[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
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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
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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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