Date: 1998-09-17
Speaker: BOB SCHAFFER (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Colorado

Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman for yielding to me. You are precisely right. We got a distinct impression in the Education Committee today that the United States Department of Education is woefully unprepared for the technology problems that they will be confronting with the Y2K or the year 2000 computer problem that is likely to exist in the year 2000. We went through a programbyprogram analysis of where the Department of Education thinks it is today. As you properly pointed out and mentioned. the U.S. Department of Education is part education agency. part legislative bureaucracy that implements various regulations and legislation. and it is part financial institution. In fact. the amount of finances that that agency controls with respect to college loans. not just the direct student loan program or the program where the government is the banker that loans directly to students around the country. but the private student loan programs that are also managed under the department. both of those programs and several others are placing the future of education opportunity for millions and millions of Americans at great risk as a result of their failure to properly and effectively apply modern technology today and be able to take us into the next century. I asked the specific question. what if you are not ready to go in the year 2000. First of all. what makes us think that we are today? They were unable to answer that question with any certainty that they will be prepared for the Y2K computer problem. I asked specifically. what would happen if there is a 3month delay. there are barriers to the communication and the interrelationship between other financial institutions and financial institutions that are central to the college lending program. And there was no answer. really. The answer was. well. we will work on it when we get there. We will try to fix it then. The second question I asked. what if there are some kinds of barriers to the interrelationship with the telecommunications industry. our ability to communicate with schools. institutions and other associated agencies that work with the Department of Education. Again. the answer was rather startling. They really had not thought through to that point yet. We will .work on it. they said. when we get to that point into the future. and we will fix it as swiftly as we can. Well. I realize these are difficult times that every Federal agency is going through. every private agency. anyone who relies on technology for computer and data storage. But with respect to the Department of Education. they have placed the interests of the American people at a financial level and an accounting level and at an administrative level and at a regulatory level so completely into the hands of technological attempts at the Department of Education at which they are incapable of properly and effectively managing. These individuals. citizens. taxpayers and anybody who proposes at some point in time to achieve a higher education or to participate in any way with the Department of Education really is at great risk and great jeopardy as a result of what I consider to be a lax level of commitment and approach to managing the technology of education today. The real answer is not to look to Washington any longer or any further for additional leadership and guidance in the management of colleges and universities or local school districts. for that matter. or any education institution. We are finding. through the example that was exposed today in your committee. that the real academic and educational salvation for the country is in a decentralized approach to schooling. public schooling and private schooling. and moving authority back to the States. back to local communities. back to the homes and back to the neighborhoods where education. once again. is held in the hands of those who truly care most about the children that are relying on the availability of a strong and viable education system. Those people. of course. who care the most are. of course. parents. not bureaucrats. That is the message I think we need to convey not only tonight. but that is the message I think. we conveyed in committee and consistently try to convey. It really is at the basis of most of the Republican reforms and proposals that we have put forward here in this Congress to try to restore the greatness of the American education system.