[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 465-466]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               EDUCATION

  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, first, briefly, I remind those who don't 
remember that my decision to change parties came about on the basis of 
education and education funding, not what we have been discussing 
recently. At that time, the budget had left the Senate with $500 
million to be made available for education--maybe $450 million. But 
when it came back out of conference it was zero, absolutely zero.
  It was at that point, in order to impress upon this Nation the 
importance of education and to show my disagreement with my friends on 
the other side of the aisle, I decided I would change over such that 
the Democrats would have control of the budget process and that we 
would not suffer the horrendous cuts which were proposed in education.
  I would say right now we are still on that issue. The most critical 
problem we have in this Nation right now is education. I will discuss 
that now and try to put some light on the difficulties we are having.
  Usually in times of war the question of national priorities is summed 
up with a simple phrase: Guns or butter. But today, I fear that the 
choices aren't that simple. Perhaps it is time that we retool that 
phrase and ask ourselves, will it be guns or butter, tax breaks or 
textbooks?
  As the threat of war dominates our front page headlines and as we 
talk about stimulating our economy with billions of dollars in tax 
breaks, I was astonished when I turned to an inside page of the New 
York Times last weekend and read the headline, ``Schools Ending Year 
Early Among Efforts to Cut Costs.''
  If I may quote from that story:

       Fourth-grade students in Portland, OR will not read about 
     their State's history in their social studies classes, nor 
     will they study the metric system in math class, nor will 
     they study electricity in their science class.

  That is because some schools in Portland will be forced to slash more 
than a month from their school calendars this year because the money 
has run dry.
  And Oregon is not alone in this crisis.
  In California, Oklahoma--all over the country--schools are having to 
cut millions of dollars and they expect even deeper cuts in the year to 
come.
  Schools are cutting janitors, cafeteria workers and substitute 
teachers in an effort to keep their classrooms in tact. One teacher 
described it as ``death by a thousand cuts.''
  In my home state of Vermont, there is talk of whether a 4-day school 
week would be an option.
  This all comes on the heels of last week's celebration of the 1-year 
anniversary of the No Child Left Behind Act.
  Something is dreadfully wrong with this picture, and if we don't 
address this now, the consequences will be with us for generations to 
come.
  What kind of a nation have we become that we put so little value on a 
school day? Every school day is sacred. It is an opportunity to expand 
a child's horizons, an opportunity to help a child build new 
relationships, an opportunity for a child to learn.
  Our Nation's public schools cannot overcome the obstacles they face 
on the cheap. We might pride ourselves as being a superpower, yet we 
lag dangerously behind our counterparts in our commitment to fund 
education.

[[Page 466]]

  Of the major industrial nations, the United States ranks among the 
lowest in funding education at the Federal level, providing only seven 
percent of the costs. This figure pales by comparison when you look at 
our overseas competition.
  Other nations hold their teachers in the highest regard, and 
compensate them accordingly. We do not.
  I laud the efforts of the administration to boost Title 1 funding for 
the poorest schools, but the one billion dollar increase this year is 
still far short of the mark.
  And I once again remind everyone in the Chamber of our failed promise 
to fund 40 percent of our schools' special education costs. We made 
that promise more than a quarter of a century ago. It is shameful that 
we have fallen so short.
  In other nations, students spend far more time in classrooms than 
they do in the United States.
  In China, the average school year is 250 days. In Europe, students 
spend an average of 190 days a year in the classroom.
  In the United States, we are down to 180 days, and that number is 
likely to fall as school budgets are slashed, as we see happening today 
in Oregon.
  We cannot, and we should not, stand idly by while our schools 
struggle without enough money to do their jobs. This is a national 
disgrace.
  I understand that there are many priorities facing our Nation, 
perhaps too many for what our recessionary budget can afford.
  But when we consider guns and butter, we must not allow textbooks to 
slip to the bottom of the list. The security of our great Nation is at 
risk, and the threat is right here at home.
  We must act responsibly.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota is recognized.

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