Date: 1999-10-21
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I am very proud of this legislation that we have before us this afternoon on the floor of the House of Representatives. and I think that the committee has done a magnificent task in changing the direction of the Title I program. I think that is why it took us so long to mark it up in committee. That is why we are spending a considerable amount of time on it here on the floor yesterday and today. But the fact of the matter is. as the gentleman from Indiana pointed out. we are changing the direction of this program. and as the gentleman from Pennsylvania has pointed out a number of times. we are changing the direction of this program. We are taking a program that for all too long did not have much accountability in it. did not affix responsibility to parties. it really did not have standards of excellence in it. We are changing that now. and. in fact. we are redirecting this program on a course of excellence and accountability and performance. The time has come where we can no longer. with the knowledge that we have of the number of children who are not able to participate. not provide the adequate funding so that those children can participate to the full extent of the advantages of this law. They must be included in this program. The Roemer amendment provides for that to happen. That is why we ought to support it. One of the things when we look at schools that are reconstituted by local school boards. the governing bodies of local Government. when we look at schools where venture capitalists have come in. various firms have been formed now to take over some of these schools and run them on a private market model where they have turned them into charter schools. it is very interesting that in many of these schools that are poor performing and have a disproportionate number of disadvantaged children in these schools. the first thing they do is add money. The very first thing the private marketers do is they add money to these schools. .It runs about a half a million dollars a school. When they say. pay us. we will run their school. we will get the. results for them. we will show them how the market system will work. the first thing they do is invest capital in those schools on behalf of those disadvantaged children. Money does make a difference. It. in fact. does make a difference. And that is what private firm after private firm after private firm has been doing with these schools. As everybody here has just claimed. that does not mean that throwing money at a problem will solve that problem. But here there are many problems that will not be fixed if we do not have money. And children who are not included in this program are not going to get the advantages of it. I think we should take the pride of our workmanship here. we should take the understanding of the redirectionthat we have given to this program on a bipartisan basis. and we ought to take the Roemer amendment and try to add to the funding for this program for excellence. We ought to add to this funding for the results that we expect and for the accountability that is in this program. Because we are challenging the States. we are challenging the States on behalf of the Federal taxpayers to close the gap between rich and poor students. between majority and minority. students. We are challenging the States to provide qualified teachers in every classroom within 4 years. With those kinds of changes in this program. we have the opportunity to deliver a program of excellence at the local level on behalf of these students. As the gentleman from Indiana has pointed out. we cannot continue to allow the tremendous number of students who are not included in this program. who do not get served in this program. to continue to happen in this. country because we are losing those children and their opportunity to participate in our economy. to participate in our society to the fullest extent of their potential. Because that is the tragedy. the downside of not properly funding this program. That is why this amendment is well placed. it is well directed. and I think we ought to recognize that that amendment is a complement to the work that this committee has done and the faith we have in these very. very difficult changes. very tough changes thatwe have made in this program at the urging of the chairman of the committee. the ranking member. and the two subcommittee chairmen and ranking members of this committee. I urge passage of the Roemer amendment.