Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 107th Congress, First Session, Volume 147, Part 7 Page: 8,864
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE
May 22, 2001
Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, if the
gentleman will continue to yield, I
want to thank the gentleman from
Washington (Mr. NETHERCUTT) for
bringing this to my attention and talk-
ing about the importance of distance
learning.
I believe strongly that distance
learning is an important tool for many
local school districts and students. And
for this reason, this legislation places
strong emphasis on distance-learning
programs in the education technology
grant program.
Mr. NETHERCUTT. Mr. Chairman, I
thank the gentleman for his comments.
Mr. Chairman, I visited STEP Star,
which is the distance-learning program
operated by Educational Service Dis-
trict 101 in my own 5th District of
Washington. Their program is very im-
pressive. STEP Star and all Star
Schools programs provide an irreplace-
able education resource to our rural
school districts. STEP Star, which is
partially funded through the Star
Schools program, has made it possible
for students in rural school districts, in
my district and around the country, to
take a variety of classes from a live
teacher, whom they can interact with
and ask questions of.
Outside of the class hour, programs
like STEP Star allow students to talk
with teaching staff. Online resources
provide for instant exchange of elec-
tronic paperwork. Students can com-
municate with teachers and tutors
through e-mail or participate in discus-
sions with fellow classmates through
bulletin boards.
So, once again, I thank the gen-
tleman from Ohio for his support of
distance-learning programs; and I just
ask that as he moves forward with this
legislation, to keep in mind the impor-
tance of ensuring that distance-learn-
ing programs remain affordable to the
most vulnerable students and school
districts, rural, small, and underserved
urban districts.
Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I
thank the gentleman for his comments
and pledge to work with the gentleman
on this and other programs as we get
into the conference.
Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2
minutes to the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. HOLT)-.
Mr. HOLT. Mr. Chairman, I thank
the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. KIL-
DEE) for yielding the time to me, and I
commend him and the distinguished
Members from California and Michi-
gan, as well as the gentleman from
Ohio (Mr. BOEHNER), chairman of the
Committee on Education and the
Workforce, for their sincere effort to
put together a bipartisan bill.
We are looking back now over the
years of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act. Congress has amended,
expanded, streamlined, revised the
ESEA eight times creating programs to
help migrant children, neglected anddelinquent youngsters, limited English
proficient students, and other special
children.
Programs have been launched to en-
hance math and science instruction
and rid the schools of drugs and vio-
lence. Smaller ESEA programs have
been created to advance school deseg-
regation, stimulate educational inno-
vation and achieve other important
purposes.
However, the face of American edu-
cation has changed in many ways over
the past 30 years. One way it is chang_-
ing right now that has been addressed
earlier but cannot be emphasized too
much is that over the next 10 years, we
will need to recruit, train and hire 2.2
million new teachers, 2.2 million, just
to keep up with attrition and retire_-
ment.
Mr. Chairman, I would also say that
success in the information age depends
not just on how well we educate our
children generally, but how well we
educate them in math and science spe-
cifically.
The majority of these new teachers
will be called on to teach math and
science. I am proud to have served on
the National Commission on Mathe-
matics and Science Teaching chaired
by former astronaut and Senator John
Glenn.
The Glenn Commission calls for
major changes in the quality, quantity,
and professional work environment of
our math and science teachers.
Although not on the same scale as in
the bill that the gentlewoman from
Maryland (Mrs. MORELLA) and I pro-
duced from the Glenn Commission, this
bill includes new math and science
partnerships that mirror what we set
out to do in the Glenn Commission. It
is an excellent start on focusing the at-
tention on math and science education.
The gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs.
BIGGERT) and I, also in committee, put
together a bipartisan amendment to
strengthen math and science partner-
ships.
Going farther, one of the main rec-
ommendations of the Glenn Commis-
sion was to establish regional acad-
emies that would recruit talented, mid-
career professional and recent grad-
uates in math and science teaching.
Unfortunately, that recommendation is
not in this bill, and the rule did not
allow that and many other important
areas to come for debate.
Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I yield
2 minutes to the gentleman from Indi-
ana (Mr. SOUDER), a member of the
Committee on Education and the
Workforce.
D 1230
Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Chairman, I want
to make it clear at the beginning of my
remarks that I strongly support our
President. I think he is doing a great
job. I strongly support the gentleman
from Ohio (Mr. BOEHNER), our com-mittee chairman. I think he has done a
great job in a very difficult situation.
But I rise to oppose this education bill,
Goals 2001.
I remember as a kid, I heard Presi-
dent Nixon say we are all Keynesians
now. Right now I kind of feel like what
we are saying is we are all liberals now
in education. The fact is, in this Goals
2001, this current bill, unlike Goals 2000
where we were supposed to have the
States evolve towards a national plan,
we have a national plan.
Unlike the spending in education
under former President Clinton, this
bill spends more. Unlike the education
bills under President Clinton where
there was a proposal to just develop
and look at a national test, this has
national testing; and it has it for 6
years in a row, mandated by a backup
of the Federal Government that, if
one's State test does not meet the na-
tional standards, one can have one's
money jerked.
Furthermore, it will lead to, in my
belief, a national curriculum. There
are more new programs in this bill
than there were under President Clin-
ton. At some point, one says when is it
abipartisantbill and when ish it just
Democrats had proposed in the past?
Now, there are some amendments
here that could change the bill. The
amendment of the gentleman from
Michigan (Mr. HOEKSTRA) would wipe
out the testing and put us back to
where we were under President Clin-
ton. The amendment of the gentleman
from California (Mr. Cox) would have
the spending be only a little bit more
than under President Clinton. The bill
of the gentleman from Texas (Mr.
ARMEY) would take us back to where
we were as Republicans last year on
school choice. The bill of the gen-
tleman from South Carolina (Mr.
DEMINT) would take us, not quite back
to where we were last year, but at least
to the Kennedy position in the Senate.
I know there are not going to be very
many conservatives who are going to
stand up under the pressures that we
are under, and against the polls, and
oppose this bill. I do not know whether
there will be five of us, whether there
will be 10 of us, or whether there are 20
of us; but there are some of us who are
going to say that there are still Repub-
licans who are conservative on the edu-
cation issue, as on other issues.
Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Chairman, I yield
212 minutes to the gentleman from Wis-
consin (Mr. KIND).
Mr. KIND. Mr. Chairman, I thank the
gentleman from Michigan for yielding
me this time.
Mr. Chairman, as a member of the
Committee on Education and the
Workforce, I rise in strong support of
the underlying core bill, H.R. 1, the El-
ementary and Secondary Education
Reauthorization Act.
Let me be clear though, we have a lot
of good schools, a lot of good school8864
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United States. Congress. Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 107th Congress, First Session, Volume 147, Part 7, book, 2001; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc31062/m1/23/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.