Debate was limited by unanimous consent. Senator Dodd then moved to waive the Budget Act for the consideration of the amendment. After the failure of the motion to waive, the point of order was upheld and the amendment thus fell. Last year, schools had to hire 50,000 unqualified teachers. In many school districts, they have such a shortage of qualified substitute teachers they have to turn to temporary help agencies in order to find teachers each morning.
Empirical evidence shows that having qualified teachers improves student performance.
We are shortchanging our children by giving them sub-standard teachers. This situation is unacceptable. The problem is huge, so the Federal response should be huge. The Kennedy amendment would accordingly triple funding for the teacher training grant program. That program provides funding for current and prospective teachers both in teaching methods and in the subjects they teach.