[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 3149]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          EDUCATION IN AMERICA

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, as the Senator from Nevada said earlier, 
many of us have theories on education as parents who watched our kids 
go through school and met with teachers and administrators. The Senator 
from Washington has spent enough time in classrooms to teach all of us, 
and I think her suggestions are very valuable suggestions.
  What I have found as I have traveled around my state, and I think 
other Senators have as well, is that the basics of what they need in 
education and a helping hand can make such a difference.
  When we talked about after school programs in school district after 
school district, they said, Senator, can you help us with transporting 
the kids safely from a school to an after school program and back home 
again?
  A practical concern that stops them from doing things that are so 
important. And I think there are ways we can help here. Yesterday, we 
passed an important bill about military salaries. We decided to put $11 
billion more in the bill than the President's budget requested, and 
many of us raised questions about where that figure came from, why 
there had been no hearings on it. And they said, of course, we want to 
help the military. We all do. But it really raises the question, if we 
were to come up with $11- or $12-billion today for education for after-
school programs, I am afraid there would be a firestorm of opposition. 
People would say, wait a minute, you didn't have a hearing; it's too 
much of an undertaking by the Federal Government. I really hope that we 
can get this priority right.
  People across America identify education as the No. 1 concern. I 
think it's because of their personal experience and also the 
realization that opportunity in this country comes with achievement, 
achievement in school is really I guess the best way to get started on 
a good life in America and many other places.
  I am happy today to join with the Senator from Washington to discuss 
this. Isn't it interesting, President Clinton's suggested 100,000 more 
teachers to reduce classroom size. My Republican Governor in Illinois, 
in the State of the State message, George Ryan, suggested 10,000 new 
teachers for our State. The reaction from local school districts? 
``Where are we going to put them? We need classrooms. You can't just 
give us more teachers and expect smaller classroom sizes without new 
classrooms.''
  That is why the President's proposal to help school districts 
modernize their schools, expand their schools, build new schools is 
really a timely suggestion. The GAO report a few years ago said that we 
need 6,000 new schools in America by the year 2006. One-third of all 
schools in America, serving 14 million kids, need extensive repair and 
replacement. So I think we understand that the President's proposal for 
teachers and classrooms is the only sensible way to have class room 
size reduction in a way that will be handled effectively.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Will the Senator from Illinois yield on that point.
  Mr. DURBIN. I am happy to yield.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, the Senator from Illinois brought up an 
extremely important point, and that is that hiring new teachers is one 
part, hiring well trained teachers is the second part, and providing 
classrooms for them clearly is a critical part. That is one of the 
reasons why in my amendment we make sure that it is very flexible 
language, so that local school districts that do have a school 
construction, a very real school construction crunch can use those 
dollars in a very flexible way so the teachers can work jointly in 
classrooms, that it isn't just one teacher per classroom, that we can 
do some local ways of providing extra one-on-one help with youngsters 
who need it the most.
  We also must address the school construction problem. It is a real 
challenge to crumbling schools that exist across our country where our 
kids are in unsafe classrooms, where they are crowded simply because 
there is no space to put them. It is an area we have to address, and I 
am delighted the Senator from Illinois recognizes that.
  Mr. DURBIN. I thank the Senator from Washington. I have noted this on 
the Senate floor before, but it struck me that at the turn of the last 
century one of the most amazing things that happened in America was 
that between the years 1890 and 1920 we built in America on average one 
new high school every day. We started our new century with a dedication 
to public education. We Democratized education unlike any country in 
the world. And we said, whether you are rich or poor, you are going to 
have a chance to go to high school.
  That wasn't a Federal mandate. That sprung up from local communities 
that said, if we are going to build a community in Washington or 
Illinois, and it is going to be a real community, we are going to have 
a real high school, we are going to hire teachers, and we will have all 
the kids go to school.
  Look at the benefits we have reaped as a nation because of that kind 
of forward thinking, that kind of vision that said in 20th century 
America will be different, our commitment to education will be 
different. And look what we have seen as a result of it. We have gone 
from the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk to a space program; we have gone 
from Henry Ford's tin lizys* moving across that assembly line to the 
point where we have the most modern computer chip factories in the 
world here in the United States.
  I don't think it is a coincidence. I think what happened here is the 
fact that we dedicated ourselves to improving our work force and 
elevating the intelligence and training and skills of Americans. And 
look at the benefits we reaped. We had an American century in the 20th 
century. Will we have an American century in the 21st? If we take a 
view that it is a hands-off subject and we can't talk about that in 
Washington and the people at the local level can't raise the money we 
are missing another opportunity.
  But to bring in talented teachers to have smaller classroom sizes, to 
have more modern classrooms, has to be an investment of the 21st 
century to continue what has become the American way of doing things. I 
want to salute not only Senator Murray and Senator Reid by those who 
have joined us in supporting the President's program. I think it is a 
program that is balanced, a program that takes a portion of this 
surplus, a surplus we worked hard to put together, and says we are 
going to put that portion into education. It's an investment that will 
pay off in generations to come. At this point I don't know that any 
other Senators are seeking time on the issue of education, and, Mr. 
President, I would reserve the remainder of my time or yield perhaps to 
the Senator from Florida if he would like to speak on another subject.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida is recognized.

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