Lamar Alexander

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 9, 2015, at 9:30 a.m.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 9, 2015, at 10 a.m.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 9, 2015, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``Understanding America's Long-Term Fiscal Picture.''

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Just listening.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Maryland for her remarks, her contributions to our committee, her bipartisan leadership, and her effective leadership both in higher education and in elementary and secondary education. I enjoyed listening to the remarks of the Senator from Colorado, the former Denver school superintendant, who has added so much to our committee. I congratulate the Senator from Mississippi for his contribution to the amendment on which we are about to vote. We will have one rollcall vote on the Reed-Cochran amendment, and then we will have two votes following that, which will be voice votes. Vote on Amendment No. 2085

Mr. ALEXANDER. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, as the Democratic leader leaves the floor, I thank him again for his cooperation and that of Senator Murray of Washington in creating an environment in which we can move ahead on this bill. I greatly appreciate that and so do other Senators. That is demonstrated with the fact that we have had dozens of Senators who have come forward with amendments. Dozens of amendments have been agreed to, and Senator Murray and I will be recommending to the full Senate that we adopt those amendments soon. I wish to take a moment to reflect on what we are doing in the Senate today. We spent a lot of time on national defense issues. The distinguished Senator who is presiding today is a member of our Intelligence Committee. He hears a great deal about ISIS, Iran, and the nuclear deal we might have and about what is going on in Syria and Lebanon, and we want to do our best to be strong militarily so we can defend ourselves in the world. We also want to be strong at home. We want to make sure we have a strong country. Almost all of us agree that the single most important thing we can do to ensure our future is to make sure our children and our adults continue to develop their educational skills, that they learn what they need to know and be able to do. I know in my home State of Tennessee we are trying to compete with the whole world. We are making cars, guns, trucks, all sorts of computers, and all sorts of manufactured goods that we sell not only in the United States, but we sell them around the world. You walk into the Nissan plant in Tennessee, which has 7,000 or 8,000 employees today, it is the largest auto plant in North America, the most efficient, and very important to our State. It has helped to raise our family incomes more than almost anything that has happened there. But 30 or 40 years ago, it would have had 20,000 or 25,000 employees; now it has 7,000 or 8,000. Every one of those employees has to have considerable skills. They have to learn statistics and algebra and to speak English well. They have to learn to work with one another. In other words, they have to do well in schools, and they have to do well in postsecondary education, which is a separate discussion. So we are talking today on the Senate floor--and the House is talking tomorrow--about what we can do as the Congress to create an environment in which our children can succeed in schools. That is not always on the front pages in Washington, DC, but I can guarantee it is on the front pages at home. It is on the front pages in the rural areas of New Mexico, Indiana, and in the cities of New York and Tennessee because parents care about it, students care about it, and it is about our future. The Federal Government has a limited role in elementary and secondary education. The bill we are debating today is called the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It funds only about 4 percent of what the Nation spends on kindergarten through 12th grade. The Federal Government funds another 4 or 5 percent through different programs, but States and local governments fund about 90 percent of what goes on in the schools. Not only is most of the funding action local, but so is most of the real work--most of the real work. We have 100,000 public schools. We have 50 million children in those schools and 3.5 million teachers. No one is wise enough to know what to do about helping a third grader learn in a native village in Alaska, in the mountains of Tennessee, and in the center of Harlem at the same time. The ones who are closest to the children have the most chance to make a difference. Now, does that mean we have nothing to do here about it? No, I don't think it does. I think education is a national concern. But that doesn't mean it has to be a Federal concern run from Washington and the U.S. Department of Education. The first President Bush, in 1989, called all the Governors together and established national education goals in math, science, English, history, and geography. But he didn't pass a law about that. He just created a consensus about that, and then he led the country in that direction, first through America 2000, which works State by State and community by community toward those goals. That was in the early 1990s. That was when we worked together to create higher standards for States. If you are going to have goals, you have to have standards. Where do you get those? Well, Governors worked together to create them--voluntary national standards. Then tests were developed to see how you were doing on the standards--voluntary tests. Then came more choices for parents and then more charter schools, which are public schools in which teachers have more freedom to serve the needs of children presented to them and parents have the opportunity to choose those. Those were the directions the States were going. The States were going in the direction of better teaching, higher standards, and real accountability. Mainly because of the advantage of age, I happened to have been in the middle of all that. I was Governor when ``A Nation at Risk'' came out in 1983 and Terrel Bell, President Reagan's Secretary of Education, said if a foreign country had done to our schools what we had done, we would consider it an act of war. So Governors went to work on that. In the mid-1980s, Governors worked together for a whole year to try to get better results, and then throughout the 1990s and then on into the last 10 or 15 years. Now, what has been different about the last 10 or 15 years is that the Federal Government has gotten more involved. In 2001, there was No Child Left Behind. The major contribution of No Child Left Behind was to say that we would like to know how the children are doing--all 50 million of them. So they each were to take a test, two in each year--third grade through the eighth grade, for example, and then again in high school--in reading and math, and then they would take three science tests. Through their career, there were 17 tests. The testimony before our education committee says those tests should take about 2 hours each. It is not a lot of time. That should be publicly reported, and then you disaggregate those tests by various groups so we can see if we are leaving children behind. Are we leaving the African-American kids behind? Are we leaving the White mountain kids behind? That is information that we need to know as a society. The bipartisan legislation we are debating on the floor keeps those tests because we need to know those measures of achievement. But what our legislation does that is different is it says we are going to do something different about what we do about the results of those tests. We are going to restore that responsibility to the States, the classroom teachers, the school boards, and to the parents. That is where that belongs, and that has produced a remarkable consensus. Newsweek magazine said this week that No Child Left Behind is the education law that everybody wants to fix--a remarkable consensus about that. And that is true. We hear it from everyone. But what is even more remarkable is that there is also a consensus about how to fix it. That emerged during our hearings this year, as Senator Murray, the Senator from Washington and the senior Democrat on our Senate committee that deals with education, looked at the last two Congresses--as I did--and she said: Well, you know, we haven't done so well. We have broken down the parts and differences. So why don't you and I write a bill--Senator Murray and I--and present it to our committee for consideration. So we did that--a bipartisan bill. Now, our committee is not just any old committee, as the majority leader has said. It has on it some of the most liberal Democrats and some of the most conservative Republicans. So you would think we would have a hard time getting together, but we did pretty well. We listened to each other, and we adjusted our views. We considered a lot of amendments, and we adopted 29. When it came time to decide if we had done well enough to bring it to the floor, the vote was unanimous. Every single Senator voted for that. So we are in a situation today where we have a chance to succeed. The House of Representatives, apparently, will vote tomorrow on No Child Left Behind--on their version of the bill. If things continue to proceed as they are today, we should finish our work next week. Senator Murray and I have stayed in touch with President Obama and Secretary Duncan, and we know that, in the end, if we get a result, we will need to have a Presidential signature. We want a result. We are not here to make a political statement. The lives of the children and the future of our country are too important for that. We are not here to play games. We can do that in other places. We are here to get a result and help move our country forward and do it together. I see Senator Murray is here. So I will conclude my remarks and give her a chance to say whatever she might like to say. I will conclude with these thoughts. One of the questions we hear is: Are the States really prepared to accept this much responsibility? Now, to a former Governor, such as I am, that is a strange question. I look up at Washington when I am home and I say: Are you prepared to accept all of this? I trust us. I trust the State much more than Washington. But it is a legitimate question. I would answer that, No. 1, States are better prepared today than they were 15 years ago. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record an op-ed from the Washington Post from last weekend written by Anne Holton, the Secretary of Education of Virginia.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Ms. Holton started out in a very prominent Republican family in Virginia, and she ended up in a very prominent Democratic family in Virginia. But as she points out in her remarks, their work in education is bipartisan. She makes the point about how much progress Virginia has made in terms of goals, standards, accountability, and testing. It is very impressive, and most States can say the same. What has happened in the last 15 years is that Governors, school leaders, educators, and parents have worked together and created standards, tests, and now accountability systems. In other words, what do you do if things aren't working out the way they should? Second, we have seen the limits of the Federal Government trying to do it. I think President George W. Bush and President Obama deserve credit for looking at our Nation and seeing this is an urgent problem and wanting to do more from here. That is an understandable impulse. But there are limits to what you can do from here. We have seen that in the backlash to common core--the academic standard which was incentivized or mandated from Washington. We have seen that in the backlash to teacher evaluation defined in Washington. The truth is that too much Washington involvement in setting standards in States and evaluating teachers in cities sets back teacher evaluation and higher standards, which to me are the holy grail of K- through-12 education. The path to higher standards, the path to better teaching, the path to real accountability is not through Washington, DC. It is through the States. We can create an environment, we can make sure there is not discrimination, and we can send some money that will help low-income children. All those things we can do. But then we need to show some humility and recognize, as Carol Burris, Principal of the Year from New York, said: Moms and pops, teachers, and school board members cherish their children in their own communities, and you don't really get that much wiser and smarter by flying to Washington and passing a law. So this bill shows that humility. It shows a consensus. It is a good example of how the Senate can work together on an important issue. As I said, I am grateful to the majority leader for putting it on the floor. He had many choices, but he saw the importance of it. I am grateful to the Democratic leader for some work he has done behind the scenes to make it easier for us to succeed. I thank Senator Reid for that. And I am especially grateful to Senator Murray for caring about children and her prestigious leadership on this. We are moving well on amendments. I would encourage any Senator with another amendment to come to the floor quickly and let us know about it, because other Senators have--and Senator Murray and I have agreed on--a large number of amendments already that we are going to recommend the Senate adopt by consent. We will have a vote probably around noon. We will vote again this afternoon and again tomorrow morning. We want to finish as quickly as possible. Hopefully, the House will succeed, and we will put our bills together and present the President with a bill he can sign, and we will fix No Child Left Behind, which is the bill Newsweek magazine said is the education law that everybody wants to fix. I yield the floor.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time until 12 noon be equally divided between the two managers or their designees; further, that at 12 noon, the Senate vote on the following amendments, with no second-degree amendments in order to any of the amendments prior to the votes: Reed amendment No. 2085 on school libraries; Warner amendment No. 2086 on fiscal support teams; and Rounds amendment No. 2078 on education in Indian Country study.

Mr. ALEXANDER. For the information of all Senators, we expect to need a rollcall vote on the Reed amendment, and the Warner and Rounds amendments will be adopted by voice vote. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, today I am offering an amendment to the Every Child Achieves Act that would allow $2,100 Federal scholarships to follow 11 million low-income children to any public or private accredited school of their parents' choice. This is a real answer to inequality in America, giving more children more opportunity to attend a better school. The Scholarships for Kids Act will cost $24 billion a year, paid for by redirecting 41 percent of the dollars now directly spent on Federal K-through-12 education programs. Often those dollars are diverted to wealthier schools. Scholarships for Kids would benefit only children of families that fit the Federal definition of poverty, which is about one-fifth of all school children--about 11 million a year. Allowing Federal dollars to follow students has been a successful strategy in American education for over 70 years. Last year, $31 billion in Federal Pell grants, and $100 billion in loans followed students to public and private colleges. Since the GI bill began in 1944, these vouchers have helped create a marketplace of 6,000 autonomous higher education institutions, the best system of higher education in the world. Our elementary and secondary education system is not performing as if it were the best in the world. U.S. 15-year-olds rank 28th in science and 36th in math. I believe one reason for this is that while more than 93 percent of Federal dollars spent for a higher education follows students to colleges of their choice, Federal dollars do not automatically follow K-through-12th-grade students to schools of their choice. Instead, that money is sent directly to schools. Local government monopolies run most schools and tell most students which schools to attend. There is little choice and no K-through-12 marketplace as there is in higher education. Former Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin often wrote that American creativity is flourished during ``fertile verges,'' times when citizens became more self-aware and creative. In his book ``Breakout,'' Newt Gingrich argues that society is on the edge of such an era and cites computer handbook writer Tim O'Reilly's suggestion for how the Internet could transform government. ``The best way for government to operate,'' Mr. O'Reilly says, ``is to figure out what kinds of things are enablers of society and make investments in those things. The same way that Apple figured out, `if we turn the iPhone into a platform, outside developers would bring hundreds of thousands of applications to the table.' '' Already, 19 States have begun a variety of innovative programs supporting private school choice. Private organizations supplement those efforts. Allowing $2,100 Federal scholarships to follow 11 million children would enable other school choice innovations in the same way developers rushed to provide applications for the iPhone platform. Senator Tim Scott, the Presiding Officer today, has proposed the CHOICE Act, allowing $11 billion other Federal dollars--dollars the Federal Government now spends through the program for children with disabilities--to follow those 6 million children to the schools their parents believe provide the best services. A student who is both low income and has a disability could benefit under both of the programs, especially when taken together with Senator Scott's proposal, Scholarships for Kids constitutes the most ambitious proposal ever to use existing Federal dollars to enable States to expand school choice. Under Scholarships for Kids, States would still govern pupil assignment, deciding, for example, whether parents could choose private schools. Schools chosen would have to be accredited. Federal civil rights rules would apply. The proposal does not affect the school lunch program. So Congress can assess the effectiveness of this new tool for innovation, there is an independent evaluation after 5 years. In the late 1960s, Ted Sizer, then Harvard University's education dean, suggested a $5,000 scholarship in his Poor Children's Bill of Rights. That is what he called it. In 1992, when I was the U.S. Education Secretary, President George H.W. Bush proposed a GI Bill for Kids, a half-billion-dollar Federal pilot program for States creating school choice opportunities. Yet despite its success in higher education, ``voucher'' remains a bad word among most of the K-through- 12 education establishment, and the idea hasn't spread rapidly. Equal opportunity in America should mean that everyone has the same starting line. There would be no better way to help children move up from the back of the line than by allowing States to use Federal dollars to create 11 million new opportunities to choose a better school. I thank the Presiding Officer, and I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I want to thank the Senator from New Hampshire for her remarks and thank her especially for her contributions to the legislation and her persistent support for STEM education. She has been a champion. As a former Governor, she is a great help as we seek to remind ourselves that the path to real accountability, higher standards, and better teaching really runs through the States and local governments, where the creativity is and where people are closer to the children.

Mr. ALEXANDER. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, if you really want to solve inequality in America by giving children an opportunity to attend a better school, vote yes because that would give any State the opportunity to take 89 Federal programs, consolidate them into $2,100 scholarships, and give one of those scholarships to every low-income child in the State--that is 20 percent of the children--for that child to decide which school they would attend. It might be public; it might be private. We would be using the same policy that we used with colleges and universities. The money follows the child to the school that the parent decides that child should attend. This is not a mandate; this is an opportunity. The schools would have to be accredited. If you really want to create equality in America by giving every child an opportunity to be at the same starting line, let the State decide to give a $2,100 scholarship to follow a low-income child to the school that the family decides the student should attend, public or private. I urge a ``yes'' vote.

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. ALEXANDER

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, July 8, 2015, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``The Role of the Financial Stability Board in the U.S. Regulatory Framework.''

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Environment and Public Works be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 8, 2015, at 10 a.m., in room SD-406 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled ``Road to Paris: Examining the President's International Climate Agenda and Implications for Domestic Environmental Policy.''

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 8, 2015, at 5 p.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``Department of Defense Maritime Activities and Engagement in the South China Sea.''

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 8, 2015, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``Stopping an Avian Influenza Threat to Animal and Public Health.''

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Indian Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 8, 2015, in room SD-628 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, at 2:15 p.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``A Path Forward: Trust Modernization and Reform for Indian Lands.''

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 8, 2015, at 10 a.m., in room SD-226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled ``Going Dark: Encryption, Technology, and the Balance Between Public Safety and Privacy.''

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 8, 2015, at 2:30 p.m.

Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary; Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 8, 2015, at 2:15 p.m., in room SD-226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled ``Cyber Crime: Modernizing our Legal Framework for the Information Age.''