[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 13715-13719]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            DISASTER FUNDING

  Mr. BLUNT. I appreciate the Presiding Officer's recognition.
  Mr. President, this is a debate that has become the debate as part of 
the Burma Sanctions Act, which if we were debating the Burma Sanctions 
Act I would also be for Burma sanctions. But in the debate on 
disasters, Missouri has played an unfortunate leading role this year of 
all kinds.
  We have had floods along the Mississippi River. We have had floods

[[Page 13716]]

along the Missouri River. Joplin, MO--one of the bigger cities in our 
State--was hit by a tornado. We have evacuated a place in southeast 
Missouri, a floodway called Birds Point, where, for the first time 
since 1937, the Corps of Engineers decided that 130,000 or so acres had 
to be used as a floodway. All the crops that were already planted and 
up were, obviously, destroyed as part of that.
  I was in that floodway for a couple of different days in August, and 
I will say, the resilience of Missouri farmers to get about 80 percent 
of that floodway back in soybeans means the economic loss, the crop 
loss, will not be what it was. But the recovery loss is substantial, as 
is the cost of rebuilding that levee back to the level it was before 
the Corps exercised the long plan that had not been used to take it 
down.
  Tornadoes struck St. Louis at the airport and around Lambert Field, 
in communities around Lambert Field. Tornadoes in Joplin were 
significant. I mentioned on the floor of the Senate before that I live 
close to Joplin. It was in my congressional district for 14 years. I 
had an office there. I am probably as familiar with Joplin as anybody 
who does not live there or has not lived there.
  As I went to the scene of this tornado, the devastation made a city 
that I was very familiar with--at least a half-mile path, 6 miles 
across that city--virtually unrecognizable by me or the local police 
officer who was driving me around. There were no street signs left. 
Every block looked like the block on either side of it--an incredible 
amount of devastation.
  There were 162 people killed either at the time of the tornado or who 
within a few days of the tornado died as a result of injuries; 900 
people were injured. A hospital was destroyed that will cost about $500 
million to replace. The high school was destroyed. The vo-tech school 
was destroyed, lots of elementary schools destroyed, 500 commercial 
properties, 8,000 apartments and homes, and I think ``destroyed'' in 
virtually all those cases would be the right word; some of them 
salvageable, most of them not. Homes, churches, elementary schools, the 
Catholic school--all destroyed by that tornado.
  While we make headway every day, finding housing for people in that 
community who were affected by the loss of those 8,000 homes, and while 
the schools were up and running by the day schools were scheduled to 
start 90 days later, in an incredible way, looking for whatever space 
was available and turning that into schools for this year, there is 
clearly a lot to be done.
  This exceeds the capacity of an individual community or even a State 
to do what needs to be done. I am in the process, and have been for 
some time now, of discussing with GAO the exact right request, to be 
sure we are not declaring disasters as national disasters that are not 
national in scope, that we have not gotten into a habit of saying: That 
is a disaster, the Governor ought to send a request to the President 
and the President ought to grant it. We do not want to be doing that 
when a State or a community could handle the problem. But we do always 
want to be sure we have the resources necessary when States and 
communities cannot possibly handle this kind of problem by themselves.
  The tornado I talked about was one; the flooding in the entire 
Mississippi Valley watershed, which is I think the fourth largest 
watershed in the world. And whether it was the Missouri River or the 
Ohio River or the Mississippi River itself, or the Arkansas River, all 
of this flooding that occurred this year has set a recovery number that 
does require national involvement. If we do not recover from these 
floods, the right kinds of things do not happen.
  I had a county commissioner tell me over August that the factory does 
not open until the highway opens. And the highway does not open until 
flood protection is guaranteed. And flood protection is not guaranteed 
until we appropriate the money.
  You know we should be and appropriately are focused on jobs as the 
No. 1 priority in the country today, private sector jobs. But there are 
a lot of private sector jobs in my State and others that have not been 
there for months now because the factory is closed or the business is 
closed. That factory is not going to open again until people can get to 
work. And people are not going to be on the highway to get to work 
until the levee is rebuilt. And the levee is not going to be rebuilt 
until the Corps of Engineers has the money to do the job they are 
supposed to do and meet their obligations. The Corps is responsible for 
taking care of some of our most pressing needs, whether it is restoring 
the levee at Bird's Point or levees in northwest Missouri in Holt 
County, which has 165,000 acres--more than half the county--underwater. 
A lot of that has been underwater now for 3 or 4 months.
  I talked to a farmer in my office yesterday who went to his own home 
for the first time in 3 months, by driving a tractor over some fairly 
high water areas but passable areas. His home had not been flooded, but 
everything around it was. So he had not been there for 3 months when we 
talked yesterday until he went this week.
  Whether it is water along the entire Missouri River, which has been 
in flood stage through the month of August, recovering from what has 
happened on the Mississippi River, we need to do our job. In our case, 
the Missouri River, this has not been a 1-week flood; this is a 3- and 
4-month flood.
  I do not remember a time ever--in fact, I am not aware of a time 
ever--when the entire Missouri River from the Missouri border in the 
northwest corner of the State to St. Louis was in flood stage the 
entire month of August, and in some cases has been in flood stage now 
for what is 4 months. Community development block grants that help with 
disasters provide communities a short-term and long-term way to meet 
disaster recovery. Disaster community development block grant funds can 
pick up where FEMA leaves off. I hope that is part of our plan as we 
look for this disaster bill, which I am intending to support--or the 
final, or another disaster bill that we can agree to with the House--to 
be sure that we make it possible for these communities to do what they 
could not do on their own or could not even do with State assistance.
  In Joplin, it is things such as underground utilities and storm 
sewers and sanitary systems of all kinds, owner-occupancy programs to 
get people who owned a house but may never own one again because the 
house they owned, through frankly their own inability or their 
oversight or their decision not to have insurance--you know, if you own 
a house and you do not have a loan, there is no banker to tell you that 
you have to get insurance. We will have some people who are negatively 
affected by that. But that was a decision they made. However, getting 
them into a house that they do not own is something that there are 
government programs for that are designed to help.
  Community development block grants allow qualifying communities to 
meet local matches and local needs without a whole lot of redtape, less 
redtape than a lot of other things that the government does. And, of 
course, with the most recent hurricane, Hurricane Irene, suddenly FEMA 
says: Well, I know we made a lot of commitments to other communities 
that are already in progress, but we now have to turn to the new 
disaster. I appreciate turning to the new disaster. But you cannot 
forget that a community has problems they cannot deal with that we said 
we were going to help with, just because the TV satellite truck has 
gone somewhere else. I think it is important that FEMA meets its 
obligations.
  As I said before, I think it is important in an ongoing way we are 
sure that we have a standard for natural and national disasters that 
truly are national in scope. With thousands of acres of Missouri 
farmland still underwater, with communities trying to recover from 
tornados, with commitments that FEMA has told them to move forward on 
and now suddenly does not have the money that they had already 
committed, we need to be concerned about that.
  Programs such as watershed emergency protection and conservation 
emergency protection that are in this bill that were in the Agriculture 
appropriations bill that the committee voted

[[Page 13717]]

out earlier this week will have a big impact on meeting these 
obligations.
  Despite the unprecedented year, my State and Americans everywhere are 
responding to these disasters, this is a time when the Federal 
Government needs to do what the Federal Government has said it is there 
to do. Hopefully we will do this with this bill or some other bill that 
comes quickly that allows these communities to meet their needs, these 
farm families to get back to work, these factory workers to see the 
factory doors open again. I am supportive of this effort.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina is recognized 
without objection in the majority's time. Only 4 minutes is remaining.
  Mr. BURR. Mr. President, am I incorrect that the other side has a 
speaker coming at 11 o'clock?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair does not have information about 
that.
  Mr. BURR. I will take whatever time the Chair gives me. I will yield, 
when I need to, to the other side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BURR. Let me add to what my good friend from Missouri talked 
about. That is about the Federal commitment to disaster. North Carolina 
happens to be one of those States that is probably the most recent. We 
welcome the attention of FEMA, but we also have the last disaster 
before. And just like he expects the promises to be fulfilled, even 
though we are first in line now, we expect the promises to be fulfilled 
to those who are already out there. Our country is great enough to do 
it. It is the greatest country in the world. But it means we have got 
to do it in a responsible way. Part of that means we need to pay for 
it. I hope my colleagues will join what I think will be a House effort 
to expedite the funding needed for disaster relief but to do it in a 
way that we do not charge future generations because of our fiscal 
irresponsibility.
  I had the opportunity to participate in a colloquy earlier on reforms 
to K-12 education. I wish to take the few remaining minutes I have to 
talk a little bit more about that, because I think to some degree we 
hear about education and the failures of K-12.
  Senator Kirk alluded to some charter schools in Chicago. I want to 
mention a school nobody hears about. It is called the KIPP Academy. 
Technically, it is a charter school. It started in Houston, TX. Then it 
expanded. Its second location was in New York City. Its third location 
was targeted to be Atlanta, but halfway between Atlanta and New York 
they found a little county in rural North Carolina. It is called 
Northampton County, and a little community there called Gaston, NC, the 
last place you would expect a Texas innovative charter school to say, 
let's put a facility here. Predominantly minority; clearly below the 
average income level of every county in North Carolina; challenged for 
economic development. They do not have the infrastructure. But KIPP 
looked at it and said: You know, no child should go without what we are 
out there to offer. Today the success rate of that school is off the 
chart. But it also is in every KIPP location that has opened.
  When you have successes such as that, whether they are in Houston, 
TX, or New York City, or Gaston, NC, the responsible thing is to stop 
and take a breath and ask yourself: What have they figured out that 
either we have not in Washington or what flexibility do they have that 
we do not give everybody else?
  When you walk into a KIPP school, it is markedly different as soon as 
you walk in the door. Most kids are in uniforms. The school day is 
longer. The teachers are partners in education, which begs me to talk a 
little bit about Teach for America, the program that many Members of 
Congress support.
  Teach for America challenged the next generation of kids who want to 
be educators to commit a certain portion of their life in these at-risk 
locations. It is a program we ought to support because its standards 
for its teachers exceed the definition we have for ``highly 
qualified.'' As a matter of fact, not only do their credentials make 
them one of the best individuals to put into a classroom, you match 
that with their passion for their students to succeed, and all of a 
sudden you have got a formula for success regardless of the 
socioeconomic conditions of the child who came.
  Well, I fear Teach for America is not going to get the attention of 
Congress that it should. Yet across this country, when you find 
successful, qualified teachers, they have come out of this program. The 
commitment to be there for 2 years or 3 years or 5 years is no longer a 
contract that they are waiting for the end of; they are looking for the 
opportunity to make this a career.
  It is those teachers, those Teach for America graduates, who are 
finding their way to being the principals of schools, to being elected 
on the school board, to being involved in areas that, for once, now 
these Teach for America graduates are challenging traditional education 
to live up to what this obligation is they have got. That is to make 
sure that every child has the foundational education they need to 
compete.
  It does not matter whether the example I talk about is the KIPP 
Academy charter model that was started in Houston or whether it is the 
Noble Street charter that was created in Chicago. All of these examples 
were not created here. They were not created in Congress or in 
Washington. Yet what typically we do is we try to import the solution 
from here.
  I will be the first to tell you, a principal is much closer to your 
children than the Congress of the United States. They are much closer 
to the school. They are much closer to the school system. They have 
greater influence on the outcome. Where have we been influencing 
education? We influence it on the input side, not the output side, 
because we say: Here is some money. We have got some money. But you can 
only use it for this because we have determined this is the solution to 
the problem. KIPP sort of broke the mold. They said: Our mission is to 
educate every child. We want to see them succeed.
  Let me give my colleagues an example. In Charlotte, NC, they opened a 
KIPP Academy, K-8, next door to a traditional K-6 school. There is no 
way anybody can look at it and say, this drew kids who were in a 
different neighborhood. No, it drew kids from exactly the same 
neighborhood. But if you look at the performance side by side 
physically, the performance of the kids in the KIPP far exceeds the 
performance of the kids in the traditional public school system.
  (Mr. BROWN of Ohio assumed the chair.)
  Mr. BURR. Why? Because KIPP officials have the flexibility to design 
how they educate those children. The goal at the end is the same--to 
meet a standard of performance, to meet an educational level that is 
set nationally.
  To me, it only makes common sense for us to see the ones that exceed 
the goals we set and ask how do we import what they do into the rest of 
our K-12 system? Part of it is recognizing the fact that up here we 
don't have the solutions; we are merely a financial partner. That is 
one of the reasons this morning I introduced a bill. What that bill 
does is it takes 59 pots of money--59 separate programs that were 
funded last year. In one area, we call it the fund for improvement of 
teaching and learning, to say we can take 59 programs and combine them 
into two pots of money; one is teaching and learning and the second one 
is safe and healthy students.
  In the teaching and learning area, we have consolidated about 24 
funding programs into one. We have said to local educators that they 
can use this money however they want, if their focus is teaching and 
learning, and they can pull out of the other pot any moneys they need 
for programs that address safe and healthy students.
  We went a step further and said, if one of these pots of money 
doesn't work for them, then we will give them 100 percent 
transferability from one pot to the other. So if their objective and 
their need is greater in teaching and learning, we will give them the 
ability to take the safe and healthy

[[Page 13718]]

student money and throw it over into the teaching and learning pot so 
they can access more funds.
  In addition, some communities across the country might need 
additional help in title I, at-risk students. We allow 100 percent 
transferability of both of those into title I. For those concerned with 
title I, not only do we not touch it, we make it available to receive 
additional funding if a school system decides to do it, not a 
bureaucrat in Washington, DC.
  Under the fund of improving teaching and learning, States and local 
school districts may use funds for activities and programs that meet 
the purposes of the fund for the improvement of teaching and learning 
and their unique and individual needs. These may include evaluation 
systems for teachers and principals that take into account data on 
student academic achievement and growth as a significant factor.
  That is exactly what Senator Isakson was talking about, the need for 
accountability. But we are trying to take a majority of the 
responsibility for accountability and send it to the local school 
systems. All we can see are numbers up here in comparison to what our 
goal is for people to hit. I am concerned that a community takes 
ownership in the performance of their school system because that 
community is reliant on their success for their future.
  My hope is, school systems and communities around the country will 
see this as a tremendous opportunity to once again not only take 
control of local education but to be empowered to make decisions on the 
way they teach our kids.
  It reforms teacher and principal certifications, recertifications, 
licensing, and tenure; alternative routes for State certification of 
teachers and principals, including mid-career professionals from other 
occupations, former military personnel, and recent college or 
university graduates with records of academic distinction who 
demonstrate the potential to become highly effective teachers and 
principals.
  There is this whole pool of people we exclude because they didn't go 
through a traditional method of being classified a teacher. Yet their 
base of knowledge, their expertise and, I suggest, their passion, in 
many cases, exceeds those who might be in the classroom today.
  Is it reasonable to believe that a pharmacist has the institutional 
knowledge to teach chemistry? I hope so because we trust him every day 
when we go into a pharmacy. If a pharmacist feels impassioned enough 
that he or she wants to go into a high school and teach chemistry, what 
they might lack in the educational process of becoming a teacher they 
certainly have in knowledge; but more important, they may have the 
passion to want to be in there and, more important, they have an 
understanding of why the success of that student is absolutely vital.
  It includes performance pay systems; differential, incentive, and 
bonus pay for teachers in high-need academic subjects and specialty 
areas and teachers in high-poverty schools and districts; teacher 
achievement initiatives that promote professional growth, multiple 
career paths, and pay differentiation.
  Everywhere else in the world we pay bonuses for performance. In the 
government, we pay bonuses even when people don't perform. I haven't 
quite figured that out. When we introduce bonuses, it is not based upon 
whether somebody--an agency or a department--succeeded; it becomes part 
of their annual stipend. We have to revisit that. Why would we 
institute it in government and then suggest that when we import this 
into K-12 education, somehow it is wrong?
  The only reason it is wrong is because the teachers union doesn't 
like it because they don't negotiate. That has to change. The teachers 
union doesn't know our children. The truth is, the only reason the 
majority of the teachers actually join the union is because they are 
the only source of liability coverage, liability insurance that 
teachers can get. The fact is, you and I would not teach in a classroom 
without liability insurance, based upon the accusations and charges 
some families come up with against teachers. Ask them, if you don't 
believe me. Maybe we ought to look at the Federal umbrella and allow 
teachers to access liability from us and maybe contract with a third-
party insurer and give them the opportunity to go into that classroom 
and only be concerned with educating children. I have never had anybody 
from Teach for America talk to me about liability coverage. They only 
come and talk to me about the success of their students or the need to 
expand programs at work and about the need for flexibility at the local 
level because they have gone to multiple school districts and they do 
things differently, because that is where the administration told them 
they had to go to get their Federal money.
  I am suggesting a radical change: Taking 59 programs, put them into 
two pots, shake them up, and say: You pick what is best for the school 
system you are in.
  With safe and healthy student block grants, the local districts could 
use the funds for activity and programs to meet the purposes of safe 
and healthy students and their individual needs, which are not limited 
to drug and violence prevention activities and programs, before and 
afterschool programs, including during summer recess periods, and 
programs that extend the schoolday, week, and school year calendar.
  It includes school-based mental health services. Some of these sound 
eerily familiar because we have heard people in our community saying we 
are not doing enough in mental health. That may not be the issue in the 
community next to us. This now allows the flexibility for the school 
systems that need to access it to access it. I think every Member here 
wants to make sure there are afterschool opportunities for the many 
families in which both the husband and wife work.
  Up to this point, we said: Here is the program; you have to use this 
program. Now what I am saying is: Here is the money; you decide what 
program best fits your school system. It may not be at the local rec 
center; it may actually be in the school. Think about it. It is already 
a facility we own. We are going to have to heat it and cool it. Why not 
utilize it other than just during the meat of the education day?
  It includes emergency intervention services following traumatic 
crises. It seems every year we have these events that happen, and 
sometimes we forget the effect it has on these students. I talked 
earlier about eastern North Carolina and the effect of Hurricane Irene. 
I have communities right now where people have not been able to return 
to their homes. The road is gone, the power is not back on, and the 
only access is by ferry. Don't for a minute believe this doesn't have 
an effect on a fifth grader. Maybe school had only been in effect about 
a week, but they are traumatized from it. If it is identified by a 
school system, now they have the flexibility to treat that, because I 
can assure you that if they are traumatized, the ability to learn is 
probably minimized.
  There are programs that train school personnel to identify warning 
signs of youth suicide. I would like to suggest that doesn't exist, but 
the truth is, we know it does. In many cases, it is identified by the 
people who spend the most time with them, which are the teachers, 
coaches, and administrators. They don't have the capacity to intervene 
in any way, shape or form. Now the flexibility is at least there.
  I am not suggesting that any of these areas are things school systems 
have to do. But I think, for once, we have laid out a buffet and said 
they can pick and choose what works. If I could best summarize where I 
think our focus should be in Washington on K-12, it is on the outcome. 
Are our kids learning?
  Last year, about 66 percent of our Nation's high schoolers graduated 
on time. In North Carolina, it was barely over 70 percent graduating on 
time. Let me assure the pages who are here and young folks who might be 
listening to this, there is a Federal law that says every company has 
to accept an application from somebody who is looking for a job. There 
is no Federal law that says they have to interview that applicant. If 
you are an employer today and you have 100 applications and 98 have a 
high school diploma and two of them

[[Page 13719]]

don't, I can assure you the two who don't have a high school diploma 
will not be invited back for an interview. They are out of the pool of 
selection because that has become the base minimum for consideration of 
a job that might have any upward mobility. It doesn't mean every child 
has to have a 4-year degree. But it does mean, from a standpoint of the 
business world, business has sort of cut it off and said our threshold 
is a high school diploma. A high percentage of our kids are not 
graduating from high school on time. If I was on the floor talking 
about health care today, we would call this an epidemic and we would 
fix it. No, this is education. This is somebody else's children. I have 
raised mine and educated mine.
  This is the future fabric of America. We can either fix education or 
the rest of the world will clean our clock economically in the future. 
The secret to long-term success is making sure we field a team of 
highly gifted, knowledgeable Americans. If we plan to do that with a 
high of 60 percent of our kids with barely a high school diploma, I 
assure you the rest of the world will see that as an opportunity to 
surpass us and bury us. We have an opportunity to fix it now.
  We talked earlier about No Child Left Behind--the right direction of 
legislation that was severely implemented incorrectly. It could have 
been a real winner if people embraced it, but they didn't. Now, 9 years 
later, 4 years after we were supposed to assess its success, make 
changes, and reauthorize it, we are in the ninth year, struggling to 
put together a reauthorization bill--in large measure because up until 
now everybody wanted to try to create a Washington bill to initiate 
solutions to elementary and secondary education versus a local approach 
that Washington is a partner in that provides flexibility and 
imagination.
  We are going to spend a lot of time between now and the end of the 
year because it is vital we get reauthorization in 2011. I don't think 
we can let another class of students suffer through the lack of 
flexibility in the school systems they live in.
  Senator Kirk talked about the need to expand charter school 
opportunities. I am for it. I cosponsored the bill. But just because 
there has been a private alternative that works, let's also face the 
reality that we are not going to put every child in America in a 
charter school. We might ought to, but we are not. And unless we want 
to say up front that everybody who is not in a charter school is going 
to suffer and they are not going to have the educational foundation 
kids over here have, then we better do both at the same time--provide 
that new avenue of education, which is an expansion of charter school 
opportunities; challenge the private sector, like KIPP stepped up; and 
design a school that works and at the same time look at the public side 
of it and say: What do we need to do as a country?
  I would suggest, when we honestly look at that and we focus on 
outcome versus input, what we will find is we have to empower more of 
the local community. We have to challenge business leaders in that 
community to hold the school system accountable. We have to challenge 
parents to actually look at the performance of their children and to 
hold those principals and administrators and teachers accountable for 
the performance of their kids. We have to make sure a community sees 
the success of education as the ability for that community to grow in 
the future.
  When you go into a community, the worst thing you can hear, as a 
Member of Congress, is that when the kids graduate from high school, 
they never return. They never return because the business opportunities 
aren't there. Usually that is rooted in the fact that K-12 in that 
community doesn't work because wherever you have an educated workforce, 
you have a company looking to make investments.
  I have heard my colleagues say that North Carolina has unfair 
advantages in economic development; that we have 58 community colleges, 
and that gives us something to sell that everybody else doesn't have; 
that we have the mountains and the beach, and that is not something 
everybody has. It is all a good thing to sell, but let me tell you what 
North Carolina really has. Let me tell you why companies around the 
world are investing in North Carolina. It is because we produce the 
second largest pool of graduates of higher education annually than any 
State in the country other than California. When a company invests $1 
billion in North Carolina, they know every year they can reach into the 
graduate pool and have a shot at getting the cream of the crop of those 
students. Why would it be any different for a company looking at 
locating in any community? If they look at a community that has a 
pitiful performance in K-12, why would they ever think of making the 
investment there? They will make the investment where the future 
workforce is available. If they believe the kids graduate and leave and 
never come back, they will look for where those kids moved to and make 
their investment there.
  If we want to keep communities alive, whether they are in Ohio or 
North Carolina, we have to find a way to make K-12 a success in every 
community, big and small, urban and rural, and it starts by legislation 
that empowers those local school systems and, more importantly, shifts 
accountability from Washington and puts it back into the community, 
makes it the responsibility of the officials, the business leaders, 
and, most important, the parents.
  Mr. President, I thank the Chair for accommodating me this morning. I 
noticed the other speaker didn't come in, so I am thrilled I was given 
the extra time.
  I urge my colleagues over the months to come to pay attention to the 
K-12 reauthorization. There are many proposals out there. Not all will 
work, and we are not assured any are certain to succeed. But if you 
look for guidance, talk to the people who are closest to the problem. 
What they are screaming for today is the flexibility to put the money 
where it can have the greatest effect on the outcome of education, and 
that is this legislation.
  I thank the Chair. I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business for up to 20 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________