[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13625]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            SPURRING TEACHER EDUCATION MOVEMENT FOR STEM ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
Mexico (Mr. Pearce) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PEARCE. Mr. Speaker, every country must deal with and answer the 
question: What does it take to be prosperous and to have prosperity for 
future generations?
  There are many answers to that question, but one of the keys is 
science, technology, engineering, and math--the STEM fields--in our 
educational system.
  The United States needs to be able to compete in these fields on a 
global scale, and children of all schools should have the opportunity 
to develop these skills no matter where they live.
  Recently, teachers in the Second District of New Mexico brought up 
the question: What about us? Can we use funds that are set over here in 
the Education Department to develop better skills in the STEM areas?
  Those questions were not answered in a completely positive way--that 
maybe it was not possible. Therefore, the teachers put forward an idea 
that maybe we should just get the flexibility in, a practical 
suggestion for an important concept.
  Teachers and educators in the Second District provided firsthand 
experience and developed the idea into a concept. Several teachers 
formed an ad hoc working group. Brian Claar from White Sands Schools, 
Lindsey Guerrero and Marci Hearn from Gadsden Independent School 
District, Marci Behrens from Las Cruces Public School District, as well 
as Susan Brown, Nicole Delgado, and Christina Abeyta from the New 
Mexico State University STEM Outreach Center, all came together and 
developed that concept into a proposed legislation.
  Working with my staff, they actually got the bill written, and on 
June 25 of this year, I introduced H.R. 4973, titled: Spurring Teacher 
Education Movement for STEM Act, also known as the STEM for STEM Act.
  H.R. 4973 increases flexibility for teacher development funds under 
the Rural and Low Income title of the Elementary and Secondary School 
Act of 1965. It allows the funds to be used for teacher development in 
teaching STEM.
  The STEM for STEM Act also expresses the need for the U.S. to compete 
on a global scale. A teacher should have the high-quality professional 
development opportunities in STEM to increase their content knowledge 
and improve student learning.
  Professional development is essential for providing teachers and 
educators with growth opportunities that then are presented to our 
children.

                              {time}  1115

  Teacher professional development enriches the learning environment 
for students and educators alike. It is important for us to say thank 
you to those teachers who make it possible for America to compete into 
the next generation.
  Hopefully, this bill, H.R. 4973, will provide a small element of help 
for the rural areas that stretch across the Western part of this 
country.

                          ____________________