[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 57 (Wednesday, April 24, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H2283-H2289]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1630
                       CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York (Mr. 
Jeffries) for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from New York?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, it's an honor and a privilege to have the 
opportunity to stand here once again and to anchor the Congressional 
Black Caucus Special Order with my distinguished colleague from the 
Silver State, Steven Horsford.

[[Page H2284]]

  For the next 60 minutes, members from the Congressional Black Caucus 
will speak directly to the American people about the importance of 
investing in the education of our children and of our young people as a 
matter of utmost importance for the future prosperity of this great 
country.
  I've got the honor and the privilege of representing the 8th 
Congressional District, which includes parts of Queens, and it is 
largely anchored in neighborhoods in Brooklyn. And 100 years ago this 
month, in April of 1913, Ebbets Field opened for the first time. Ebbets 
Field, as the movie ``42'' has illustrated, is the baseball stadium 
where, on April 15 of 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 
America's pastime and became the first African American to participate 
in a Major League Baseball game.
  Now, we know that prior to that moment, African Americans, solely on 
the basis of their color, were prohibited from playing Major League 
Baseball. And so you had individuals like ``Cool Papa'' Bell and Josh 
Gibson, any number of individuals who were stellar at their craft 
amongst the best who have ever played, confined to the Negro leagues, 
unable to ever get onto a Major League Baseball field because of the 
color of their skin.
  That all changed on April 15, 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the 
color barrier. And I think that holds an important point for us, what 
Jackie Robinson illustrated: that if you get an opportunity to get on 
the field of play, folks who otherwise have been excluded from the 
mainstream can demonstrate that they will perform just as well, if not 
better, than everyone else.
  And in the context of education in the United States of America, we 
confront a situation where you have one group of children in this 
country who've got a first-rate education, and then you've got another 
group of children who are confined to a broken public school system 
that has failed them, that has inadequately prepared them for the 
opportunities that otherwise would be available in life.
  We don't have necessarily, the literature has begun to show, an 
achievement gap that relates to capacity or ability. Yes, based on 
different performance measures, Black children and White children and 
Latino children score differently in various areas of proficiency, but 
the literature has begun to show that's not really an achievement gap. 
It's really an opportunity gap.
  And what Jackie Robinson demonstrated, I think, for all of America to 
see is that, if you just give our children the same opportunities 
available to others through the educational system--give them the same 
bat, give them the same glove, give them the same cleats, allow them to 
perform on the same fields of human endeavor--that they can perform 
just as well, if not better, than everyone else.
  And if you give them that opportunity, if you give all American 
children opportunity, it's good for them, but it's good for the 
community and it's good for the Nation. It lifts everyone's 
productivity in a manner that will benefit America. That is why the CBC 
believes that investing in education is the appropriate and a 
meaningful and the right way to go, given what we confront in our 
country at this moment.
  We've been joined by several distinguished members of the CBC. Let me 
first yield to my co-anchor, the distinguished gentleman from Nevada, 
Representative Steven Horsford.
  Mr. HORSFORD. To my colleague and dear friend, the Representative 
from the 8th Congressional District of New York, it's good to join you 
for this hour of power to talk directly to our constituents and the 
American people about the priorities that we're focused on here in the 
United States House of Representatives and that we hope our colleagues 
on the other side will join with us to advance.
  Today, we bring to the focus of this body the need to invest in 
opportunity through education. A pathway to a college education is a 
pathway into the middle class. And as a panel that was just convened, 
moderated by Wade Henderson, entitled, ``For Each and Every Child,'' 
they indicated that, while a post-high school education is not an 
economic cure-all, it does provide a steppingstone to a good job and 
stable wages.

  Now, every parent should be able to count on a good education for his 
or her children. As a father of three young children, I'm very focused 
on what my children need in the opportunities to advance in their lives 
and to be successful, as every parent is focused on, but, 
unfortunately, it is not always the case.
  We need to refocus the conversation on educational opportunity, as my 
colleague, Mr. Jeffries, just indicated, and making sure that our 
children's future is not determined by a ZIP Code. Our schools should 
not be structured like a lottery system where some luck out and others 
strike out--to continue with your analogy, Mr. Jeffries.
  Poor kids who are exceptional should be the norm, not the exception 
to the rule. They deserve the resources they need to be successful; and 
that's what we, on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus, are 
bringing forward here today.
  In order to fix what's wrong right now, we need to change the way we 
think about our schools, because it's not simply schools that teach our 
students; it's actually the entire community. It is a community effort.
  In 2011, 78 percent of high school graduates from high-income 
families enrolled in college. The shares for middle- and low-income 
families were 63 and 55 percent, respectfully. We have to work to close 
this gap and open a pathway to college for all students.
  Now, today, we will hear from our colleagues who share with this need 
to invest in education. We would like to talk about the particular 
issue that's affecting our Black men and boys in education. We want to 
focus on the need to grow more science and math majors. We know we need 
to invest in pre-K, and we want to outline our priorities as they 
compare to the Republican budget that's been offered by the other side.
  And so as we enter into this hour of power to talk about education, I 
hope that we can cover these topics and others, and I look forward to 
this discussion.
  Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, let me now yield to a great fighter for 
education and for social and economic justice here in the Congress and 
in this Nation, the distinguished gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. 
Butterfield).

                              {time}  1640

  Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Let me thank you, Mr. Jeffries, for yielding me this 
time, and thank you for your leadership here in the House of 
Representatives.
  Since you have arrived here in the House, you have just done 
extraordinary work. You've taken the time to come to this floor and to 
educate and inform the masses of our people about the great, important 
issues facing our Nation. So I want to thank you for all of your work.
  I also thank Mr. Horsford, the other gentleman who has taken the time 
to convene this special hour of presentations. I want to thank you for 
all of the work that you do. You are both freshmen, but you have the 
personalities and the abilities of someone who has been in this body 
for many years, so thank you very much.
  The Congressional Black Caucus this evening has chosen to talk about 
the important subject of education. I am a strong supporter--a 
proponent--of strong public education. Mr. Speaker, there is no 
investment that we can make as a country that is more important than 
investing in children and investing in their education and in their 
higher education.
  Regrettably, there are some people in this body who think otherwise. 
They may say that they don't think otherwise, but their actions 
demonstrate every day that they do not have a strong commitment to 
supporting our educational system in this country. There are even some 
Members of this Chamber who, regrettably, have said from time to time 
that they want to defund and eliminate the U.S. Department of 
Education. They feel that the educational responsibility of government 
belongs to the States and not to the Federal Government. That is so 
unfortunate, but I want to encourage all of us who serve in this body 
to work together and stay together and to try to promote public 
education in every way that we can.
  Now, Mr. Jeffries, I cannot speak about the State of New York with 
any

[[Page H2285]]

authority or about the borough of Brooklyn--I know you do that very 
well in that you've been there for many years--but I can speak to my 
home State of North Carolina.
  We have a demonstrated record of commitment and excellence in public 
education, both at the elementary and high school levels, as well as at 
the college level. We started way back in 1868 when our constitution 
was enacted. In the State constitution, we made sure that there was a 
provision that guaranteed a public education for every child in our 
State. Ensuring that our students have access to quality education has 
long been a principle of my State and of those that I associate with. 
So I have firsthand knowledge of our educational system. I know about 
the dedicated educators that we have in North Carolina, and I want to 
just encourage them and thank them for their service, and I urge them 
to keep on doing what they're doing.
  Mr. Speaker, I came from a family of educators. My mother was a 
classroom teacher. She taught school for 48 long years. Many people 
want to know how a single person could be in the classroom for that 
long, but my response is that, during those days, you did not need a 
college degree in order to be a classroom teacher--only a passionate 
commitment and a high school diploma.
  I understand the importance of education, but even the most devoted 
and capable educators must have the resources to provide our children 
with quality education. We now face a defining moment for future 
generations of Americans in which some Republicans want to fix this 
budget by cutting funding for our students in schools. At the same 
time, we continue to be outpaced by other countries that continue to 
increase their educational investments.
  In this country, the world's most prosperous Nation, 25 percent of 
our children do not graduate from high school. More than 90 million 
adults have inadequate literacy skills. The numbers are even more 
startling for low-income children and African American children, many 
of whom live in my district. Less than 8 percent of students in 
advanced placement math or science courses are African American. Fewer 
than half of African American students graduate from high school on 
time, and that must change.
  Despite these statistics, data show that investments in educational 
programs like Title I and IDEA and Race to the Top and Head Start and 
TRIO are instrumental in preparing our students to compete globally, 
but draconian cuts through sequestration have rolled back discretionary 
Education Department funding below the 2004 level and have gutted many 
of those programs.
  My State will lose $25 million in funding for primary and secondary 
education this year; 38,000 fewer students will be served in my State; 
and 350 education jobs will be in danger. The Ronald McNair TRIO 
program for doctoral students from disadvantaged backgrounds, which was 
cut at Elizabeth City State University, is just one example. Many State 
legislatures, including that of my State, are cutting State education 
budgets at the same time. We must find ways to address our fiscal 
challenges without placing the burden on our children and our teachers.

  While our goal must be to ultimately reauthorize the ESEA and the 
Higher Education Act, there are many ways we can help right now. We 
must preserve the maximum Pell Grant and keep interest rates on student 
loans low to enable low-income students to attend college. We must 
sustain funding for Race to the Top grants. In North Carolina, those 
grants have developed stronger curriculum in math and science, and they 
are working. They have strengthened teacher training and improved early 
childhood education.
  Finally--and I will close--we must also protect other STEM funding 
streams through funding for NSF and NIH, which support innovative 
research in my district at Duke University, East Carolina University, 
Elizabeth City State University, and at my alma mater of North Carolina 
Central University. We must also support bills like H.R. 595, the 
Veterans Education Equity Act, which I introduced to resolve an 
inequity in existing law that unintentionally allots more education 
funds to veterans who are enrolled in private colleges than those in 
public institutions.
  The bottom line, Mr. Speaker, is that education must be a priority. 
We must seize every opportunity to increase support for public 
education and not decrease it. Public education should be off-limits to 
budget cuts.
  Mr. JEFFRIES. I thank the gentleman from North Carolina for his 
extremely insightful comments and for his leadership on this issue.
  We have also been joined by another dynamic member of the freshman 
class, who has taken the Capitol by storm with her intelligence and 
elegance. We are thankful for her leadership. Let me yield to the 
distinguished gentlelady from Ohio, Representative Joyce Beatty.
  Mrs. BEATTY. I would like to join my other colleagues in thanking my 
freshman class members Mr. Jeffries and Mr. Horsford for leading the 
Congressional Black Caucus' discussion on this critical issue.
  I rise today to be an advocate for improving access to quality 
education for minority students and to discuss the government's role in 
breaking down economic barriers for educational opportunity.
  You see, I know firsthand how important government assistance is for 
opportunity and quality education. I know that it makes a difference 
because, when my brother and I entered college--first-generation 
college graduates in our family--we realized early on that we needed to 
do something with public education: it was government funding; it was 
access to a quality education; but more importantly, it was folks like 
Congressmen Jeffries and Horsford making a difference in our lives. But 
now we see there is still a significant number of hurdles that prevent 
many Americans from obtaining a quality education. Financial literacy, 
access to financial aid, quality education all play a critical role and 
must be a part of this national discussion.
  I'm from the great State of Ohio. Last year, Ohio ranked seventh in 
the country for student debt, with the average student carrying $28,683 
in debt. I also know that the growing student loan is a burden in this 
country and makes it more difficult for families to achieve future 
financial security. If left unaddressed, it will affect us negatively 
over our broader economy. Currently, there are approximately 37 million 
student loan borrowers with outstanding student loans. These statistics 
threaten access to quality education and must be addressed.
  One way to improve access to quality education, as I hope you will 
hear repeatedly tonight, is through the Pell Grant. Again, I know 
firsthand because, you see, when I was going to college, the Pell Grant 
in the early years was called the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant. 
There is that word again.

                              {time}  1650

  By receiving that, it gave me that opportunity that propelled me. And 
now, my sisters who follow me are all educators. My mother, like 
Congressman Butterfield's mother, served many years, until she retired, 
going into public schools as a reading specialist assistant where she 
helped so many children understand the quality of that education and 
how reading and speaking would make a difference.
  So you see, Pell Grants have been the cornerstone in the lives of 
many minorities seeking higher education and have provided more than $4 
billion to African American college students each year. Without the 
Pell Grant program, hundreds of thousands of minority students would 
not be able to afford to go to college.
  I've also had the experience of working as a leader in a 4-year 
institution in our great State, the largest single campus university in 
this country, Ohio State University. I am proud to say that they are 
strong advocates for us making sure that we continue to put dollars 
into the Pell Grant so children of all races, ethnicity and color will 
be able to have that quality education.
  That is why the escalating cost of education acutely affects students 
of all color and their access to a quality

[[Page H2286]]

education. We need to also improve quality education by promoting STEM 
programs, STEM programs that build a pipeline of a highly skilled 
workforce for today's high-tech and industrial jobs.
  Last year, African Americans received just 7 percent of STEM-related 
bachelor's degrees, 4 percent of master's degrees and only 2 percent of 
doctorates. American colleges and universities are poised to produce 
about 3 million science, engineer, technology and math STEM majors over 
the next decade. However, there has only been a 2 percent to 3 percent 
increase of African Americans in STEM professions over the past year.
  So, you see, we come tonight to ask this body, this Congress to be 
supportive of making sure that children, and especially minority 
children, African American children, be able to be our Jackie 
Robinsons, as we have today with our two leaders who stand here today 
as our Jackie Robinsons of scholarship.
  With that, I thank you for allowing me the opportunity to come today.
  Mr. JEFFRIES. I thank the distinguished Congresswoman from Ohio.
  I note the connection to Ohio State University that we share in my 
family. My brother is a professor of history at Ohio State's great 
institution. Your contribution to opening up opportunities for people 
of color and all students at such a great public university is noted.
  It is important, I think, for this institution to take a look at 
several of the issues that you've raised, Congresswoman, that 
Representative Horsford and I will shortly explore.
  The debt situation is particularly troublesome, and I'm going to ask 
the gentleman from Nevada if he would make a few observations in 
connection to what Representative Beatty noted is a student-loan 
problem that we have here in America.
  Now, the interesting thing is that during the 110-plus days that we 
all as freshmen have been in this Chamber, we've heard a lot of talk 
about the moral imperative of dealing with the debt situation that we 
confront in America. And every time we're about to hit the debt 
ceiling, there are some in this Chamber who have said that we should 
perhaps default to send a message that some in this country apparently 
are reckless with their spending habits.
  Now, parenthetically, this is, of course, a complete 
mischaracterization of what the debt ceiling actually represents. It's 
not a forward-looking vehicle designed to give the President the 
opportunity to spend more. It's a backward-looking vehicle designed to 
allow this administration, or any administration, to pay bills that 
this Congress has already incurred.
  But whenever we talk about the debt, my friends on the other side of 
the aisle raise it as a moral imperative. I think the fact that we've 
got student loan debt in America that now exceeds, as the chart 
illustrates, more than $1 trillion is really what imperils future 
generations in this country. You've got young people saddled with, on 
average, in excess of $25,000 per person in debt facing a tough job 
market, with the inability often to find employment in their field of 
endeavor, to start a family, to purchase a home, the things that 
traditionally have been associated with pursuit of the American Dream.
  The prescription that has been put forth by the other side, as it 
relates to how to alleviate this debt connected to students, is very 
different than the one that, I think, we on this side of the aisle have 
chosen to offer.
  Let me now yield to the gentleman from Nevada if he might elaborate 
on our CBC vision for how to deal with the student loan problem or the 
education of young people in America.

  Mr. HORSFORD. I say thank you to my colleague from New York.
  Before I elaborate further, let me say that first you have to 
understand that there is a problem in order to address the problem. I 
think far too often some of our colleagues on the other side fail to 
recognize the fact that so many families who are struggling to help 
their students obtain a college degree are having to do so through 
student loans and rely greatly on Pell Grants for that assistance. 
Maybe it's because they don't have that same experience that they don't 
understand why these are important.
  This is what the House Republican budget would mean for those very 
programs that you're talking about. First, the Republican budget 
freezes the maximum Pell Grant for the next 10 years, even though 
Congress already enacted and paid for mandatory annual inflationary 
increases in 2010. With this one step, they slash higher education 
funding by $83 billion.
  The House Republican budget allows the interest rate on need-based 
student loans to double this summer.
  The House Republican budget eliminates the income-based repayment 
program, which provides that Federal student loan borrowers can cap 
their loan payments at 15 percent, going down to 10 percent in 2014 of 
their discretionary income each year.
  The reason that this is so important is because of constituents like 
the ones I spoke to on Sunday in my district. We were talking about the 
immigration issue. But as we were discussing that, many of them came to 
me and said, Well, you know what? I've had to borrow $30,000, $40,000, 
$50,000 in student loans to acquire this degree, and I'm now working in 
the field I'm in, but unfortunately it's taking $1,000, $1,500, $2,000 
a month of my income to pay back those student loans.
  At the very time these families are struggling to do that, the 
Republican budget proposes to slash it further. Not only does it slash 
support for individuals and families who rely on student loans, as I 
said, they also freeze the maximum Pell Grant, which so many low-income 
families and students desperately depend on.
  This is a real issue, and it's a real difference. That is why we are 
here today to bring attention to the differences between the two sides. 
I hope that as we move forward, we can find common ground.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to say something, because sometimes I know when 
we talk about the needs of educating Black children, that people will 
say, What about other communities? My answer to that is that if we can 
help improve the education for Black children in America, we will 
improve education for all children in America, whether they be Latino 
or White or Asian.

                              {time}  1700

  And so that is why we need to have an investment in education in 
America, not to defund, not to slash, not to reduce or not to freeze 
funding, but to invest in the very things that we know work and that 
will improve the successes for young people to succeed in life.
  Mr. JEFFRIES. I thank the gentleman from the Silver State for those 
very astute observations. As Representative Horsford has pointed out, a 
budget essentially is a choice and a pathway forward that people in 
this Chamber are making decisions on based on what they see as best for 
America. And the Republican budget that was passed by this House, as 
Representative Horsford has indicated, in total would cut $168 billion 
in spending on higher education. That's a value choice, to walk away 
from young people in America, young people who already are being 
saddled with in excess of $1 trillion in debt in total.
  Now, what else does that budget do? Well, it says that we're going to 
take the top tax rate, which is 39.6 for millionaires and billionaires, 
the wealthiest and the well off, and we want to slash that tax rate 
down to 25 percent. So we're going to cut education spending for, among 
other reasons, to cut further the taxes paid by the wealthy and the 
well off in this country. That is a choice that is bad for America. 
It's bad for the middle class. It's bad for working families, and it's 
bad for our future.
  We have been joined by the distinguished gentleman from Virginia, an 
expert in all matters pertaining to the budget in this Congress, among 
other things. Representative Bobby Scott is an expert on the CBC 
budget, in the budgets that have come out of this House of 
Representatives, and it is my honor and privilege to now yield to him.
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. I thank the gentleman for yielding and thank 
him for his leadership on this issue and many other issues that he's 
been working on while we've been serving on the Judiciary Committee 
together.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about an issue that is important to 
our

[[Page H2287]]

society, and that is access to higher education. Our Nation's economic 
competitiveness depends on our ability to educate our next generation. 
We compete with nations all over the world for business, and our 
competitive advantage is in our education.
  We're not going to compete on low wages. There are people who'll work 
for much lower wages than we'll work for in the United States, and so 
we're not going to win the battle of a race to the bottom on wages.
  We're not going to win the battle by requiring workers to work near 
their coworkers. If you can work across the hall from your coworkers, 
if you have a computer, a modem, a fax machine, a cell phone, if you 
can work across the hall, you can work across the globe. So there's no 
urgency to have people located here in the United States.
  And if you can manufacture goods anywhere in the world, you can have 
them delivered anywhere else in the world, so you don't have to be 
there to be close to your customers. There used to be a time where if 
you wanted to build a manufacturing plant, to get financing it had to 
be here in the United States. Now we have worldwide banking. You can 
build that plant anywhere in the world.
  The reason businesses want to locate in the United States is because 
they know they can get a well trained and well-educated workforce, and 
we need to make sure that we don't fall behind because that is our 
economic competitive advantage.
  We know that neighborhoods rely on education because those 
neighborhoods that have high investment in education are much less 
likely to suffer from crime and pay for social services.
  We know that individuals benefit from education. There's an old adage 
that the more you learn, the more you earn. The kind of job that you 
can get in America today in our high-tech, information-based economy 
depends on the education that you get. In fact, according to the 
Department of Labor, 90 percent of the fastest growing, best-paying 
jobs in the United States will require at least some education past the 
high school level. Not necessarily a 4-year college, maybe community 
college or career education, but some education past the high school 
level.
  And while the benefits of getting an education are important and well 
known, how to get that education is becoming a challenge. People have 
to pay for that education. Many people apply for financial aid. That 
includes scholarships, loans, grants, and also the well known Pell 
Grant. The Pell Grant provides up to $5,500 a year for an education. 
Unfortunately for many students, although the Pell Grant used to cover 
the cost of tuition, rarely does it provide tuition today. In fact, the 
College Board suggested the average cost of tuition is over $10,000. 
Many public colleges charge as much as $22,000, so a student has to 
come up with as much as $15,000 over the Pell Grant to be able to 
afford tuition and room and board.
  In most circumstances, students can obtain student loans to cover the 
difference. It is also critical that students know what they're getting 
into when they take on student loans because these are not grants. 
These are loans that have to be paid back with interest.
  We've been helping students with these loans. In fact, when we passed 
the Affordable Care Act a couple of years ago, we included $1.5 billion 
to strengthen the income-based repayment program that currently allows 
students to cap their monthly student loan payments to 15 percent of 
their discretionary income. We need to do more.
  The College Cost Reduction and Access Act, which was signed in 2007, 
included a reduction in interest on student loans from 6.8 percent down 
to 3.4 percent. That expired last year but we extended it, and we need 
to extend it again and even make it permanent so that the loan interest 
rate doesn't go up again.
  There is other legislation spending. Congresswoman Karen Bass has a 
10/10 program that will allow payments to be made of 10 percent of your 
discretionary income for 10 years, and the rest can be written off. 
There are other things that are pending.
  But Mr. Speaker, we need to make sure that every student that studies 
and is prepared for college has that opportunity. We need to make sure 
that no student is discouraged from enhancing their education because 
they don't believe they can afford it. We need to do what we can for 
student loans, increasing Pell Grants, and making those opportunities 
real. Our Nation depends on it. Our neighborhoods depend on it, and our 
next generation depends on it. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. JEFFRIES. I thank Representative Scott. We both sit on the 
Judiciary Committee, and in the context of our service on the Judiciary 
Committee, we will be presented with an opportunity to deal with the 
issue of comprehensive immigration reform. Already two hearings have 
been held on this matter.
  One of the issues that has consistently come up is the need to 
increase the number of H-1B visas for highly skilled immigrants in the 
STEM field--science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

                              {time}  1710

  The technology-and-innovation economy and sector in this country have 
taken off, and there are actually opportunities. Some estimate 
approximately 20 percent of the workforce has openings in the 
technology-and-innovation sector that many would like to see filled by 
opening up the opportunities for highly skilled immigrants. It's an 
approach that I think shares bipartisan support.
  But, simultaneously, many of us believe that, as a country, we must 
also invest in STEM education for our children and our young people to 
make sure that, moving forward, they have the opportunity to develop 
careers in the STEM fields in a manner that will benefit themselves, 
their families, their communities and, by extension, the country.
  And so before I yield to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey, 
I believe that Representative Horsford had an observation or two to 
make in the area of the need to invest in STEM education.
  Mr. HORSFORD. Thank you, Representative Jeffries. And you provided 
the clear nexus.
  While the Congressional Black Caucus, working with our colleagues 
from the Hispanic Caucus and the Asian Pacific Islander Caucus, 
supports comprehensive immigration reform, including provisions that 
allow the best and the brightest from around the country to immigrate 
to the United States and to contribute to making our country great, we 
also believe that there should be investment here in the United States 
to educate those of us here for these careers in the 21st century.
  Colleges and universities in our country will produce 3 million STEM 
majors in the next 10 years. Still, according to a 2012 report by the 
President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, our economy 
will demand more students graduating with STEM degrees than we are 
currently providing.
  So what can we do?
  We need to increase funding in STEM education and follow the lead of 
many of our Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic-
serving institutions which are producing a greater share of students 
with STEM degrees.
  Among HBCUs, currently, they produce about 19 percent of all STEM 
bachelor degrees, 38 percent of which are in the biological sciences, 
31 percent in math, 35 percent in computer science, 34 percent in the 
physical sciences, and 22 percent in engineering.
  Now, the Obama administration has requested more investment for STEM 
teachers and additional funds to expand effective models of teacher 
preparation to help train 10,000 STEM educators per year. That's what 
the President's budget proposes. Those are the same priorities, they 
are the right priorities, and they're the priorities that the 
Congressional Black Caucus agrees need to be supported by this 
Congress.
  We need to invest in teachers that will train students for jobs in 
the 21st century. But let me be clear: you can't expect students to 
graduate with degrees in science, mathematics, engineering, and 
technology if we're not doing more to invest in pre-K and to help 
students start with a strong foundation. And that's why the President 
has a historic level of investment in his budget for early childhood 
education and pre-K.
  We enroll most kids in this country at 5 or 6 years old. We should be 
starting them earlier; 50 years of research

[[Page H2288]]

tell us that critical development and learning happen before the age of 
five. When schooling starts at kindergarten or first grade, it denies 
these young people chances to make the most of this critical period.
  Fundamentally reforming our education system begins with high-quality 
pre-kindergarten programs. In my opinion, pre-kindergarten is an 
antidote for the achievement gap. In cases where our kindergarten 
teachers are getting kids who've had, in some cases, 2 years of early 
education, they're seeing that the achievement gap has stopped or been 
narrowed. That's why we need to invest in programs like Head Start so 
that we don't have to play catch-up later or deny these young, bright 
minds the opportunities to go into the fields of the 21st century.
  So, Mr. Speaker, this is an and/also strategy, not an either/or. We 
believe that we can invest in both early childhood education, K-12 
education and higher education, not cut, slash or deny these 
opportunities to America's children. These are our priorities, and it's 
what we'll continue to fight for for all of America's children.
  Mr. JEFFRIES. Thank you, Representative Horsford. And as was noted 
earlier, the CBC believes that there are children all across America, 
in many inner-city communities, certainly in the neighborhoods that I 
represent back home in Brooklyn and places like Bedford-Stuyvesant and 
east New York and parts of Coney Island, where the public school system 
has failed them for decades, generation after generation after 
generation subjected to a broken public school system, from a very 
early point, all the way through high school.

  And unless we invest in turning these broken systems around, we're 
essentially at risk of dooming young people to life sentences of 
disadvantage and despair. That's why the CBC supports the President's 
proposal in his budget to invest an additional $75 billion over a 10-
year period, as Representative Horsford indicated, in early childhood 
education to make sure that we give every American child the 
opportunity to be successful by putting them on an even plane with 
those who get the benefit of a first-rate public or private school 
education.
  I want to yield to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey, 
another dynamic member of the freshman class, Representative Donald 
Payne, Jr., who was a leader on education issues prior to arriving in 
the Congress, and he's continued to demonstrate leadership in this area 
and in other areas moving forward.
  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues, Congressman 
Horsford of Nevada and Congressman Jeffries of New York, for anchoring 
tonight's CBC Special Order on improving access to quality education.
  The recession, the economy, violence and gun control, the security of 
our Nation, these are the pressing issues being debated across this 
great Nation today. However, efforts to address the issues are being 
undermined by our Nation's educational deficit.
  John F. Kennedy said that ``our progress as a Nation can be no 
swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our 
fundamental resource.''
  True to this statement are struggles that we face as a Nation because 
of our divestment in our human mind and potential. In the past, the 
U.S. led the world in several categories, including college graduates 
and innovation. Unfortunately, there has been a rapid decline in our 
ranking in these areas that directly correlates to the strength of this 
Nation.
  Among these things, the U.S. has dropped considerably in academic 
rankings, compared to other developed nations. About 33 percent of our 
Nation's fourth-grade students are proficient readers. Nearly 7,000 
students drop out of high school daily, and about a third of first-year 
American college students are required to take at least one remedial 
course.
  Globally, our rankings have fallen of our students in reading to 
14th; in science, to 17th; and in mathematics, to 25th. Despite these 
daunting statistics, the U.S. continues to lead the world in 
competitiveness, patents, media, mobile and research universities. But 
imagine the leadership that we could hold in the world if we 
strengthened our investment in education.
  Our Nation continues to be at a loss due to the untapped potential of 
our students, especially students of color and low income.

                              {time}  1720

  For this particular population, the statistics are even more 
daunting, but the potential is greater as well. Forty-two percent of 
Black students attend schools that are under-resourced and performing 
poorly. Twenty-eight percent of core academic teachers at high-minority 
schools lack the appropriate certification. Black children, especially 
boys, are more likely to be classified and placed in special education 
than their white counterparts. Black and Hispanic males constitute 82 
percent of the youth in special education programs. Black boys are 2.5 
times less likely to be enrolled in talented and gifted programs, even 
if their prior achievement reflects the ability to succeed.
  Yet despite these demoralizing facts, despite the failure of the 
American education system to properly educate these students, nearly 3 
million college students in America are African American. And only 13 
percent of the U.S. population, Black students represent 15 percent of 
the college student population.
  Currently, these are beating the odds; but imagine how we could 
develop and succeed as a Nation if we changed the odds for these 
students and closed the opportunity gap. What if we strengthened our 
education system and allowed all children to reach their full 
potential? What if we fostered an environment of innovation and 
leadership for this Nation's outcomes in all communities equally?
  We have long held the solutions to address these issues, but they 
aren't coordinated or connected. We have the potential to reach new 
heights as a Nation, but it requires a stronger education system as 
well as effective solutions and resources to change the odds for our 
children in the most distressed communities.
  I will be introducing the Promise Neighborhoods Act soon to do just 
that. The Promise Neighborhoods initiative represents an unprecedented 
effort to work across silos and develop a comprehensive cradle-to-
career pipeline for children in distressed neighborhoods to 
holistically address barriers to success. The Promise Neighborhoods Act 
would foster continued collaboration on the local level to build 
similar pipelines in communities across this country.
  The pipeline of tightly woven, comprehensive support for children 
emphasized in the Promise Neighborhoods Act would provide, among other 
things:
  prenatal education and support for expecting parents;
  high-quality early childhood education opportunities, including full-
day, full-year kindergarten and prekindergarten;
  high-quality schools that successfully leverage out-of-school time 
and community engagement;
  support for the transition to elementary school, between elementary 
school and middle school, and from middle school to high school;
  meaningful family engagement and capacity-building;
  college and career readiness activities, including college 
counseling, subsidized employment opportunities, and early college 
programs;
  neighborhood-based support for college-age students from the 
neighborhood.
  This model engages the community to collaborate and end fragmented 
delivery of programs to develop a pipeline for programs with 
demonstrated success. This model aims to eliminate the opportunity gap 
for low-income children and children of color and set a new standard 
for education and success in this country.
  Though not realized, our Nation holds a great deal of underdeveloped 
potential, and it lies within our human capital. Investing in education 
will strengthen our Nation as a whole and position us to once again 
lead the world. Education is the single investment that can 
unequivocally develop our economy and strengthen our future.
  Mr. JEFFRIES. I want to thank the distinguished gentleman from New 
Jersey for his very astute observations.
  Mr. Speaker, how much time is remaining on this Special Order?

[[Page H2289]]

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has approximately 5 minutes 
remaining.
  Mr. JEFFRIES. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
  Again, I thank the Representative from New Jersey for making it clear 
that all children in this country deserve the opportunity to be part of 
a pipeline toward progress and prosperity, even though some, 
unfortunately, have been subjected to circumstances that often lead to 
a pipeline from the schoolhouse to the jailhouse. That's not how things 
should be anywhere in America. And that's why we believe a robust 
investment in education is the right way to go in this country.
  I'm going to ask the distinguished gentleman from the Silver State 
for his observations on this chart. The chart illustrates that 
education pays. If you invest in education, increase the level of 
degree of attainment, what it does is increase the capacity for 
Americans to earn a better living.
  And so, for example, for Americans who have less than a high school 
diploma, their average weekly earning is $451. But someone with a high 
school diploma earns, on average, $638 per week. And someone with a 
bachelor's degree earns, on average, $1,053 per week. If you give an 
American an advanced degree, their average earnings per week increase 
to in excess of $1,600.
  Investing in education pays for the American people.
  I yield to my distinguished colleague from Nevada.
  Mr. HORSFORD. Just to elaborate further on this point, education 
attainment is an economic imperative. Not only is it the investment in 
the individual that proves great dividends and a return on investment, 
but the failure to invest, based on the bottom line in red, for someone 
with less than a high school diploma the likelihood of them being 
unemployed is 14 percent. For those with a high school diploma who are 
unemployed, it's 9.4 percent. If you have a bachelor's degree, the 
unemployment rate drops in half, to 4.9 percent. And if you have a 
professional degree, the unemployment rate is 2.4 percent.
  So the correlation is clear that with education attainment come 
economic prosperity, opportunity, and a return on investment that is 
good for that individual, their ability to provide for themselves and 
their family, and for our entire country.
  And so, Mr. Speaker, when we talk about investment, we're not talking 
about investments in programs or systems. We're talking about 
investments in people. When we talk about Head Start, we're talking 
about 3- and 4-year-old children. When we talk about title 1 funding, 
we're talking about schools and children that are identified as having 
low-income needs and the disadvantaged. When we talk about funding for 
IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, we're talking 
about individuals. And the more that we can invest in the individuals 
in America, the greater return we will have in the productivity of that 
individual, their family, the community they live in. And that will 
make for a stronger America for all of us. That is what we are aspiring 
to accomplish in this 113th Congress.
  We want to work with our colleagues on the other side. Where they can 
meet us in the middle to find solutions to make these investments, we 
look forward to working with them. But one thing we will not do is to 
slash, defund, or freeze the investment of the American children and 
the American family.
  Mr. JEFFRIES. I thank the gentleman from Nevada. We will not, as he 
indicated, support any budget that balances itself on the backs of 
children or young people or college students in America. Unfortunately, 
that is the budget that has been put forth by my colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle. We support a balanced approach to dealing with 
the economic problems that we have in this country that involves the 
investment in education. That is what we stand for. That's what is good 
for America.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, it has been over 60 
years since the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education 
desegregated our schools. Yet an achievement and opportunity gap 
remains among our minority and low-income students.
  As Members of Congress who represent communities of color, the 
purpose of today's special order is to highlight an economic and social 
crisis America faces if this problem is not confronted and significant 
measures are not taken. Particularly, we must focus our efforts on 
closing the gap in the STEM disciplines. As the First Female and First 
African American Ranking Member of the House Science, Space and 
Technology Committee, this is an issue that is very serious to me and 
has been one of the pillars of my legislative agenda in the United 
States Congress for over 20 years.
  Ensuring minorities are proficient in STEM is more than just a 
question of equity. We have a vast, untapped pool of talent in America, 
and this pool is continuing to grow. It is estimated that, by 2050, 52 
percent of the U.S. population will be from underrepresented minority 
groups. Our ``Nation's Report Card,'' by the National Assessments of 
Educational Progress, shows that students from underrepresented 
minorities are falling behind in math and science as early as 4th 
grade.
  At the Post Secondary level, even though students from 
underrepresented minorities made up about 33 percent of the college age 
population in 2009, they only made up: 19 percent of students who 
received an undergraduate STEM degrees Less than 9 percent of students 
enrolled in science and engineering graduate programs, and; Barely 8 
percent of students who received PhDs in STEM fields. Frankly, all of 
these numbers are much too low.
  I also must underscore the important role that community colleges 
play in providing to STEM degrees for minority students. 50 percent of 
African Americans, 55 percent of Hispanics, and 64 percent of Native 
Americans who hold bachelor's or master's degrees in science or 
engineering attended a community college at some point. We cannot 
afford to ignore the role of community colleges.
  We have to drastically increase the number of African American 
students from these groups receiving degrees in STEM disciplines, or we 
will undoubtedly relinquish our global leadership in innovation and job 
creation. We know school administrators, teachers, community leaders, 
public-private partnerships and parents all play a critical role in 
addressing this issue. No one person or organization can do it alone. 
We must all work together to leverage our respective strengths and 
resources to tackle this challenge.
  For example, the corporate community was highly involved supporting a 
bill I co-authored, the America COMPETES Act. As many of you are aware, 
I recently introduced the STEM Opportunities Act of 2013 this March. 
The STEM Opportunities Act of 2013 will help address many of the 
challenges faced by women and underrepresented minorities pursuing 
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research 
careers by:
  Requiring the National Science Foundation (NSF) to collect more 
comprehensive demographic data on the recipients of federal research 
awards and on STEM faculty at U.S. universities (while protecting 
individuals' privacy); ,Promoting data-driven research on the 
participation and trajectories of women and underrepresented minorities 
in STEM so that policy makers can design more effective policies and 
practices to reduce barriers; And developing, through the Office of 
Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), consistent federal policies, such 
as no-cost extensions and flexibility in timing for the initiation of 
the award, for recipients of federal research awards who have 
caregiving responsibilities, including care for a newborn or newly 
adopted child and care for an immediate family member who is sick.
  We're all in this together, and working together I know we can 
achieve great success.

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