[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2436-2437]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           EDUCATION FUNDING

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I will use leader time for a statement 
unrelated to the legislation before us.
  Every year since 1926, Americans have set aside time in February to 
recognize and celebrate black history. We owe this celebration of Black 
History Month to Carter G. Woodson, a brilliant and determined son of 
former slaves, who made it his mission to write African Americans into 
America's history books.
  Black History Month actually started out as Black History Week. Dr. 
Woodson chose the second week in February because it marks the 
birthdays of two men who greatly influenced African American history: 
Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
  Dr. Woodson said:

       We should emphasize not Negro history, but the Negro in 
     history. What we need is not a history of selected races or 
     nations, but a history of the world void of national bias, 
     race hate, and religious prejudice.

  In 1870, in order to rejoin the Union, the Mississippi State 
Legislature needed to choose someone to fill the seat in the Senate 
once held by Jefferson Davis. They chose an ordained minister named 
Hiram Rhodes Revels.
  On February 25--134 years ago today--visitors in the Senate galleries 
burst into applause as Senator Revels became the first African American 
ever to serve in the Senate.
  Five years later, Mississippi sent America its second African 
American Senator, Blanche Kelso Bruce, the first African American to 
serve a full term in the Senate.
  Although he served only 6 years, Senator Bruce distinguished himself 
as a passionate advocate of civil rights for blacks, Native Americans, 
Chinese immigrants, and even former Confederates.
  Besides Mississippi, there was another bond that connected these 
extraordinary men: a fierce commitment to education.
  During the Civil War, Hiram Revels not only raised two black 
regiments for the Union Army and fought at one of the war's bloodiest 
battles, he established a school for freedmen in St. Louis. After 
serving in the Senate, he became president of a college in Mississippi.
  Blanche Bruce was born a slave. His first teacher was a tutor hired 
to teach his master's son. At 20, he escaped slavery and became a 
teacher in Missouri. He later attended Oberlin College and spent much 
of his life after the Senate working to bring learning to former 
slaves, their children, and grandchildren.
  It is fitting we remember these two great men of history in this 
Chamber where they made history, and it is especially appropriate that 
we remember them this year, on the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board 
of Education, the Supreme Court ruling that declared once and forever 
that in America, no child can be consigned to a second-class school on 
the basis of race.
  All Americans--not just African Americans, all Americans--are the 
beneficiaries of the Brown decision. It has made America stronger 
spiritually

[[Page 2437]]

by realigning our public institutions with our great guiding 
principles.
  It has also made America strong economically, socially, politically, 
intellectually, artistically, militarily, and in so many other ways by 
requiring every child in America--every child--be given the opportunity 
to make the most of his or her God-given potential.
  In this Black History Month especially, America remembers and honors 
Thurgood Marshall and Linda Brown, the giant at the head of the NAACP 
brilliant legal team in Brown, and the brave little 8-year-old girl at 
the center of the case. We also remember and honor all those who helped 
them--and there were many--because it takes many people of good will to 
right great wrongs. But it is not enough to remember great turning 
points in our past. We should also rededicate ourselves to the great 
principles at the heart of the Brown decision.
  This Black History Month, the right of every child in America to 
attend a good school and get a good education, regardless of race or 
income, is once again in jeopardy. The threat to equal educational 
opportunity today is not as obvious or virulent as it was before Brown. 
We no longer tolerate laws that say some children can be consigned to 
second-rate schools and third- or fourth-rate futures. In fact, our 
laws today promise to leave no child behind. But the law is not being 
funded. It is a check written on insufficient funds.
  I was the first in my family to graduate from college. I could not 
have gone to college had it not been for the ROTC scholarship I had.
  I voted for No Child Left Behind because I believe every child in 
America deserves the same opportunities I have been given. I voted for 
No Child Left Behind because I know investing in the minds of young 
people is the smartest, most productive investment a nation can make. I 
voted for No Child Left Behind because I support accountability and 
because I have no doubt that students, teachers, principals, parents, 
and school board members in South Dakota and across the country can 
meet higher standards as long as they are given the resources.
  I voted for No Child Left Behind because President Bush gave his word 
that the law would be funded, but that is not what has happened. In the 
2 years since President Bush signed the law, he has proposed three 
budgets to Congress. All three times, the President has drastically 
underfunded his own education reform plan. The education budget 
President Bush recommended for next year falls $9.4 billion short of 
what was originally promised in No Child Left Behind, $9.4 billion less 
than what is needed to make it work.
  The program that is most critical to closing the achievement gap 
between minority and nonminority students, title I, is cut the 
deepest--more than $7.1 billion below what the law promises. The 
President's education budget does not leave one child behind; it leaves 
4.6 million children behind, and a disproportionate number of them are 
African American and members of other minorities.
  The President's budget also makes deep cuts in afterschool programs 
despite strong evidence that good afterschool programs keep children 
safe and help them academically. It provides less than half the share 
of special education costs the Federal Government committed in 1975. It 
slashes career and technical education. It eliminates dropout 
prevention programs. Despite promising during the campaign of 2000 and 
again last month in the State of the Union Address to raise the maximum 
Pell grant by $1,000, the President's budget actually freezes Pell 
grants next year for the third year in a row. Three years ago, the 
maximum Pell grant paid 42 percent of the average annual cost of 
attending college. Today, it covers only 34 percent.
  The President's neglect of education and his repeated refusal to fund 
even his own educational plan is hurting America. It is hurting 
African-American and other minority children disproportionately. This 
is not a partisan criticism. Republican legislators in Arizona and 
Minnesota have introduced bills that would allow their States to 
partially opt out of No Child Left Behind. They consider it an unfunded 
mandate.
  Legislatures in at least 10 other States have adopted resolutions 
criticizing the law and seeking waivers from parts of it. In Utah, a 
Republican-dominated House has voted not to implement No Child Left 
Behind unless Federal funds are provided adequately. States are being 
put in a horrible bind: Accept huge, costly, unfunded mandates or give 
up tens of millions of dollars or more in Federal education aid, much 
of which is intended and which works to close the achievement gap.
  Brown v. Board of Education is one of the most inspiring chapters in 
our Nation's history. It gave all American children the promise of 
equal educational opportunity and the No Child Left Behind Act 
reaffirmed that promise in principle, but the promise is hollow unless 
we fund it. When the Senate debates the budget resolution, we will be 
offering amendments to fully fund the No Child Left Behind Act and to 
make other critical investments in education and training.
  It is important we remember our history. It is also essential that we 
keep our promises and invest in our future.
  I yield the floor.

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