[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 17128]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 BETTER TEACHERS MAKE BETTER EDUCATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay) is recognized 
during morning hour debates.
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, following President Bush's landmark No Child 
Left Behind law, we now have an opportunity to make overdue reforms in 
the Federal Government's role in our national education system. We will 
take up two very important education reauthorization bills this week to 
begin that process. The first is the Ready to Teach Act of 2003 
sponsored by the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey) which will 
strengthen and improve teacher training programs all around this 
country. With the enormous responsibilities weighing on them today, we 
owe it not only to American teachers but to their students to prepare 
every one of them before they set foot in the classroom. Highly 
qualified teachers, as all of us know and some of us were lucky enough 
to have in school, are worth their weight in gold. But too many 
inexperienced teachers are being thrown into the classroom without 
effective training and preparation. This legislation will start 
measuring training programs' success and holding them accountable. It 
will bring higher qualified individuals into the training programs and 
ultimately into the classrooms. It is an important first step in 
reshaping American education to face the emerging challenges of the 
21st century.
  Equally important is the bill of the gentleman from South Carolina 
(Mr. Wilson), the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Act. Under this 
bill, qualified teachers in math, science and special education would 
be eligible for student loan forgiveness of up to $17,500 if they teach 
in low-income community schools. Most of these poor title I schools are 
in our Nation's inner cities and in our rural areas where the need for 
qualified teachers is most acute. Too many math and science classes are 
being taught by teachers who neither majored nor minored in those 
fields. And two-thirds of public schools around the country have 
teacher vacancies in their special education programs.
  Mr. Speaker, as more and more of our best teachers retire every year, 
the teaching shortage in America is approaching crisis levels and we 
must act. We have to develop innovative ways to attract and retain the 
highest quality individuals we can for our schools, to get results for 
students, parents and teachers around the country. And while these two 
bills are only part of a broader agenda, both of them start to do just 
that.

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