[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 24788-24790]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          THE RECORD IN TEXAS

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, it looks as though we are going to 
have to respond to the many charges that are being made on the Senate 
floor in the Presidential campaign. I am sorry it has come to that 
because I don't like to see that happening on the Senate floor. I am 
committed to not letting the record go unchallenged when I know for a 
fact the record is being misrepresented.
  In fact, the Senator from Massachusetts earlier this afternoon 
misrepresented the facts about Governor Bush's record in Texas. I am 
very proud to say that Governor Bush has an outstanding record in 
Texas; that Texas is a great place to live; that Texas has surpassed 
New York now to be the second largest State in America. That is because 
so many people are choosing to come to Texas to live. They are coming 
for a variety of reasons. Quality of life is No. 1. A good solid public 
education system that is improving every day is another. Quality health 
care is another. We have many reasons to be proud of the record of our 
State and the Governor and the legislature of our State.
  I will address first the issue of education. This has been the most 
egregious misrepresentation. In fact, the Rand organization that does 
research into many areas put out just this last July a comprehensive 
study of public education reforms in our country. The report based its 
analysis on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests given 
between 1990 and 1996. The authors ranked the 44 participating States 
by raw achievement scores, by scores that compare students from similar 
families and by score improvements. They also analyzed which policies 
and programs accounted for the substantial differences in achievements 
across States that can't be explained by demographics.
  What they were doing is taking 44 States that had significant public 
education reforms and determining what worked and what didn't. I will 
read directly from the press release that was issued by the Rand 
Corporation.

       Math scores are rising across the country at a national 
     average rate of about one percentile point per year, a pace 
     outstripping that of the previous two decades and suggesting 
     that public education reforms are taking hold. Progress is 
     far from uniform, however. One group of states--led by North 
     Carolina and Texas and including Michigan, Indiana and 
     Maryland--boasts gains about twice as great as the national 
     average.

  I just learned that Senator Kennedy made the charge that Texas is 
dead last in public education.
  I think the Rand study released in July of this year that looked at a 
comprehensive set of scores from 44 States should be given some weight.
  No. 2, from the Rand report:

       Even more dramatic contrasts emerge in the study's 
     pathbreaking, cross-State comparison of achievement by 
     students from similar families. Texas heads the class in this 
     ranking. . . .

  I am not going to read the names of the States that are at the bottom 
because I don't think it is necessary. Texas is No. 1.

       Although the two States are close demographic cousins, 
     Texas students, on average, scored 11 percentile points 
     higher on the NAEP math and reading tests than their . . . 
     counterparts. In fact, the Texans performed well with respect 
     to most States. On the fourth grade NAEP math tests in 1996, 
     Texas non-Hispanic white students and black students ranked 
     first compared to their counterparts in other States, while 
     Hispanic students ranked fifth.

  The report goes on to say:

       The most plausible explanation for the remarkable rate of 
     math gains by North Carolina and Texas is the integrated set 
     of policies involving standards, assessment and 
     accountability that both States implemented in the late 1980s 
     and early 1990s.

  I remind you that Governor Bush was elected in 1994 in Texas. That is 
when we started beginning to see the results of the reforms that have 
taken place.
  Let's talk about Governor Bush's record. Since being elected 
Governor, George Bush has seen minority test scores increase by 85 
percent. Overall test passage rates increased by 38 percent. Governor 
Bush and the legislature, working together, increased teacher salaries 
by one-third since his election, increased public funding of education 
by $8 billion, and per pupil expenditures have increased by 37 percent. 
Under Governor Bush's education reform plan, social promotions were 
ended. We spent $200 million in new early education funding to make 
sure all third graders read at grade level.
  That is the emphasis Governor Bush has made in Texas that is 
beginning to reap the great rewards shown by the students who have been 
tested in these recent tests that are now being studied. In fact, Texas 
is at the top of the class. It is because they are going to the third 
grade level to target students who don't have reading skills. Governor 
Bush believes that if a child can't read at grade level in the third 
grade, of course, the child is going to have trouble going through the 
public education system.
  It does not take a rocket scientist to know if the child is trying to 
progress without reading skills, the child is going to fall behind. 
That is what we are trying to correct in Texas, and it is

[[Page 24789]]

working. It is working. That is why our test scores are skyrocketing.
  I think we need to put to rest all of the misinformation that is out 
there about the Texas public education system. We are very proud that 
we are putting the money into the system; we are increasing teacher's 
salaries; we are attracting more teachers so that our teacher shortages 
will go down.
  Most public schools have teacher shortages, and we are trying to 
address that issue with creativity. We are trying to attract people 
into the classroom who have specific skills that we don't have in the 
classroom now because of the teacher shortages. So we are targeting 
math and science and languages and computer skills. We are looking to 
retired military people, people retired from industry, and we are 
trying to attract them to the teaching profession because we think it 
is so important that our young people have access to this kind of 
quality in the classroom.
  We in Texas stand second to none in the improvements in our public 
education system, and it is going nowhere but up. We know if we can 
catch those children in the third grade, they are going to have a 
chance to reach their full potential, and that is what Governor Bush is 
doing in Texas and what he wants to do for our country.
  Let's talk about health care. Governor Bush and the Texas Legislature 
have led the effort to enact the Nation's first comprehensive Patients' 
Bill of Rights. In fact, Texas has a Patients' Bill of Rights, and it 
is a terrific program. It is working. It is working because we have an 
independent review process, because we are targeting health care; we 
are not targeting trial lawyers being able to sue HMOs--although that 
is allowed if all of the appeals are exhausted. It is allowed, but 
there are caps on noneconomic damages. So that brings more reasonable 
limits to irrational lawsuits, but it allows the protection of the 
patient who doesn't get the good care.
  But the focus is not on retribution; the focus is on getting health 
care in the first place. It doesn't help the patient to be able to sue 
later for a terrible accident. What we want is for the health care 
decisions to be made by the patient and the doctor. That is what the 
Patients' Bill of Rights does in Texas. It became law while Governor 
Bush was our Governor, working with our bipartisan legislature.
  Today, we have 100,000 children enrolled in the CHIP program. We will 
enroll 425,000 by the end of next year. We are in the process of 
educating parents about who is eligible for the CHIP program. We are 
going to reach every child who is eligible for this program so that our 
children will have health care.
  Let me tell you what Governor Bush and the legislature did to make 
sure of that coverage. They allocated the largest part of the tobacco 
settlement that Texas got to the CHIP program for health insurance for 
every child in Texas, and they put into a trust fund billions of 
dollars from which the interest will go to every county in Texas for 
the purpose of providing indigent health care in those counties 
because, of course, in many counties in Texas the buck stops with them 
for the provision of health care for their indigent population.
  This money will come in perpetuity to every one of the 254 counties 
in Texas. Every one of those counties will participate in the interest 
on that trust fund for their health care needs in that county, and that 
is a huge help for those counties providing that health care. That was 
done under the leadership of Governor Bush and the great speaker of the 
Texas House and the Lieutenant Governor of Texas. It was a bipartisan 
effort that made that happen.
  So I think our Texas health care system is very sound. I have heard a 
lot of charges being made about the quality of our public education and 
our health care, and I just happen to know firsthand that those making 
the charges are misinformed. I don't think we need to run down one of 
the great States in our Nation in order to get advantages in the 
Presidential race.
  I am disappointed, frankly, in my colleagues who would do this. I am 
disappointed that they don't have enough to say about their views and 
their visions for our country, that they have to come to the Senate 
floor and run down Texas in their campaign for President of the United 
States. I don't think it is necessary, I don't think it is proper, and 
I don't think it is seemly. I think we can do better in this country, 
and I don't think--at least I hope that not one person in this country 
is going to have his or her vote swayed because of what is happening in 
Texas.
  I would like to think that if people are looking at Texas they have 
the facts and that they have a good feeling about my great State. I 
certainly don't think running down my State is the way to run a 
Presidential campaign because people are moving to our State by the 
thousands. That is why Texas is now the second largest State in 
America--surpassing New York. They are coming there because it is a 
good climate in which to do business; it is a good climate in which to 
create jobs; and it is a good climate in which to raise a family. It is 
a good place to live. And we have a Governor who has contributed a 
whole lot to make that happen. We have a great legislature that has 
worked with our Governor in a bipartisan way.
  That is what our Governor would like to bring to the Congress. We 
would like to be able to work in a bipartisan way to make the laws that 
will achieve the dreams of every American child. We would like to have 
cooperation between the Republicans and the Democrats. But I don't 
think we are fostering cooperation when people come to the Senate floor 
and run down my State. I don't think that is very bipartisan, and I 
don't think it is very honorable.
  I hope we can turn off the Texas bashing. I hope we can talk about 
the dreams and aspirations of our Presidential candidate. I hope we can 
give Governor Bush the credit for the reforms in the public education 
system that are making such a difference in the lives of so many 
Texans. Our children are learning to read and they are beginning to 
like school. They are wanting to stay in school, and they are not going 
to drop out of high school if they have a chance to see that their 
public education is going somewhere. We are giving hope to our 
children. We are taking care of them. That is what we should all want 
for all of our States.
  I don't think we should have to continually come to the floor to 
defend our State. I hope I don't have to do it again. But I guarantee 
that I will be here again if I hear that one of my colleagues is 
bashing Governor Bush and the State of Texas. Every time I hear that is 
happening, I am going to come to the floor and I am going to ask for 
time to set the record straight because the record is a good one. The 
record is one of education reform that has a goal, that allows every 
child in Texas to reach his or her full potential, and a goal that we 
want for every State in this country. We want no child to be left 
behind. We want every child to reach his or her full potential with a 
public education--not that we don't wish the children who have private 
education well. We want them to have those choices. We want children to 
be able to go to private schools, or parochial schools, or public 
schools, or charter schools. We want all the options out there because 
we believe with all of the options that every child will then have a 
chance to do what is best for that child, and we believe the base of 
all of this is a strong system of public education.
  We believe that a public education that has competition is a better 
public education. That is why we want the choices and the creativity 
for our children's education.
  I hope this is the end of Texas bashing. I hope this is the end of 
our congressional session so we can have our Presidential campaign on 
the merits so that the people of our country will be able to listen to 
the Presidential candidates. But I don't think we need to have a 
Presidential race that runs down the State of one of our candidates. 
Thank goodness we don't see that happening on the other side of the 
aisle. The Republicans are not bashing Tennessee. We like Tennessee 
very much. We don't think it is necessary to

[[Page 24790]]

run down a State from which another Presidential candidate comes in 
order to get advantages. We happen to believe Tennessee is a great 
State. We believe Texas is a great State, too.
  I hope this is the end of this kind of politicking. I hope it is the 
end of using the Senate floor for political advantage in the 
Presidential race.
  I hope we can give the credit that is deserved to the Governor of 
Texas and to the Legislature of Texas working together and for their 
willingness to address the issues of education reform, for their 
willingness to address the issues related to health care and health 
care coverage for our children because we have made it a priority in 
Texas. That is why it is such a terrific State; we believe in the jobs 
that are created in Texas and the good working people who live in Texas 
have been able to do very well because we have a healthy climate in 
Texas and a healthy business climate, as well as a healthy environment 
and a healthy climate in which to raise families. Those are the 
fundamentals of what our State has to offer, and it is why so many 
people are moving to our great State and why we welcome that move.
  I thank the Presiding Officer for allowing me to correct the record 
that was created with some misinformation earlier today. I hope we will 
not have to defend Texas again. I hope we are very close to ending the 
Texas bashing because I don't think anybody is going to vote against 
Governor Bush because of misinformation about Texas. I think the people 
of America are smarter than that. I think the people of America deserve 
better than that. It is my fervent hope that they are able to hear the 
candidates' views on the issues without the negative campaigning on 
what is happening in Texas. I think if anybody would just come to Texas 
and see for themselves, they would be very pleased with the leadership 
of Governor Bush and our Texas Legislature.
  Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. L. Chafee). The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. GRAMM. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I may proceed 
in morning business for 20 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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