John Boehner

Mr. BOEHNER

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Rhode Island for his kind words. Congress has a history of supporting programs that promote school readiness for young children. In the 105th Congress, we reformed the Head Start program to ensure better school readiness programs for pre- schoolers. We have the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act part C program that provides early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities. Just last year we created a new program for children ages 0 through 6, or I guess one day through 6, called Early Learning that addresses these same issues. I support the goal of this amendment, helping children to be fully ready to enter elementary school and ready to learn. I believe we can best achieve this goal by working within existing programs and systems. We should encourage providers in the existing programs to address all aspects of school readiness. I want to thank the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Kennedy) for his thoughtful addition to this debate. I would be happy to work with him to help achieve this goal.

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that we have 10 additional minutes on this amendment, equally split between both sides.

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I yield the balance of my time to my colleague, the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle).

Mr. BOEHNER. I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.

Mr. BOEHNER. I am happy to yield to the gentleman from New Mexico.

Mr. BOEHNER. I yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I thank my colleague for bringing this crucial issue to my attention. I recognize the importance of this program for those institutions that have received funds under section 117. During conference negotiations with the Senate, I will work with my colleagues to restore eligibility for funding under section 117 of the Perkins Act to its original purpose.

Mr. BOEHNER. I yield to the gentleman from North Dakota.

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, let me congratulate my good friend, the gentleman from California (Mr. Dooley). He and I have sat on the Committee on Agriculture for the last 10 years and worked very closely on agricultural policy and trade policy, as well. The amendment that he brings forward I think is helpful to the bill, because I think the amendment empowers parents. It gives them information that explains in concise terms the academic accountability system used by the State and the progress in reaching the numeric goals for each of our students. In order to be effective and credible, accountability systems must be easily understood by parents and educators, and I think this amendment will help ensure that that happens.

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent, although I do not oppose the amendment, to claim the time in opposition.

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Chairman, Members know we have worked hand in glove across the aisle since January to produce the bill that we have on the floor before us today. This is a very good bill. But we have all known at the essence of it, the core of this bill is to require real accountability from every school in America that gets Federal dollars. We have spent $120 billion over the last 35 years, and we have not gotten results. We have spent $80 billion over the last 10 years in the heart of the school reform movement and have gotten no results. How many more hundreds of billions of dollars are we going to spend here in Washington without asking our schools to give us real results. What do we say to the lost generation of Americans that we have over the last 25 years because we passed them through grade after grade, year after year, and never asked whether they could read or write? Is that fair? No. And to my African American colleagues in this Chamber and to my Hispanic colleagues in this Chamber, and to my colleagues in this Chamber who represent low-income communities, they should be demanding more than any of us that we have testing year by year because it is the students in those schools who get short-changed year after year because no one knows what is really happening. Mr. Chairman, I would say to all of my colleagues, it is time to have accountability. It is time to stand up and show the courage that it takes to bring real results to our schools and to take our heads out of the sand and quit ignoring incompetence and quit ignoring the fact that some of our kids, and too many of them, are not learning.

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McKeon), a subcommittee chairman on the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle), the subcommittee chairman that is responsible for this bill.

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from New Jersey (Mrs. Roukema). (Mrs. ROUKEMA asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from San Diego, California (Mr. Cunningham).

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment, and I ask unanimous consent that my time be split between the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) and myself, that we will each control 7\1/2\ minutes.

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the gentlewoman from the State of Washington (Ms. Dunn) for her amendment, along with the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Frost). Under the Safe and Drug Free Schools Program, part of the intent is to make sure there are resources there for safety in school and to allow school districts to have the funds available to do drug prevention programs of many sorts. I think that the amendment that is being offered, making it clear that school resources officers can, in fact, be paid out of this fund, is a good amendment. It helps the bill. It should be supported.

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan), my colleague, for yielding the time to me. Mr. Chairman, I want to congratulate both the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) and the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Hill) for their amendment that we have before us. I know firsthand what happens in large high schools. The community in which I live had a high school with over 3,000 students, and the community eventually voted to build two new high schools, and it provided many more opportunities for many of the students that formerly had attended just one high school. I think under the amendment offered by the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Hill), this is an allowable use of funds under title IV, which is the Innovative Block Grant Program, and this is the type of program that I think is good for some school districts that would make this an allowable use of funds. It is appropriate, and I support the Hill amendment.

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts) for yielding, and I also thank him for his tireless efforts on this project. Over the last 4 years, 5 years, he has worked at trying to ensure that more of these Federal education dollars get back to the classroom. I can say we would not be talking about this issue today still if it had not been for the tenacity of the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts). Congratulations.

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) for yielding. Mr. Chairman, I, too, support the resolution offered by the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Graves). If we look at the bill that we have before us, we will see that local districts have far more flexibility over how they use Federal funds than at any time in any Federal education program. We also believe that to the extent possible, we ought to continue to work at reducing the paperwork requirements on States and local districts, so, in fact, more of these funds actually get to the classroom and can get to the children who most need it.

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman from California for yielding me this time. I think that title IV is a block grant that allows school districts to do all types of activities. Certainly I think CPR training is an appropriate activity for the use of Federal funds. And I absolutely see no reason why we should not include this to the laundry list, as the gentleman from Indiana who is opposing the amendment pointed out. There is a laundry list, because without some definition of what you can and cannot use Federal funds for, school districts will come up with all kinds of ideas how to use that money. That is why I think allowing this to be included, along with the three items that the gentleman from Indiana requested to be part of allowable uses of funds under title IV, I see no reason why this should not join those and be part of the bill.

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.