Date: 2002-10-03
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

I thank the gentleman from yielding me this time. It is most unfortunate. Mr. Speaker. that we are here again today once again extending the time limit on the passage of the appropriations bills under the guise of a CR. When we passed No Child Left Behind. we told the school districts of this Nation and the States of this Nation that if they would engage in the most dramatic reforms of this program in 30 years. that we would adequately fund those reforms in terms of professionalization of teachers. teacher recruitment. on directing more money to poor children and schools that do not have adequate resources to provide a firstclass education. Last years funding level does not do the trick. School districts have already started this school year that carry them through our fiscal year. School districts in March will have to make determinations. certainly in California. about laying teachers off. If we have a CR that goes to March. if the Federal money is not forthcoming. then we start the process once again of starting and stopping reforms. We have laid out a 12year timetable to have all of our children proficient. We have laid out a timetable for schools to make adequate yearly progress in improving the test scores and proficiency of each and every student in the schools. That is the commitment we make. those are the reforms we imposed. But the other part was accountability. It was about schools being held accountable. about teachers being held accountable. about students being held accountable. But where is the accountability when the Congress cannot pass the Health and Human Services appropriation which includes the Department of Education? Where is the accountability when we do not have the fund for the next fiscal year in place so the schools can count on that and make the changes that are going to be required? These reforms are very expensive. We believe they are worth it. We believe on a bipartisan basis they are worth it. We believe as a Congress with the President of the United States that they are worth it. But we have no education bill. We simply do not have it. It is not a political trick. We do not have the bill. It is not here. It was promised to us. the first bill up when we returned from the August break. It is now October and no bill. It is not that the Senate does not have it. it is that we have not done it. We have not done it because some on the other side of the aisle are insisting that we go to the Presidents numbers. which are not sufficient to allow us to carry out not only the school reforms. but many of the other educational projects in this country. Those numbers are not sufficient. The President. I am sure. sent those numbers up here knowing that Congress would add to them. We think it is more important that we add to them. We have bipartisan agreement that they should be added to. and part of the caucus on the Republican side is arguing that they will not vote for the bill because it does not provide sufficient education funding. Another part says it provides too much. And for that reason we do not have a bill today. For that reason we are here with a continuing resolution because. if I understand the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations and the ranking member. the rest of the bills we are fairly close on. But this is the logjam. this is the log that is crossways in the stream on the appropriations bill. because until this is resolved. no other bills can be resolved. So now we have a continuing resolution. What that does is it bites into the planning. it bites into the reforms that we have offered for the Nations schools children. and we know as a Nation these reforms are desperately needed. These standards must be met if Americas. children are going to take place in the American society of the future. of Americas future economy. If these children are going to participate to their full potential. these reforms are necessary. but they must be funded. In fact. the easiest thing for a State superintendent to do is say Congress missed the deadlines on funding. I am off the hook. We should not allow that to happen. We have got to have an education bill. and.I would hope that this contest in the Republican caucus would get resolved and we could get on with the childrens business and the childrens education in this Nation.