Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 106th Congress, First Session, Volume 145, Part 14 Page: 19,415
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August 4, 1999
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE
that it conducts. It would also fund the
creation of new councils and centers in
states without a council or center.
The goals of the bill are to increase
student knowledge of and achievement
in economics; strengthen teachers' un-
derstanding of and ability to teach eco-
nomics; encourage related research and
development, dissemination of instruc-
tional materials, and replication of
best practices and programs; help
States measure the impact of economic
education; ensure a strong presence of
the nationwide network in every State;
and leverage and increase private and
public support for economic education
partnerships at all levels.
Support for economic education is in
the Goals 2000: Educate America Act
which lists economics as a national
core subject area.
My bill encourages the National
Council and state councils and centers
to work with local businesses and pri-
vate industry as much as possible, par-
ticularly in obtaining matching funds.
Mr. President, we need to improve
economic literacy for our children, just
as we need to ensure reading literacy,
writing aptitude, math and science
comprehension, and an understanding
of history and the arts. Economics is a
fundamental, practical building block
that should round out our children's
education. I hope that my colleagues
will join me in cosponsoring the Excel-
lence in Economic Education Act.
For more specific details on the
grants my bill creates, one-fourth of
funds would be provided to the Na-
tional Council, so that the council may
strengthen and expand its nationwide
economic education network, support
and promote teacher training in co-
ordination with current Eisenhower
Professional Development activities,
support related research, and develop
and disseminate appropriate materials.
The remaining funds will be distrib-
uted by the National Council to state
councils or centers, which will work in
partnership with the private sector,
state educational agencies, local edu-
cational agencies, institutions of high-
er education or other organizations
that promote economic development or
educational excellence. With this
money, councils and centers will be
able to fund teacher training programs,
resources to school districts that want
to incorporate economics into cur-
ricula, evaluations of the impact of
economic education on students, re-
lated research, school-based student
activities to promote consumer and
personal finance education and to en-
courage awareness and student
achievement in economics, interstate
and international student and teacher
exchanges, and replication of best prac-
tices to promote economic literacy.
The National Council runs an Inter-
national Economics Exchange Program
which is authorized in the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act. Thisprogram assists with economic edu-
cation in transition countries of the
former Soviet Union, and enjoys broad
support. My bill would boost the do-
mestic component of the National
Council's activities.
In addition, my bill puts increased
emphasis on economics by adding it to
the list of subject areas in Elementary
and Secondary Education Act pro-
grams, such as National Teacher Train-
ing Project, Star Schools, Magnet
Schools, Fund for the Improvement of
Education, and Urban and Rural Edu-
cation Assistance.
We are looking for ways to better
educate our young people on how to
manage their resources, be better
workers, make wise investments, and
prepare for a secure financial future.
My bill provides the flexibility needed
so that this may happen through prac-
tical means and make economics come
alive for students. It is important to
start working on this now. Before we
know it, current eighth graders will
have gone through high school, pos-
sibly college, and entered the work-
force.
One again, I thank Senators COCH-
RAN, INOUYE, MURRAY, and KERREY for
becoming original cosponsors of this
bill, and I urge my colleagues to join us
in cosponsoring the Excellence in Eco-
nomic Education Act.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous con-
sent that a copy of the bill be printed
in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the bill was
ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as
follows:
S. 1487
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep-
resentatives of the United States of America in
Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. EXCELLENCE IN ECONOMIC EDU-
CATION.
(a) AMENDMENT.-Title X of the Elemen-
tary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20
U.S.C. 8001 et seq.) is amended by adding at
the end the following:
"PART L-EXCELLENCE IN ECONOMIC
EDUCATION
"SEC. 10995. SHORT TITLE; FINDINGS.
"(a) SHORT TITLE.-This part may be cited
as the "Excellence in Economic Education
Act of 1999".
"(b) FINDINGS.-Congress makes the fol-
lowing findings:
"(1) The need for economic literacy in the
United States has grown exponentially in
the 1990's as a result of rapid technological
advancements and increasing globalization,
giving individuals in the United States more
numerous and complex economic and finan-
cial choices than ever before as members of
the workforce, managers of their families'
resources, and voting citizens.
"(2) Individuals in the United States lack
essential economic knowledge, as dem-
onstrated in a 1998-1999 test conducted by the
National Council on Economic Education, a
private nonprofit organization. The test re-
sults indicated the following:
"(A) Students and adults alike lack a basic
understanding of core economic concepts
such as scarcity of resources and inflation,
with less than half of those tested dem-onstrating knowledge of those basic con-
cepts.
"(B) A little more than 13 of those tested
realize that society must make choices
about how to use resources.
"(C) Only 13 of those tested understand
that active competition in the marketplace
serves to lower prices and improve product
quality.
"(D) Slightly more than 12 of adults in the
United States and less than 14 of students in
the United States know that a Federal budg-
et deficit is created when the Federal Gov-
ernment's expenditures exceed its revenues
in a year.
"(E) Overall, adults received a grade of 57
percent on the test and secondary school stu-
dents received a grade of 48 percent on the
test.
"(F) Despite those poor results, the test
pointed out that individuals in the United
States realize the need for understanding
basic economic concepts, with 96 percent of
adults tested believing that basic economics
should be taught in secondary school.
"(3) A range of trends points to the need
for individuals in the United States to re-
ceive a practical economics education that
will give the individuals tools to make re-
sponsible choices about their limited finan-
cial resources, choices which face all people
regardless of their financial circumstances.
Examples of the trends are the following:
"(A) The number of personal bankruptcies
in the United States continued to rise and
set new records in the 1990's, despite the
longest peacetime economic expansion in
United States history. One in every 70
United States households filed for bank-
ruptcy in 1998. Rising bankruptcies have an
impact on the cost and availability of con-
sumer credit which in turn negatively affect
overall economic growth.
"(B) Credit card delinquencies in the
United States rose to 1.83 percent in 1998,
which is a percentage not seen since 1992
when the effects of a recession were still
strong.
"(C) The personal savings rate in the
United States over the 5 years ending in 1998
averaged only 4.5 percent. In the first quar-
ter of 1999, the personal savings rate dropped
to negative 0.4 percent. A decline in savings
rates reduces potential investment and eco-
nomic growth.
"(D) By 2030, the number of older persons
in the United States will grow to 70,000,000,
more than twice the number of older persons
in the United States in 1997. The additional
older persons will add significantly to the
population of retirees in the United States
and require a shift in private and public re-
sources to attend to their specific needs. The
needs will have dramatic, long-term eco-
nomic consequences for younger generations
of individuals in the United States workforce
who will need to plan well in order to sup-
port their families and ensure themselves a
secure retirement.
"(4) The third National Education Goal
puts economics forth as 1 of 9 core content
areas in which teaching, learning, and stu-
dents' mastery of basic and advanced skills
must improve.
"(5) The National Council on Economic
Education presents a compelling case for
doing more to meet the need for economic
literacy. While an understanding of econom-
ics is necessary to help the next generation
to think, choose, and function in a changing
global economy, economics has too often
been neglected in schools.
"(6) States' requirements for economic and
personal finance education are insufficient19415
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United States. Congress. Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 106th Congress, First Session, Volume 145, Part 14, book, August 1999; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30912/m1/96/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.