reauthorizations of ESEA, and 
I've noticed a very troubling trend. With every single reauthorization, 
new problems are always found for America's schools, and with every new 
problem, the solution is always more Federal involvement.
  You know, all the way back in 1983, almost a quarter of a century 
ago, a famous report came out. It was called, ``A Nation at Risk,'' and 
it said that America had fallen dangerously behind the rest of the 
world in education; but, today, new studies are saying much the same 
thing.
  According to the National Center for Education Science, in 2003 U.S. 
fourth graders were outperformed by their peers in eleven other 
countries, including four Asian countries and seven European countries. 
U.S. eighth graders were outperformed by their peers in nine countries, 
including five Asian and four European.
  Yet, today, as a percentage of GDP after NCLB, we are still spending 
more money on education now than at any time in U.S. history. We have 
increased the paperwork, the requirements for the teachers, more 
taxpayer dollars, increased administration's burden; but we've 
decreased the flexibility for the teachers and the power in the 
classroom.
  So let me just present two charts, and I would like to thank the work 
of Dr. Anthony Davies of the Donahue Graduate School of Business of 
Duquesne University, to make this point. If we look at this chart, the 
chart shows noninstructional spending and instructional spending in our 
schools. The top is eighth graders. The bottom is fourth graders.

[[Page H10205]]

  The first chart is noninstructional spending. That is the spending 
that we use for the buildings, the transportation and the like. You 
would think that with all these reforms that we have done, that with 
the increase in spending, you would see an increase in performance. 
Well, what does the chart actually show? Well, the top chart, again, is 
eighth graders, and what it's showing is, as you see at the left-hand 
side of the chart, $3,000 per pupil; on the far side of the chart, 
$6,500 per pupil. But the performance of the students stays basically 
the same, regardless of how the dollars coming from Washington are 
spent.
  The next color, the red dots, are fourth graders, exactly the same 
thing. Regardless of whether we're spending around $3,000, $4,000, 
$5,000 or $6,000, the instructional value of those dollars coming out 
of these programs, the numbers stay essentially the same.
  The next chart you look at confirms the same point. This is 
instructional spending. These are the dollars that actually make their 
way into the classroom. This is for the books. This is for the 
teachers. This is what you really think of when you think of education. 
Same thing: top is eighth graders, bottom is fourth graders. It starts 
at $2,500 and goes up to $7,500. You would think that with these 
reforms of NCLB, you would think that with additional dollars going 
into the classrooms you would see an increase actually in the 
performance for these grades. But what do we actually see on the chart?
  Well, for the top, the eighth graders, starting at $2,500, up to 
$5,000, up to $7,500, the numbers for them for the performance on these 
scores, under the NAEP score standards, and that's the national 
standards of assessments for kids, the numbers are even right across 
the chart. Likewise, on the bottom part of this chart, that's the 
fourth graders, the red little squares. Again, we're looking in the 
same dollar values, $2,500 up to $7,500, middle it's around $5,000. How 
do we look at the NAEP scores? How do they change? Basically, not at 
all. It's in a range here of between 420 and 480 for all those students 
regardless of the spending of the dollars.
  So the point of these two charts, and, again, I appreciate the work 
of Anthony Davies for compiling this information, is to show that 
throughout history the Federal Government looks to say that there's a 
problem with Americans' education. We say we're going to be the 
solution for our children in this country, and the solution is going to 
be what? Well, last time it was NCLB, No Child Left Behind, and now 
it's going to potentially be a reauthorization of that. I suggest no.
  And I would conclude by saying that the solution is not more work on 
the Federal level, but more control by the parent and the local school 
board for the raising of their own children.

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