Copyright 1999 Federal News Service, Inc.
Federal News Service
FEBRUARY 23, 1999, TUESDAY
SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING
LENGTH: 10415 words
HEADLINE:
HEARING OF THE SENATE HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR & PENSIONS
COMMITTEE
SUBJECT: STATE'S PERSPECTIVES ON EDUCATION POLICY CHANGES
CHAIRED BY: SENATOR JIM JEFFORDS (R-VT)
WITNESSES:
TOM RIDGE, GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA
JOHN ENGLER, GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN
CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN, GOVERNOR, NEW
JERSEY
SENATOR GEORGE VOINOVICH (R-OH)
430 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE
BUILDING
WASHINGTON, DC
8:30 AM FEBRUARY 23, 1999
BODY:
SEN. JAMES JEFFORDS (R-VT):
The Health Committee will come to order. We're pleased today to have with us
distinguished governors who assist us in looking at the federal role and the
state roles and to see if we can make things a little bit better. I am hopeful
we can. This is the most important piece of educational legislation we have, the
authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. I
know the governors have to be out of here at 9:30 so I'm going to dispense with
any statement I have and I believe Senator DeWine wants to introduce a new
senator who was also, I think, his governor.
SEN. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): Mr.
Chairman, thank you very much. As you know I served as lieutenant governor under
Governor Voinovich for his first term and I just want to welcome him here.
During his two terms as governor, now-Senator Voinovich increased overall school
funding by $2 billion, which was a 50 percent increase, twice the rate of
inflation. And to aid low-wealth school districts without decreasing funding for
other schools in the state, Senator Voinovich also created an equity fund which
directed over $590 million into low- wealth districts. At the same time he
worked to cut state mandates and support local decision making and
accountability in Ohio's schools.
Mr. Chairman, in light of the governors'
time, I would just like to submit my full statement for the record at this point
and again, welcome all of our very distinguished panel.
SEN. JEFFORDS:
Senator Kennedy.
SEN. EDWARD M. KENNEDY (D-MA): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I
apologize for my voice.
I want to welcome the governors. I think the
American people and families want a partnership and they want it to be
successful and families across the country want us to work effectively together
and I think we have the advantage of hearing from governors who are committed in
education and we look forward to listening to them and getting
their insights about how we can be a partner and be more effective for families
and strengthening education all across the nation.
So I
thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd ask that my statement be included in the record.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Senator Voinovich, would you like to introduce the panel?
SEN. GEORGE V. VOINOVICH (R-OH): Yes, Mr. Chairman.
We're very fortunate
to have with us three of my former colleagues, Governor Parris Glendening from
Maryland, Tom Ridge from the state of Pennsylvania, John Engler from Michigan
and Christine Todd Whitman from the state of New Jersey who are going to try and
share with the panel this morning some of their thoughts about the initiatives
that are now before the Senate and the House. Well first of all I'd like to
congratulate you, Mr. Chairman, and Senator DeWine and Senator Kennedy and
Senator Wellstone and all of you for the terrific job that you did last year in
passing the Workforce Development Reform Bill. That was a significant piece of
legislation that we worked on for five years and took you working together in a
bipartisan basis to put that together and for that we've very, very grateful.
I'd ask that my statement be submitted for the record and I'm going to try and
really quickly go through several key points so that the governors can share
with you their thoughts.
Now first of all, I think we ought to make it very
clear that education is clearly a state and local
responsibility, that overall about 7 percent of the spending for
education comes from the federal government and for Congress to
start mandating a lot of things in the area of education is
like the tail wagging the dog. Number two, I agree with Senator Kennedy that
what we ought to do is to try to figure out how we can be the best partners
working together to make sure that the money that we're investing in
education is really making a difference for our children in the
classrooms. Number three, I think before we consider any additional federal
education programs for which money is not available - I mean
there's a lot of people out there that think we have a surplus but we all know
the surplus is in Social Security, and on-budget we're in a deficit, that we
ought to look at all of the education programs that this
country is involved with.
According to the Congressional Research Service
there are 760 federal education programs and according to the
GAO a study was done for the Senate Budget Committee last year at the request of
Senator Frist and I think that chart is here. You've got it in your packet. This
is a chart -- all of the education programs that we have in the
United States of America. This one says 550 and 31 different federal agencies.
It seems to me that if you're talking about reauthorization of the
elementary and secondary education, that it's a good
opportunity to look at all of these programs to see which ones are working and
which ones aren't, get rid of the ones that aren't, put the money in the ones
that are working so that we can really make a difference. Just for example,
early childhood. Labor, health, justice, education, all of them
are involved in early childhood, all over the lot. So, I think that we need to
look at that.
Next, we're talking about if we have additional money for
education, where does it go. And Mr. Chairman, I respectfully
say, probably if you had extra money for education, the best
thing you could possibly do with it is to fund IDEA, the Individual Disabled --
Disabilities Education Act. The federal government hoisted this
program on the states and it's a good program, it's helping a lot of youngsters,
but only came up with 11.7 percent of the money and they were supposed to come
up with 40 percent. And if you had just funded that a little bit more, you would
see all kinds of applause going up all over the United States of America because
this would free up money that school districts are putting in to fund this
program. And let them use that money for other things that are badly needed in
their respective school districts. Another point I would like to make is this.
If we're looking a priorities and where we spend money, Senator Kennedy and I
talked about this before the hearing this morning, is the area that's most
neglected in the United States of America today is zero to three, early
childhood education. We all know. The research is there.
We can really make a difference if we can get the youngsters from the
time of conception through those early years. Those are the most important years
and the governors know that for the last two years we've had this as a real
priority in the Governor's Association.
Rob Reiner has done a fantastic job
of underscoring how important this is and I would sincerely ask you to look at
that as something that your attention should be directed to.
Last but not
least, the President has offered some initiatives as to what ought to be done in
the area of education. I respectfully say that a lot of the
things that come out of the Department of Education are more
appropriate on the state level. And I say this in all respect. They're great for
the Governor of Arkansas, but the President is not the Governor of America. And
I think one of the things that needs to be done is to figure out who's
responsible for what and as Senator Kennedy said, how can we partner up to make
a difference? And I have a lot of faith in these people that are sitting here
today. There are some wonderful things happening today. For example, we're
talking about standards. There's an organization called Achieve (sp) and I won't
get into it.
Maybe Tom or John can talk about Achieve. It's a non-profit
organization that is increasing the standards dramatically, international
standards. I won't take it away from you about that. We have the National Board
of Professional Teaching Standards that Congress is putting a little money in.
We're giving national credit for outstanding teachers. In Ohio, for example, we
rank second to the state of North Carolina. Three hundred teachers that have
become board certified that are outstanding teachers that are back in the
classroom who are mentoring and providing help.
In terms of professional
development, we have the Commission on Education. America's
future that is working in all of our states in changing the way that we train
our teachers from strictly certification to licensure. And instead of throwing
them into a classroom, the worst classroom they can find when they go into the
teaching profession; they put them into a decent classroom; they give them a
mentor that works with them; and they find out whether or not those individuals
who may test good can be good teachers. Working with the unions, the National
Education Association in Ohio, we have peer review. We've had
it since 1982 where teachers can go to another teacher and say, you know what?
You need help. Or the supervisor can come and say, you need help. And we're with
the teachers. They help improve the quality of the individual in the classroom.
And if they don't, they ask them to leave.
What I'm saying is, is there's a
lot of wonderful things happening today in this country. And these people that
are here today are the leaders in that area. And I think whatever that we can do
to work with them as partners, we ought to do.
Thank you.
SEN. JEFFORDS:
Tom Ridge.
GOV. TOM RIDGE: Thank you very much, Chairman Jeffords, Senator
Kennedy, distinguished members of the committee.
Let me first of all say how
pleased and honored I am to return to Washington to be in the company of some of
my former colleagues with whom I served for 12 years in the House of
Representatives. I had the distinct pleasure of working with many of you to
improve America's competitive position, and it's great to come back to talk to
you about something that we all believe is critical to America's success in the
21st century, and that's the quality of public education in our
communities and our states.
When we talk about our global competitiveness in
this fast-paced, knowledge-based economy, we can't help but talk about our kids
and about the kind of education they need in order to excel in
the new economy. We must equip them, not only with the knowledge and skills that
the 21st Century will demand, but with a passion for learning. Because in the
new millennium, education will be the lifeblood of American
society and life-long learning will be an absolute necessity.
I understand
many of you have legitimate questions about the appropriate state role in
developing educational programs to serve our nation's children. And I'd like to
share my views and the approach that Pennsylvania has taken to meet what I
consider to be mutual goals and mutual challenges. I, along with many of my
colleagues, strongly believe that schools work best when the states are afforded
the opportunity to work with committed parents and teachers to develop and
implement educational policies and priorities.
At the local level, school
boards, teachers, parents, and community groups are responsible for local
control over curriculum facilities, and staffing. And I might add, ladies and
gentlemen, the structure, the governing structure, around this country in all 50
states varies. In Pennsylvania, the state government is responsible for
standards and assessment tools, but local governments, the local controlling
entities, 501 school boards, each one duly elected, are responsible for the
curriculum that they use in order to meet those standards.
And
what you're trying -- what we hope is that we'll continue to keep the autonomy
of the 50 states as they promote their approaches to improving the quality of
public education because they have different governing
structures throughout. Because of the nature of the business, school district
personnel are caught up in the day-to-day management of the operations of
schools in Pennsylvania. As I mentioned, with our 501 school districts, we
cherish the notion, we cherish the notion of locally run community public
schools. The school that embraces all that the community finds dear for its
children.
As a state government, we have less responsibility for the
everyday operations of the school, and more responsibility for the broader
concept of statewide innovations to improve the opportunities created by our
educational system. At the state level, our innovations are designed to improve
academic performance, accountability, and results.
Over the last four years,
we in Pennsylvania have charted a very deliberate course with a comprehensive
strategy to ignite a passion for learning in our young people. Our agenda is
aggressive, it's innovative, and I believe it's making a difference. The reason
is that it goes right to the source where education takes
place, not in the capital of Harrisburg, or in the state legislature where
public policy is created, but it goes directly to the classroom. We want to give
all of our children the opportunity for a quality education.
First, our children, their education in our public schools
continue to be the number one investment priority of our taxpayers.
Pennsylvanians spend over $14 billion a year on public
education, nearly $6 billion in state dollars alone. And in our
new budget, we will increase the funds available to our public schools by nearly
a quarter-of-a-billion dollars this year. But in Pennsylvania, we've proven that
the color of innovation isn't always green. Tax payers and parents want to know
what kind of value they are getting for those $14 billion tax dollars, and
that's why we've undertaken a broad range of school reforms that demand greater
accountability, personal responsibility, and performance. We have established
rigorous academic standards at grades 3, 5, 8 and 11, in reading, writing, and
math, with science soon to follow. These standards will help ensure that our
students get the basic skills they will need to succeed. As a matter of fact,
you could put it on poster, we put them on posters, you can give them to
parents, you can put it up on the refrigerator door. You can see what the
children are supposed to learn, what the teachers are supposed to teach, and
what the schools are supposed to provide. One great way to get everybody
involved in the accountability of this system.
To get a clear picture on how
they stack up, we measure student in-school progress with state assessments
aligned with our standards as well. We've invested over $130 million over the
last three years to give our kids the latest technology in the classrooms. Our
link to learn classroom technology program was recognized by the Progress in
Freedom Foundation here in Washington, as the national best practice for the
effective use of computer technologies to improve learning in our schools. For
example, with leadership at the local level, and I underscore local, and by
leveraging state support with private support, and by working with other school
districts and institutions of higher education throughout
Pennsylvania, a former very isolated rural school district in central PA is now
able to learn from experts anywhere in the world. We've linked them to the world
to learn.
The traditional notion of learning in a classroom has
changed forever in that school district, and I suggest that's the goal for all
of us, having changing the traditional notion of learning in every school, in
every school district in America. Pennsylvania helped to make it possible one
teacher and her neighbors made it happen. And in Pennsylvania, we're using
technology so parents and teachers and taxpayers can see just how well their
schools are doing. Comprehensive school profiles on more than 3100 public
schools are available in CD-ROM and over the Internet. Now, news that parents
need is just a mouse click away. Information on teaching staff, class size, and
even how many computers a school has. The talk in Washington involves report
cards on schools. We hand out annual report cards, 3100 report cards every year,
on every school. You can just surf the Internet and find out about teacher
attendance, schools, assessments that we've rendered, advanced placement
programs, absenteeism, and the list goes on and on.
So, we've taken that
challenge that you've thrown to the states, and I believe a lot of my colleagues
have report cards as well. Just as we've raised the bar for Pennsylvania
students, our teachers for the 21st century initiative will ensure the best and
the brightest are teaching in Pennsylvania's classrooms. An ambitious effort
that I believe will make Pennsylvania a national leader in educational
excellence. This initiative will require future teachers in Pennsylvania to take
the same content area requirements as their peers in liberal arts
disciplines. That means that a future math teacher must take
the same courses as the math major.
We will also require that they keep a
3.0 grade point average, not just in their area of specialty, but in all of
their courses to be eligible to teach. And to ensure that teachers in our
classrooms now are the very best they can be, we propose requiring 270 hours of
continuing professional development every five years. Pennsylvanians demand a
lot for their teachers, but we've also given them unprecedented support. Our
Department of Education has distributed more than 50,000
classroom resource kits, unique kits and CD-ROMs designed by our teachers, for
our teachers, to help our kids meet these new academic standards.
And like
never before, we offer professional development to teachers to enrich their
skills as well. We launched the first ever Governors Academy for Urban
Education, and the Governors' Institutes for Educators, two
programs that provide state of the art training for our teachers. As members of
this committee can see, we set high expectations for our children, our teachers,
and our schools, but we also reward them when they achieve results. Our
performance incentive grants challenge individual schools, teachers and students
to compete against themselves to improve on their own performance.
Last year
nearly a thousand schools had made the greatest gains in academic achievement
and attendance, shared almost 10 million in performance grants and this year the
budget's going to be closer to 18 million. Incentivizing performance, praising
accomplishment seems to be a great way to go about reaching some of the goals
that we identify and that we share.
These dollars go directly to the schools
for them to decide how to invest. Last fall at a York County high school a
rather interesting celebration occurred at a central Pennsylvania high school.
Students, teachers, administrators, parents and the community gathered together
to celebrate. There were streamers, posters, and cheers. It looked like a rally
for a job well done. But it wasn't a pep rally for the schools football team or
basketball team. It was a chance to celebrate academic excellence. The school
received the performance incentive award from the state for outstanding academic
achievement. The student's performance in the Pennsylvania school assessment was
much higher than the previous year. It was interesting, the chant, the
spontaneous chant at the rally, lets do it again next year.
It was made
possible by the state and our school performance incentive initiative, but it
happened because of what takes place everyday in the classrooms and high schools
empowering parents to play a stronger role in their children's
education is another key element of our reforms. All of us
believe that parents, not government, know what is best for their children.
That's why we created charter public schools. We received tremendous support
from members of this committee on both sides of the aisle for that concept, so
committed parents and teachers and community leaders can custom design their own
public school and engage the entire community.
Today nearly 6,000
Pennsylvania students attend 31 charter schools. And with the help of our
charter school planning grants, scores more on the drawing board. Obviously we
think that, in Pennsylvania, well that's some matter of controversy in this
town, I don't believe that education reform will be complete
until there is complete choice. Not only public school choice, but choice
outside the public school arena because I think we ought to set up a system of
options where parents and communities and teachers and children can pursue
excellence wherever they find it. And that their pursuit of academic excellence
takes them out of the public school arena into another educational institution,
I believe we ought to encourage that.
Finally because I know that
we have my colleagues that have great observations and wonderful innovations to
talk about, I'm going to conclude my remarks by simply encouraging the members
of this committee and Senator Kennedy and Senator Jeffords just briefly talked
about it before the formal testimony.
As we enter the 21st century, the word
partnership has been used many times by members on both sides of the aisle. I
think it's a wonderful word. I think its time for us to say as we enter the 21st
century, should the relationship between the levels of government, the school
districts, the states and the federal government, should we change it. We share
mutual goals. Our objectives are the same, teacher competency, higher standards,
academic excellence. So our goals are the same. We have three basic
participants, but historically we know and in the future we know that it will be
the state and the local governments that are responsible for the innovation and
reform.
So as we proceed to deal with Ed-Flex, the reauthorization of
elementary, secondary ed, which think of the new relationship in the 21st
century that maximizes the creative ability that the states and local
governments have demonstrated by the line the federal resources, because you
have to hold us accountable. It is federal money. Align those resources in such
a way that they're compatible with reforms and initiatives that have been
undertaken as all of us pursue the same academic goals and the same goals for
our kids. Better schools, better teachers, higher standards as we really accept
the challenge of the 21st century and a knowledge based economy.
So I thank
you for the opportunity to share these thoughts with you and do ask unanimous
consent that my entire statement be included as part of the record.
SEN.
JEFFORDS: Thank you, governor.
Governor Whitman.
GOV. CHRISTINE TODD
WHITMAN, (R-NJ): Thank you very much, Chairman Jeffords and to members of the
committee
Good morning, I'm delighted to have the opportunity to be with you
here today.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Would you pull the mike just a bit closer,
please?
GOV. WHITMAN: New Jersey has a significant investment in
education. In fact there's no other state in the nation that
spends as much on per student average as my state does. But we've seen that
money alone is not the answer. In fact my predecessor put in a billion dollars
in money, state funds for education, the bulk of it into one of
our largest cities. Not only didn't work, did we not see improvement in those
school districts, but in fact we actually had to take over that entire district
when I came into office. Without experiences background, just to sort of set the
frame of reference, I welcome this opportunity to tell you about New Jersey
schools and our reform effort where we're making headway and what kind of
progress we see for the future.
Like many states, New Jersey was under a
long-standing Supreme Court order to increase our funding to the poorest
districts when I took office. For nearly three decades, our answer to the court
was to pour more money in to those districts without any real sense or method of
accountability.
There was no connection between the quantity of the
dollars going in and the quality of education that those
children were getting. I firmly believe that you have to have accountability at
all levels if you expect to achieve better results.
Accountability means
making sure that every dollar you spend is a dollar that is not a dollar wasted.
How do you do that? You set high standards, you create a reliable way to measure
progress towards those standards and spend money in ways that helps fulfill
those standards. We've done just that. We've done just that. We've developed
rigorous core curriculum standards in seven academic areas, including math,
science and history. The standards are not only a definition of a
constitutionally mandated thorough and efficient education, but
they're the only standards and the only method of achieving that constitutional
requirement ever agreed on by the three branches of government in my state.
To make sure our students reach the standards we rewrote our statewide
tests. These tests now are much tougher than before because they measure
progress toward the new standards in those, every one of those seven areas. And
we're adding a new 4th grade test to our 8th and eleventh grade tests to make
sure we capture students early on. These tests impose accountability on the
school districts and on the students. And while the 4th and the 8th grade tests
are considered early warning tests for student progress and we use them that
way, you won't get a diploma if you don't pass the eleventh grade test. What's
more, we will continue our practice in the state of New Jersey of accrediting
only those school districts where 85 percent of the students pass the test.
Once we fix the standards and rewrote the test, we redesigned the New Jersey
school funding formulate. We calculated how much it would cost to teach the
standards and for the first time allotted state aid based on those standards.
Now, we have new standards, new tests and a new funding formula. But that's not
enough. We recognized that for many of our urban school districts reform means
complete restructuring. So, we've developed a plan to provide ample resources to
our urban schools, but on the condition that they implement top to bottom
education on fiscal whole school reform.
At the same time,
we're initiating a plan that will ultimately offer full day early childhood
education for every 3 (year old) and 4 year old in these
districts. With these changes in place we've made history in my state. Our plan
was the first accepted by the state Supreme Court to satisfy our constitution
and it's ended a 28-year court battle over school funding.
Member of the
committee, I'm proud of the changes that we've made in the state of New Jersey
on our curriculum and areas such as that. But like many states we're improving
our schools in a number of different ways and I'd like to just touch briefly on
them. State government is investing $50 million each year to help wire every
single classroom to the Internet by the year 2001. And we're training our
teachers to use technology as they teach to the new standards. We're also
increasing professional standards for our teachers. We now require, for example,
that each teacher earn at least 100 hours of professional development tied to
our core curriculum standards every five years. And I propose that we require
all teacher candidates finish college with at least a B average.
We're
giving parents and communities more information about our schools. Like most
states and you heard it from Governor Ridge, we publish a school report card to
describe the programs and performance of each school. Each year, we report on
each schools result on the state tests, how they compete compared to the
previous year's scores, the state average and to other school districts. There
is also information on graduation rates, drop out rates, SAT scores, teacher
qualifications, and how much of each day is spent in the classroom in that
particular school. We encourage districts to disseminate the information as
broadly as possible. And we, too, put it up on the Internet to make it available
to the maximum number of people.
We also publish an annual
comparative-spending guide that details each districts spending practices. We're
also promoting innovation in excellence. I signed a bill establishing charter
schools in our state and we have 30 of them up and running with no failures or
closing and another two expected to open this coming fall. We're working on
public school choice legislation that will encourage healthy competition. We're
also making schools safer. We've made it easier for schools to identify
potentially violent students and to remove students who repeatedly disrupt
learning. And we've created a network of alternative schools top give individual
attention and high quality education to those disruptive
students. And we're seeing results from our investment.
Since 1994, the SAT
mean scores have gone up by 11 points for the student population as a whole.
More notably, scores among African- American students have improved 20 points
and Hispanic students by 22 points. That's an encouraging sign. Our children
deserve a world- class education. Every Governor in every state
believe that and works hard to reach that goal. Of course, every state has it's
own characteristics, it's own political landscape, it's own economic and
cultural climate. And our school reform policies reflect those differences.
I'm proud of the progress that we've made in New Jersey. That
progress isn't as much or as fast as any of us would like. We always want to do
more and better, but we're headed in the right direction. I welcome the federal
government's partnership in helping us improve our schools even more. Give us
more flexibility so that federal programs and dollars compliment and integrate
with our state reforms. Recognize that states have primary responsibility for
education and this authority should not be bypassed or
overridden and it's in our constitutions. We are the constitutionally authorized
body with the responsibility for delivering education. The New
Jersey Supreme Court in its 1998 decision on school funding firmly established
the state's responsibility for education.
While I concur
with the notion of getting more dollars into the classroom for instruction, it
must be done in the context of state oversight and leadership to ensure that
these dollars aren't working at cross purposes with or educational priorities.
As I've mentioned implementing whole school reform is one of our top priorities
and we need to direct our resources there. It's important to note that also that
whole school reform requires the integration of the funding streams, all funding
streams federal, state, local and private in order to effect fundamental change.
Providing flexibility in federal aid programs will move us away from the current
compartmentalized approach, which doesn't support more coherent strategies.
I also believe we should recognize the importance of state authority to
implement statewide activities that benefit all students. As an example, we
decided to use some of our Goals 2000 money to set up county based Technology
Training Centers to increase the use of technology in the classroom. By setting
up 21 county centers, we can reach more teachers, more effectively than if this
training money had been divided up among our 611 school districts. There's no
question, but we are now reaching teachers and giving them the skills they need
to provide the education we require.
I look forward to
working with you on the reauthorization of elementary and secondary
education programs, and I urge us all to work together to
improve education for all our students, to give them a better
future.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Thank you.
Governor Glendening.
GOV. PARRIS GLENDENING: Mr. Chairman, thank you
very much, and members of the committee, I'm very pleased to be here and have
this opportunity to testify on how Maryland is equipping our children for the
21st century. I'm sorry that Senator Mikulski could not be with us today. She
and senior Senator Paul Sarbanes do a wonderful job for the children of the
state of Maryland, have been so very, very supportive. We understand clearly, as
do my colleagues here at this table and the colleagues in the Governors
Association that's meeting here in Washington now, that the jobs of today and
the jobs of tomorrow are clearly increasingly knowledge based jobs, an the skill
requirements are immense. And a strong back and a good work ethic increasingly
will not guarantee employment sufficient to support a family in the future.
I told a story just the other day that was misinterpreted in one of the
newspapers, and I'm sure no one here could contemplate the fact that the press
might get something wrong.
But I told the story about 50 years ago, we
had signs in this state that clearly said whites only, no Irish, no Polish, no
women, whatever it might have been. Fortunately, we've moved away from that
time. But I believe in the future that a person does not have an
education, a quality education, and is not
prepared to go on to college and get degrees and advanced degrees, they will be
turned away from the economic opportunity of this country, just as assuredly as
if those signs were up. And all we have to do is look in the want ads and to
recognize what's going on in our companies and our employment centers, and to
know that without that quality education, people simply do not
have access to those jobs.
I know this, and that's one of the reasons --
Maryland, not only education priority state, but it is the
priority for the entire state. Just like our colleagues here, we have made a
variety of a very significant investments. I'm pleased that just as an example,
we've added over half a billion dollars direct operating costs into the
classrooms in the last four years, that brings us, in fact, to the $7.7 billion
general operation fund, that brings us to 2.6 billion (dollars) just going into
the classrooms. A significant investment. The same with our $53 million
technology for our schools and the training programs similar to what my
colleagues are doing here.
We're in the process of a massive school
construction program, modernizing schools throughout the state and adding
additional classrooms to reduce class size. We did over 6000 classrooms in the
last four years, and have another 7500 coming this four years, at a state
contribution of a little over $1 billion. We're establishing a Hope Scholarship
type program for young people to get our best and brightest to go into teaching,
and to teach in Maryland. We're supportive of the National Board Certification
Program, and have put money up to help make that work.
Now, all of these, as
we know, are funding issues. But it's not just an issue of funding, it is about
the quality of what takes place in the classroom. We have established the
principle that nothing short of world class excellence will do for our schools,
for our students. We're focusing on adding qualified teachers, we've
strengthened our discipline policies so that teachers have the
authority to remove disruptive students. We intervene as a state when schools
fail to achieve their mission of excellence, and we encourage and promote
parental involvement. We establish, as other states do, a report card, in
effect, it becomes a great day of anticipation, maybe even dread for some local
administrators, but it holds people accountable.
The foundation of
Maryland's success is our long-standing system of high standards and
accountability. We have set rigorous standards, we provide the tools that are
needed for that success, we regularly assess both the student performance and
the school performance, and we hold schools accountable for that performance,
including a system of state intervention for those schools that are not
performing. We have established, as have some of our colleagues here, a system
of carrot and stick, I suppose is the best way to say it, for those states that
are meeting our goals, actually with those schools meeting our goals, we provide
rewards including financial rewards. We have our Blue Ribbon Schools, in which
we literally give additional finances to reuse any way a school based committee
wishes to use to further improve quality for those schools that are exceeding
the established goals. For those schools that do not, we intervene.
It is no
coincidence that President Clinton and Vice President Gore and Secretary of
Education Riley have all these (acknowledged?) schools
repeatedly in the last two years, and promote the concept of high standards and
accountability for schools across the nation using Maryland as an example.
Maryland's experience makes it clear that if you set high standards for
achievement, and hold students, teachers and schools accountable to those
standards, you will see improvement.
I have served as governor of Maryland
for just over four years, every year the State Student Performance Report Card
has improved, attendance has increased, the drop-out rate has decreased, and
students are learning and performing at higher levels, both in the basic skills
and in the higher analytical skills. We have established very rigorous tests,
not just saying where are students today, and how are they testing on that, but
where do we want students to be.
In 1993, only 31 percent of our students
tested at the satisfactory level on these very rigorous tests. In 1998, that
number had increased in 44 percent, a 13 percent improvement in just five years.
We understand 44 percent is still unacceptable, no matter how rigorous those
tests are, but it is clear that we are making very significant progress. I would
emphasis that Maryland does not make this progress alone, our success would not
have been possible without the strong, consistent support that we have received
from the federal government.
The Elementary and Secondary School Act is a
critical element of that support, it allows us to better serve our children who
live in poverty, children with disabilities, children with whom
English is a second language, and all of the children through improved
professional development for our teachers. We have, I think in what's in the
truest word, a sense of partnership, a federal, state and local partnership. The
federal government is providing much needed resources to the state, and helps by
insisting that we continue to raise the bar. I support the President's call for
higher standards, high standards for raising the bar and for demanding
excellence in our schools. I believe that if we set those standards and cause
the states to stretch to try to reach them, but leave the flexibility with those
states on how to achieve all of those goals and standards. The state is part of
that partnership by providing the resources and holding localities accountable
and the local governments are where the action is, in terms of how to best meet
those standards. Obviously, we agree; the federal funding and goal setting,
combined with rigorous state standards can in fact make a tremendous difference.
Let me conclude with a quick story. There's a school not far from here, in
fact, only about a half an hour from here, Oakview (sp) Elementary, in
Montgomery County. I was there last year visiting a 3rd grade, and reading to
the class, and afterwards went into the lunchroom and sit there with the 3rd
graders and had lunch. Starting talking them and they told me first of all, that
the pizza was terrible, which it was. And then, I asked this young man, a young
African-American student setting right across from me, I said, where do you go
from here? And, I was just interested in what middle school he went to, and all
of a sudden his face just lit up and his eyes started shining and he said I'm
going to the University of Wisconsin and study marine biology. And I looked at
him and I said no, I mean where do you go to middle school and he says, oh, I
don't know but I'm going to the University of Wisconsin to study marine biology.
And I say this because what we really ought to have is every student in every
school in every community in this country have that same sense of excitement
about their future. Working together and if we get over some semantics about
who's controlling what we can do that.
That's our future, I believe, as we
go into the 21st century.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Thank you very much.
Governor
Engler, I've enjoyed working with you on the Goals panel so I appreciate your
being here and look forward to your comments.
GOV. JOHN ENGLER: Thank you
very much, Mr. Chairman, Senator Kennedy and distinguished members of the
committee, I'm delighted to be here this morning. Thank you for inviting me and
my colleagues and it's a delight to see our former colleague, Senator Voinovich
with us this morning to testify and to discuss education reform
from the governors' perspective. It really is from the state perspective.
Next school year in Michigan our combined state and local investment in the
K-12 public education system will be $12.5 billion and Michigan
like her sister states is very proud of our successes but we are anxious to do
more. And that's why I'm so pleased that we're having this chance to talk with
you at this important point this morning. In addition to that $12.5 billion of
state and local funding, Michigan will receive $947 million in federal K-12
dollars. This means federal dollars account for approximately 7 percent of our
total education spending. Unfortunately when states like
Michigan finish their work with the 39 federal agencies, boards and commissions,
which administer the more than 760 education programs and
Senator Voinovich's chart had 550, there is some, I'm not sure we know the exact
number; there's a lot of them. But the bottom line we find that too few students
are being helped and too many dollars paying for bureaucracy, micro- management
and red tape. This year from the Congress's reauthorization of Elementary and
Secondary Education Act I, and my fellow governors, recommend
that you do for education commend that you do for
education what the 104th Congress did for Welfare when they
reformed Welfare and empowered the states.
Your courage in 1996 ended
dependency for millions of families across America by moving them from Welfare
to work. Now in 1999 you have a great opportunity to improve
education and help children across America.
I hardly need
to tell you that this act just doesn't go to educate our children, but to feed
bureaucracies. With ESEA bureaucracies that would be necessary to track the more
than 60 separate programs that are part of this Act. Sometimes I think the
simplest solution may be the best solution. I implore you to allow policy to be
set and dollars spent at the state level. In his State of the Union Address,
President Clinton challenged the states to turn around our worst performing
schools or shut them down. The governors accept the President's challenge. This
morning we ask you to help us.
Specifically, here's how you could help.
Block grant federal funds to the states and hold us accountable. We've all
talked about that in one way or another this morning. Let's consolidate the 60
programs of the ESEA, shrink the bureaucracy, cut the waste, invest more in
children and put the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of America's
governors. Washington, maybe even this room, is full of people and
organizations, which lobby for one or two or more of these programs. But as an
elected governor I'm here to lobby for the children of my state and let me
suggest that simply block granting dollars to the local schools, bypassing the
states, is not an effective strategy. In fact, I don't think it's a strategy at
all. If that were to be the decision I'd even go so far as to suggest that if
Washington wants to do that then get the states right out of the middle and have
every school district in the country just report directly to a federal
bureaucrat.
Absent a comprehensive block grant strategy, I would be open to
the creation of a Super Ed-Flex option. I commend the Congress on the early work
in this session already on extending Ed-Flex to the nation states, all of the
states. We are one state that already has the waiver but many of our sister
states are eager to see passage of the legislation, which will soon be before
you in the Senate. The Super Ed-flex option, this is a fall back option, but
would allow the states to bargain for their freedom in exchange for guaranteeing
results. Many Governors feel so strongly that bureaucracy is a big part of the
problem that we can not imagine being unable to improve
education with greater funding flexibility. Then, finally, if
nothing changes, if 60 programs remain under ESEA, Washington insists on keeping
control, at a minimum, I think, we should reform Title 1 by making it a portable
entitlement. Now, this would allow for the dollars to follow a child to school,
regardless of where the child goes to school. Senator (sic) Ridge talked about
some of the impressive things being done in Pennsylvania to open up options and
all us at the state level governor witness charter schools. Michigan, today,
more than a 130 charter schools, probably 200 waiting for authorization and
frankly, looking for facilities, we will meet the President's goal of 3000
charter schools. That will happen. But when that child goes to that school or to
a non-traditional school, the Title 1 dollars ought to be strapped to their back
and follow that child to school, so they can help meet the need. My goal is to
make sure that every child has access to a quality education.
In closing, as Congress looks at American education, I hope
that you will notice that the states, which are leading the way in
education reform are the ones, which set high academic
standards, use rigorous assessment tools and as the President reminds us, target
the worst performing schools. Mr. Chairman and members, as I conclude, I note on
our desk here today an interesting and I think very effective report and
highlights of that report from the Fordham Foundation. It actually echoes some
of the things I've said, but the point it makes and the point I believe
passionately is that one size fits all programs, too often, just don't fit
anyone. Give us the flexibility, we'll get the results. We are doing it with
welfare, we will do it with education.
Thank you very much
for your time.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Thank you all.
I'm going to make a comment
and let each of the members of the Senate here make a comment because I promised
to get you out of here at 9:30 and I intend to do that. I would just like to say
that we are going to thoroughly review the federal role in
education with the emphasis on the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act.
I'd also point out that it's been 15 years
since we had the warning of nation at risk and no measurable improvement has
shown up anywhere, so we all have to take some responsibility for it. I don't
think it's just the federal government's inability to do things. Evaluation, I
just came from a conference with the Carnegie Foundation, where I can't find
anything that's getting evaluated in this country. High tech, we've got a lot of
technology programs and I asked the technology people, do they have any
evaluations and they all admitted, no, we really don't, but we think they work.
We are in bad shape, but you and other governors and you are responsible and
the states do have the primary responsibility so I want to work with you all.
But I can say right now, we just got the Goals Panel Report a while back and
they're been shown no measurable improvement and that wasn't so bad. But it
indicated that data we were using was 1994 data, which means, we don't even have
a system right now that can tell us whether we improved last year. We have a lot
to do and so I look forward to working with you. You are the ones that have the
primary responsibility. I understand that.
Senator Kennedy.
SEN.
KENNEDY: Well, thank you, and Senator Mikulski regrets that she couldn't be
here. She wanted to extend it. But I guess we won't really have much time.
As you know, the federal funds are targeted primarily to poor students. As a
general average you spend 63 cents more for poor students than you do for
regular students. The federal government is $4.75 more for poor students,
undeserved students. So when we're talking about the accountability, we'll be
interested in how -- if there's going to be more flexibility, how you would
adjust to that particular kind of concern where our resources our limited. We
have a very limited role, but we have tried to target scarce resources in areas
of important need. And that's the needy of students, so I know we won't have the
chance to do that here, but if you had some ideas about how that can be done,
maybe you'd let us know.
Thank the Chair.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Senator Gregg.
SEN. JUDD GREGG (R-NH): Thank you and I thank the governors for their
excellent presentations and agree with almost, I think, everything that was
said. I especially am interested in two areas. First, I feel and as with Senator
Jeffords that IDA must be receive greater funding. I think that that's the
easiest way to send dollars back to the school districts or send free up dollars
to the local school districts to do what they want to do as versus the federal
government creating new programs that should fund the programs that are on the
books and IDA is clearly the biggest unfunded mandate that we put on the school
districts.
But the second technical or not technical, but creative idea that
I'm very interested in is his idea of making Title I portable and detaching the
dollars to the child. And I do intend to introduce legislation to accomplish
that as we move forward with the reauthorization of ESEA. And I'm interested in
Governor Engler's support for that idea. I'd be interested in it where any other
Governors have given any reflection on this. I think the major structural issue
that it raises with states, which fund their children both through property
taxes and state taxes. Because once you make it portabla child moves to another
school district, it puts pressure on the good school districts because they pick
up all the children who want to move there. And ESEA's Title I dollars aren't
going to be all that much compared to what that child may cost that school
district. And if the funds aren't coming out of the state government totally,
then you don't have -- and the property tax have to pick it up, you have maybe a
disproportionate impact on school districts within the state, starts with the
good districts because they end up with the kids.
So I'd be interested in
any comments you might have on this portability of making Title I portable and
getting it out of the regulator atmosphere it's in now.
SEN. JEFFORDS:
Senator Wellstone.
SEN. PAUL WELLSTONE (D-MN): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm going to be very brief too because I know that the Senators want to
speak.
I think I only have two points to make. First of all, Governor
Senator Voinovich, I appreciate your focus on pre-K and I would have to tell you
that I do believe that it worries me with all the emphasis on testing and
accountability and if you don't make an eleventh grade test, you know you don't
graduate. This isn't going to work, if we don't make sure these kids have a
chance to do that and that starts with early childhood development and we're not
doing what we should be doing at the federal level. We're a real player here in
getting resources back to the states who then can make this happen. I love what
Governor Whitman said, I was thinking to myself, it's almost pre- three year old
though in terms of what the literature was showing.
My second point, which
builds on what Senator Kennedy said and I think this is just an honest
disagreement, maybe there's more agreement than disagreement is I see the Title
I Program as being critically important along with ideas. I don't think we have
as Senator Gregg followed up on the commitment of resources that we should make.
But we did it for a reason, which was you know didn't see the commitment to poor
children around the country. We felt that we really needed to concentrate -- we
needed to have a concentrated focus here. And what I'm hearing in Minnesota is
that it's become a horrible zero some game. We don't have near the funds. We do
some great work, but if these kids are really going to have a chance to make it,
then there ought to be more funding for Title I and I do believe that I'm not
willing to see straight block grant. I'm not willing to go straight
Ed-Flexibility without some kind of an amendment or some kind of a reproach that
will require some accountability. I think you all are for accountability. In
other words, yes, to the flexibility, but also there has to be some
accountability. And I believe we've got to insist on that. It can't be just
straight blank check, block grant without at least that.
It sounds like
we're in agreement, Governor, from the nod of your head.
SEN. JEFFORDS:
Senator Huchinson.
SEN. TIM HUTCHINSON (R-AR): Well, I thank you, Mr.
Chairman. And I appreciate our Governors testimony and it is clear that the
innovation, the creativity, the experimentation, the good things that are
happening in education today, I believe are happening at the
state level. And that we need to provide you the flexibility that each one of
you asks for. And I was interested in reading your testimony that there was a
common theme of frustration with federal bureaucracy and the requirement of
state bureaucracy to really implement the requirements coming down from the
federal government.
I was also interested, we heard the different figures,
760 programs, 500 so many programs from the Federal Education
Department. When Congressman Hoekstra in his oversight capacity of a House Sight
ask the Department of Education for a listing of the
education programs at the federal level, they were unable to
comply with his request. They simply didn't know, didn't even know what kind of
programs that we had created at the federal level. In his crossroads oversight
hearings around the country, there was the common theme that there's too little
federal funds with too much federal bureaucracy and too many federal mandates.
Governor Engler, I appreciated your testimony and we worked very closely on
the welfare reform. And you made that analogy that I have frequently made that
when we went through welfare reform, the cry of the governors was give us the
flexibility and we'll do the reforms, and there was the (human?) cry that there
wasn't going to be sufficient accountability that we had to, for accountability,
not provide the states the flexibility they were asking for. But we did, and it
has worked magnificently across the country improving the lives of millions who
were living lives of dependency. And I hope that we'll take the step that you
recommended. And I've got the Dollars to the Classroom Bill. It's not
necessarily the perfect one. But where we would consolidate, make the programs
fundable, give the states the flexibility, only requiring that 95 percent of the
funds actually get into classroom activities. I think that's the step we need to
take. I'm interested in Ed-Flex (sp), your Super Ed-Flex, the portable
entitlement on Title I.
But ultimately, what we need to do is to move away
from the trend of nationalizing education and be sure that
we're providing the states the opportunity to do the job, and I look forward to
working with you in that task.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Senator Murray.
SEN. PATTY
MURRAY (D-WA): Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the governors. It was
very instructive listening to your take on what's happening in your different
states and what you're doing. What's interesting is as we talk about
education, it seems pretty clear to me that whether you're a
local school board member, or a state governor, or here in the federal
government, Democrat, or Republican, we all have the same goal, which is to make
sure that the kids in our states and in our communities get the best
education possible.
And I think as long as we keep that
goal in mind and look at our different responsibilities, and try to get there
together, I think there's a lot of good things out there. I've been a school
board member; I have been there saying that federal bureaucracy is awful. I've
been a state senator; I know how we have challenges at the state level. And of
course, I've sat here. We all have different roles, and part of the federal role
that is so critical is to make sure that none of those kids at the bottom fall
through the cracks. And I've been there for those political decisions that the
school board -- and they're just as political as here, if not more -- and been
at the state, and know there's political decisions, and sometimes it's a
transportation bill or a crime bill, or you've got to build a new stadium, and
there's always challenges to your budget. And I hope that we remember that part
of the federal role is as those local schools have tough challenges and
different decisions to make, and states have different decisions to make, we're
the backup here to make sure that that one kid doesn't fall through the cracks.
I happened to be at a meeting last week in my state. I pulled together some
kids who had dropped out of school to talk to them about what had happened in
their lives, and met a young man who did fall through all of the cracks. And I
have a great state, and we fund education as our paramount
duty. He came from a good school district, but he did fall through all of the
cracks. It was a federal School-to- Work Program that picked that kid up off the
street and got him back into a program where he's now being successful.
So,
we have to remember that each of us have a responsibility, and we can't let
those federal dollars just say, we don't want you involved anymore. We have to
be involved. We have to be involved together. And I look forward to working with
everyone at every level to make sure we keep those kids going.
SEN.
JEFFORDS: Senator Reed.
SEN. JACK REED (D-RI): Thank you very much, Mr.
Chairman. Thank you governors your excellent testimony. We all understand the
critical role you play in forming educational policy in the United States. And
we're at the happy moment this morning; we're at a level of generality where we
all tend to agree. We --
(Laughter.)
We all want flexibility; we all
want accountability; we all are angry at those bureaucrats, whether at the
federal level or the state level. Let me suggest over the next several months as
we get into more of the details, we might not be in such agreement. But I think
what is a good note here is that we do understand that
education is the most critical issue that we're facing in the
United States. We do understand that it's a mutual goal of all of us at the
federal level, state level, the local levels to make sure we get it right. And I
think that will be very helpful as we proceed forward. And I think we can learn
from you, and I think, perhaps, we might point out ways in which the states can
be more accountable; the states can be more flexible in terms of some of the
rules that you have. But I think the goal is really working together to make
sure we get this thing done right because, ultimately, it's about our future and
about the children of this country.
And thank you.
SEN. JEFFORDS:
Senator Sessions.
SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R-AL): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I
guess -- I've taught and my wife has taught. We care about
education, been involved in PTA, and really believe that it is
important for our future.
Governor Whitman, it's good to see you. My
staff member, Jim Hearny (sp), just tells me he and you gave the commencement
address at Wheaton College together. He was student president of the senior
class when you appeared there.
But -- the plug. --
(Laughter.)
Yes,
sir.
Good. Yeah, I'm glad you were there. Let me just say this when we had
the debate last year on Slade Gorton's bill that would have empowered, sent more
money back to the states for less control and it passed, some of us were
surprised, 51, 49. One of those in opposition to it made a big speech and said,
well, we've ended programs that have been place for 30 years. Do you know what
we've just done? These superintendents of schools, they may spend this money on
swimming pools. And Slade Gordon made one of the remarkable responses to that. I
thought it was so eloquent. He said, why is it that we in this body think we
care more about the children in our school systems than the people. The same
people who elected us elected the school superintendents and governors to run
our education program. And why should we think we can run it
better from Washington than they can. And that's fundamentally what I believe.
I believe education is clearly a product that's to be run
by the local school systems. The federal government can supplement and assist
that, but we ought not to be micromanaging it from Washington, trying to pass
one law that would apply in Los Angeles, the same as in Alabama. It just won't
work.
So I believe, clearly we need to be moving in the direction of giving
more power and resources at less overhead. Senator Hutchinson is working so hard
with the dollars to the classroom bill which I support, which would take it from
65 cents out of every dollar going to the states as now occurs to 95 cents out
of every dollar.
But anyway, I feel really strongly about that. I know you
do. I appreciate the fact that all over America governors are making
education their highest priority. And I believe we're on the
road to making some important reforms and we need to be assisting and not
micromanaging. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Well thank you. Thank
you governors.
I appreciate your coming and we will work closely together.
We're all dedicated towards the same goals and we've got to work together to
make sure we reach them.
It's a pleasure having you here.
END
LOAD-DATE: February 25, 1999
