[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 555-556]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                               EDUCATION

  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, this morning, I, Senator Kennedy, 
Congressman Boehner, the Chairman of the House Education and Workforce 
Committee, and Congressman Miller, the ranking Democrat of that 
committee, met with President Bush to discuss his very ambitious 
education initiative.
  The package the President is putting forward today contains several 
areas where there is general, bipartisan agreement for providing the 
tools necessary for every child to receive a quality education.
  These areas include: strengthening accountability to improve student 
performance; providing the funds necessary to prepare, recruit, and 
train high quality teachers; developing reading initiatives to ensure 
that all students will be able to read by the third grade; 
strengthening early childhood programs; creating a math/science 
partnership for states, colleges, and universities to strengthen K 
through twelve math and science education; providing activities related 
to technology as a means to boost student achievement; and giving 
school districts the flexibility to be innovative in implementing 
reform.
  All Americans agree that every child in this country deserves a high 
quality education. We at the federal level must remember that we do not 
necessarily have all the answers for making high quality education 
accessible to all students. It is parents, teachers, principals, 
superintendents, school personnel, state and local school board 
officials, and students that have many of the answers.
  The proposal outlined by President Bush is a very good framework 
which will go a long way in providing the assistance that is needed at 
the state and local level to have a first-rate elementary and secondary 
educational system.
  It is critical that all of us in the Senate and in the House join 
with the President in making comprehensive education reform our top 
priority. It is essential to our economic survival.
  Almost half of all adults have neither completed high school nor have 
pursued any type of postsecondary education. Approximately twenty 
percent of all eighteen year olds do not graduate from high school.
  The most recent Third International Mathematics and Science Study 
indicates that fourth graders performed well in both math and science 
in comparison to students in other nations. U.S. eighth graders 
performed near the

[[Page 556]]

international average in both math and science, and U.S. twelfth 
graders scored below the international average and among the lowest of 
the participating nations in general science knowledge.
  It is perhaps this last statistic which has contributed to the fact 
that half of all college students must take at least one remedial 
course at an annual cost of one billion dollars to the nation's public 
universities.
  Last fall, Congress passed the American Competitiveness in the 21st 
Century Act. This initiative raises the cap on the number of H-1B visas 
to 195,000 a year for the next three years.
  The H-1B bill, which passed the Senate by a vote of 96-1, was needed 
because this nation is lacking a skilled workforce in the areas of high 
tech and health care.
  I hope that the sense of urgency that prevailed regarding the passage 
of the H-1B bill will lead all of us to pass an education reform 
package that will help create a workforce with the skills to meet the 
needs of our local, regional, national, and international economies.
  I look forward to working with the President, Secretary of Education, 
Rod Paige, all members of the Health and Education Committee, all 
members of this body and our counterparts in the House to develop a 
bipartisan bill that passes the Congress with a final vote tally 
similar to the final vote cast on the H-1B bill.
  Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the Senator from Nevada.

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