Date: 1997-10-23
Speaker: BOB SCHAFFER (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Colorado

Mr. Speaker. I thank the leader for yielding to me and for those kind words. What you described is really akin to a scene out of the Empire Strikes Back. because that is exactly what we experience and the passion that you mentioned. which I share with you. on the opportunity that we have here to really improve the quality of public education throughout the country. There are those who believe that our discussions about empowering parents and empowering children and empowering teachers treating them in fact like real professionals. that those values that we fight for here every day are somehow a threat to the large centralized bureaucratic monopoly that many wish to preserve. There are many who want to centralize education authority right here in Washington. D.C. and steal that authority from our classrooms. from our school board members. from our principals. from our State legislators and bring all that authority here. We are fighting on a daily basis to decentralize education authority and treat parents like real customers. to understand that it is parents who have the greatest concern for their children. I want to start with myself. I have got four children. three of them are in public schools today. And those are public schools that I have spent an incredible amount of time volunteering and working in. I have come to the conclusion that school reform takes place when parents are involved. Every initiative that we have discussed here in this Congress has been about that particular philosophy. Let me point out a couple of statistics that I think really dramatize what it is we are trying to change. A smaller share of school dollars are now being spent on student classroom instruction than at any time in our history. Between 1960 and 1984. local school spending on administration and other noninstructional functions grew at almost twice the rate of per pupil instructional expenditures. In 1960. classroom teachers made up almost twothirds of the fulltime school staff. Today. they make up barely more than half. Conversely. the nonteaching staff was barely more than a third of the fulltime student staff in 1960. but almost half today. One more statistic. fewer than half of all public education dollars are spent in the classroom. They are spent on bureaucrats. on support personnel. on administrative buildings. but fewer than half are spent on children in the classroom. That is what we have been discussing over the last few weeks here in this Congress on the floor of the House. real education reform. treating parents like customers and teachers like real professionals. I trust the teachers in my district. They have done remarkable things to reform the way we educate children. Let me say on this point. if you consider the bureaucratic model that most teachers are forced to comply with today. you have a system which does the following: The absolute best teacher in the district is paid in the exact same way as the absolute worse teacher in the district. By that standard. is it any wonder that our teachers feel frustrated. They have an incredible job. They go to school to learn how to teach. They are dedicated and bring a personal passion to the job that is before them. Then they are thrown into a classroom situation where they are not treated like professionals. where they are asked to do more than teach children. They are asked to be social workers. guidance counselors. drug rehabilitators and. on occasion. substitute parents. Many teachers rise to that occasion and they respond remarkably well. But I say this. if we really want to treat teachers like real professionals. I would suggest that we ought to create a system where they are allowed to become incredibly wealthy. that the value of a teacher is measured by their contribution to the organization. If they have a line of parents outside their door wanting their service. they ought to be treated like real professionals. like the doctor who has the same situation. like the lawyer who has clients waiting outside the door. like the insurance agent. the real estate agent. any professional that has people wanting their service ought to be able to be treated in a way that honors and respects the contributions that they make to their community. to their school and ultimately to the lives of children. I think. Mr. Speaker. that if you listen very carefully to the debates that have taken place over the last couple weeks. if you want to define the essence. the difference between those of us who really care about improving the quality of schools in our country and those who want to preserve the centralized authority here in Washington. it all comes down to this. and I will conclude on this point. There are those in this Chamber on the other side of the aisle with a far different perspective who believe you measure fairness in education by the relationship between school buildings or different education bureaucracies. We. on the other hand. believe you measure education fairness in America upon the relationship between children. no matter where they are. whether they are educated in the home. in a private school. in a public school or in any other setting. We focus on the fairness of children. That is what every one of our bills and initiatives here in Washington as a conservative Republican majority have entailed. That is what we will continue to fight for day. After day. After day until at the end we can finally agree that we have restored the hope and the vision of our country as a society of welleducated citizens.