Bob Etheridge

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, let me respond to what the gentleman said about facilities and other things, because this is important. When you think of public schools, public schools are like a small town, they carry on a lot of the services that any town would have and they need to have basic infrastructure for water and sewer of some type. They have got to have maintenance facilities, they teach, they provide discipline and provide instruction. It is a whole multitude of things we require teachers to do and the staff of a school as well as teach. I am reminded of people who say that the facility does not make any difference, and my friend from New Jersey was just talking about the school here in D.C. and how important it is. If your roof leaks, the first thing you have got to do is patch the roof. It is hard to say to a child, this and that is important, and they look around and find out their building is dirty, the walls need painting, the windows need fixing and the roof needs patching, and they do not perceive that education is important. That is important to fix. Just last week I was in a brand new school in a school in my district. I went in and read to a kindergarten classroom in Rocky Mount, and in the process of reading, the school is new and it had video throughout the school, and in the process of reading to those students, I knew it was on camera, but I didn't realize, I guess I just got so involved in reading to the children, the kindergartners, I forgot it was going throughout the whole school. So when we finished the reading of the book, the kindergartners in the class I was in applauded, and the door happened to be open, and apparently the doors to a lot of the school were open, and I could hear applause all over that school. I tell that story because that is an example of what could happen when you have a school that has modern facilities and conveniences, and the things we talk about every day. And we talk about high-tech and the Internet and faxes and things we move quickly, and yet some of our children go to buildings every day that we would not dare put a business in. But we send children there, because they do not have any choice. Some communities are growing so fast, they are struggling to make sure they can do it. The question is can the Federal Government do all that? No, absolutely not. But we can say it is important and our taxing policies can support that where we can, and we tried to put some money in this time. The majority would not let it go as part of the bill. I trust before this Congress adjourns, it will get another opportunity to assist in those areas where it is so important, because children do deserve a good environment in which to learn. It improves the qualities. The school ought to be one of the nicest places they attend every day. It was when I was in school, and we should not back up. I remember, I told a group in a chamber meeting not long ago, if the facilities do not matter, then I would suggest the next time the industrial hunter goes out looking for any major client to come to town and open their business, take them to someplace in town where there is an old, run-down warehouse and say to them, you know, the facility really does not make any difference in the quality of product you are going to put out, so this is the building we are going to try to help you acquire, and see how long it is before that client is out of town and the word gets around, and you will not have an opportunity to recruit very much. We have a responsibility I think, and I say ``we,'' I think all of us in this country, in the Nation, that has the resources we do, to help. It is a local matter, yes, but all of us working together need to make it happen. The last time I was in a school, which was just last Friday, I do not remember a single child, as a matter of fact, they didn't, they didn't ask who paid for anything in that school; the books, the TV, the materials they used. Children only know what they get. They do not know what they need. That is our responsibility, and I think Congress can help with that by setting the tone and saying education is important. It is one of the key components we have to deal with in this country. It is as much, in my opinion, of our national defense in this global economy we find ourselves in, and the economic challenges we face around the world, to be able to compete economically as it is to have strong military, and I very strongly support a strong military to defend our borders. I think we should not give up on public education. That is where the bulk of our children are. They will be there tomorrow, they will be there next week, next year, and they will be there for time to come, because there is not enough space in any other place for them. And to back away from making sure they have a quality education would be a travesty, in my opinion. Let me touch on one other point that Mr. Pallone mentioned in his remarks as he was going through, and he touched on facilities and standards and the whole issue of teacher assistance, teacher support, to be able to make sure that they have the support to do the job. We need to make sure that we work with our universities in the dollars appropriated from the Federal Government, that they get more involved, as the President has now encouraged the universities to do, roughly 800 of them now, participating in the America Reads program. But we also need them to get involved in our teacher development and in our teacher recertification programs, to provide some of the latest up- to-date resources and research-based information for our teachers to use. I know at the University of North Carolina, they are now developing a tremendous program on the Internet, and they are using graduate students to do some of the work. The reason I know about it, Mr. Pallone, my daughter is working in it, and they will have it on line in another year or so, when teachers, when they have access to computers, they can log in, bring down some of the best lesson plans anywhere around, and use those to challenge our students in the way that they never have been challenged before. It will help that teacher at the point they are working with our children. That is one of the things the President and the Vice President talked about when they are talking about having access to the Internet in every library and in every classroom. Until it is available to the teacher, my view is it will not be used the way it should be. Teachers have to be comfortable with using it, and then it becomes integrated in their instructional materials and the children will use it.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. I appreciate the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] yielding and I appreciate very much the gentleman putting together this special order, because I think it is important to the American people to understand. Let me set a little history, if I may before we get to this because I think it is important. I think of a great Congressman who represented the district that I now represent many years ago, a gentleman by the name of Harold Cooley, who at that time chaired the Committee on Agriculture in the U.S. Congress. It was his task to chair the Agriculture Committee during and right after World War II. Many of our young people who went before the draft in World War II failed their physical. Congressman Cooley felt so strongly that he attached an appropriation and an authorization piece to a military authorization bill, defense bill, to provide for school lunches for the children of this Nation. Prior to that time, there had not been a hot lunch for children in our public schools across this country. I set that tone because there are many who today say this is not the role of the Federal Government, or that is not the role of the Federal Government. Well, until about 1945, 1946, it had not been the role of the Federal Government to participate in the school lunch programs, either. I know this Congress last session, the majority, tried to strip that out, but when they heard from the American people, they changed their minds. I will say to the gentleman, having been a superintendent for 8 years in the public schools of the State of North Carolina and having responsibility for about 1.2 million children, and having gone in those cafeterias, as a matter of fact, last week I was in 4 different schools, had lunch with two different classrooms of students, and I can tell the gentleman that instruction goes on in those schools all across America whether they are having lunch or they are in recess. One of the things I wanted to point out was that the teacher, it happened to be International Day. Every day during the week they had a different country. One of the schools I was in, in Wilson, it happened to be the day for China. They had chop suey or they had egg rolls. What was so significant I think about it was that it was a first grade class that I was having lunch with and the teacher, and if you know first graders and kindergartners, you use your finger to point to the first letter as you start to read and they were reading to those children each line of the menu so they could identify the menu, and then they were allowed to stand in two different rows, depending on which menu they chose. It was quite obvious to me that there were children in each of those rows who had tried neither of those menus. But it was so instructive in the teachers working with them and I sat at the table with them, and we talked and of course as the gentleman can appreciate, there was a lot of media there, but they had a delightful time. But that is instruction. I tell that little story to set the stage for what we are talking about, because Democrats are working to improve public schools in America. We have done that time and time again. We have set the tone. Education, public education, in my opinion, is the key to the foundation of our democracy. It is the one thing that helps bring people together. It is the one thing that levels the playing field for children no matter what their ethnic or economic background is, and it gives them a chance in this highly competitive world, and without an education they do not have it. I mean that when I say all children, not just those from the privileged, not just those whose parents can afford to send them to private schools or those who might get a few vouchers. All children, because any that are left behind are the ones I think that are deprived. I want to talk just a minute, and I hope the gentleman will join me as we get into this, about reading, because I believe reading is the foundation, that is one of the pieces that we have talked about and the President laid out in his State of the Union address so strongly. Because reading is the gateway skill, let me repeat that again, reading is the gateway skill. We talk about how important it is today in the world we live in that is so technical, it is high tech. A report has just come out in the last 10 days about how important it is to have algebra, geometry and those higher skills in math, and I certainly agree with that wholeheartedly because North Carolina required algebra of all of our students back in 1991. We were one of the first States to do that. But until a child learns to read, all the other things are off the sheet, they are off the page. It is so important to do it early. The President had requested in his program, America Reads Challenge, to have 1 million tutors. Many of them are volunteers and we have a lot of those in our State and across this country. But I thought it was a great stroke when he said of the money we are sending to our universities, we want to develop a partnership with the universities in this country to not only just get them to go into schools but get young people to understand it is important to volunteer again, and some of them were to be paid out of the funds that are in the current budget that is now hung up in conference, and I trust it will be broken loose because unless we do it, I really believe that we will do the children of this country a grave injustice and it will cost our country in the productivity of these young people, in the productivity of our economy a tremendous amount of money. I would say to the gentleman that parents are the first teachers. There is no question about that. They are the first teachers that a child has in every family. I do not know of a parent that does not want their child to succeed, but there are a lot of parents who are nonreaders themselves, unfortunately, in a Nation as rich and as plentiful as we have it in America. But they want their children to read, and that is why we have a program for adults. But I am going to talk about a school I was in last week, I went in a school system. They had a tremendous program that they have been involved in now for about 5 years, and it fits right into what the President is talking about, this issue of getting 100,000 college work- study students to serve as reading tutors. There are almost 800 colleges and universities, public and private, across this country who have now signed up to be a part of this program, assuming the funds are there. It is great to go out and teach, but what we have to have on the backside of it is accountability. I want to talk about those together. We have to challenge every parent, teacher, principal and community member in each of our communities across this country to help get children started to learn to read by the time they are in the third grade. But to do that, we have to teach and we have to hold them accountable. We have to measure what we have done. Otherwise, we will not know how we get there. I think that is important. It would be great if every parent would read to their child at least 30 minutes a day. Many do not. They do not have the time. But I think it would be super. And schools need to be able to provide high quality reading initiatives for all students, making sure that teachers know how to teach children to read, identify those that need extra help, and that is where the tutors come in. When you have 21 to 26 and in some cases, unfortunately, as many as 30 students in a class, a teacher cannot give the quality time that he or she wants to. They are hardworking people, they care so deeply about their children. We have to have the community members involved. America Reads Challenge, this tutoring program, is a tremendous program that we have a chance to make a difference. And businesses can be involved. The business community is involved, I know in our State, but there are more that can get involved, not only in tutoring but doing a lot of other things and encouraging parents, giving parents time off to go in and work with their children. I would suggest they follow the lead of Johnston County schools, and I want to talk about that for just a moment because I have some charts here showing what happened when a school district says that we are absolutely going to make a difference for all of our children, not just a few, all children, and this is representative of the 100 percent of children in that school system where in 1993, only 65.8 percent of those children were what was called proficiency level. That means they could read at or above grade level and move on to the next grade. We see the next year there was a drop, and then we see progressive growth up to 76.1 percent in 1997. I predict that will continue to rise. When we see that kind of growth in reading, a lot of good things are happening on the part of the teachers, on the part of the parents and on the part of the total community. There is great pride, there is tremendous work, and that is well above the national average as reported on NAEP. Because if we look at the numbers, we will see that in the 5-year period, they gained 11 points in their reading proficiency. But more importantly, let me show you what those points really translate into. Because what we are looking at here is a chart showing the 8th grade students, and this is cohort data in reading. What that really means, the same group of students that were measured in 1993 were measured in 1997 in their growth patterns to see how much they had grown. If we look at the bottom cohort, which means level 1, they are not proficient, they are not doing well, and they really would not be able to move to the next grade and do the work. We see that number drop from 9.2 in 1993 down to 2.5 in 1997, almost a 7 percent drop. That represents a tremendous number of children. What is so important about that is we look at the numbers, we look at the cohort at the top, goes from 21 to 34. That is well above grade level, because the 48.6 percent here versus the 44.4 percent is really at grade level. So we see the Johnston County School System is really doing what we want done in every school system all across our State and all across America because we are pushing more and more students up into the top two cohorts where we really need them to be proficient, to be able to handle the other things they have to do and the more sophisticated reading they need to do. Because we see in the second cohort in level 2, it drops from 25.4 down to 14.7. If it were only in reading, it would be one thing, but let us look at what happened in math for those very same students. So it tells us we have got a system that is really doing some things because they are getting help. In 1993, students who were proficient, and that is a bar that is set. That is why when the President talks about standards it makes sense. It makes sense to talk about standards and then you measure to that standard because we have that. In 1993, it was 61.8 percent of the students in grades 3 through 8 were proficient in math. But look at the difference that 5 years made when they really began to focus, they realized what was expected. It was measured. It made a difference on the part of the parents, on the part of the students, because every student in this school system with their parent signs a contract. This is a public school system where they signed a contract. We see tremendous growth. This is the kind of thing I think that we talk about when we talk about America Reads and the President's program of providing students a goal, providing resources, because, yes, it takes resources. But when we do it, we must have accountability and measure. And people need to know what we are doing and we get results. I think this is proof that we can improve our children's reading through our public schools. But we have to let them know what we want. Let me be the first to say, we cannot do it from Washington. But what we can do and what I think we should do and what we must do is say it is important, as the President had, and when we have done that, then we have got to be willing to stand behind it, because the job will get done at the local level.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Moran] for yielding me the time. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the Moran substitute and in opposition to the risky scheme to provide taxpayer-funded vouchers. I served as superintendent of schools in my State for a total of 8 years. That State is North Carolina. I know what it takes to improve the quality of education, because in the latest release of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, our fourth-graders gained three times the national average in growth and our eighth-graders gained a full year in this past decade, and our African American students had achieved some of the same gains, only greater than other students. Vouchers will only divert attention away from improving public schools. Vouchers will increase the cost of education. Vouchers will reduce the accountability of schools to the American taxpayers. And vouchers will rob our communities of the resources needed to improve education. Mr. Chairman, improving schools takes bold, visionary leadership, it takes a commitment to improving educational opportunity for all children, and it takes setting high standards, holding the school administrators, teachers, parents, and students accountable for these standards. Vouchers are the exact opposite of what is needed. I urge my colleagues to reject this cowardly act of surrender and support the Moran amendment and against vouchers.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend, the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone], for joining me this evening. I have a few opening remarks and then I will ask him, if he would like, to join me. I want to thank him for being here this evening and for helping to organize this special opportunity to talk about a very important issue involved in the Democratic effort to reform, to improve and to strengthen public schools in this country. We have held this series of after hours speeches to engage the American people in a dialogue about the policy choices that are being made that will have a profound impact on the way our children are educated in every community all across this great country. We simply must put the maximum effort we can into improving of our public schools for our children. By that, I mean all the children of this country, not just a select few that we can give vouchers or something else and give a lot of lip service, but I am talking about every child, no matter where they live in this country. We have a lot of work to do. Some of these things certainly are local responsibilities, no question about that. But we at the Federal level cannot walk away from our responsibility to help every child in this country. Mr. Speaker, before I became a Member of the people's House, I spent 8 years as the superintendent of public schools in the State of North Carolina. I am proud of the record that we have established in our State in improving education. I had the privilege during those years to spend a good deal of my time in the classrooms, on the front line in the struggle of our schools in the battle against ignorance. I am here this evening to talk about those North Carolina values that I think have made a difference in our State and certainly can make a difference across this country. In all the time that I spent in those classrooms, and I still go in them now at least once a week since I have been elected to Congress, no student has ever asked me who paid for the textbooks, who built the building, who paid the power bill, who paid the electrical bill or who bought the school buses they rode to school on. The child does not care who provides them the opportunity to learn. A child only knows what that opportunity is, whether or not they have been provided one and, in many cases, unfortunately an opportunity denied. And once you deny an opportunity for an education, you deny a child an opportunity to have a level playing field to compete and develop their God-given ability. I think sometimes those of us in public office get too carried away by whose responsibility it is and forget that it is all of our responsibility. It is not just the responsibility of the Federal Government or the State government or local government or parents and children. All of us share a responsibility. That is why public schools in this country are asking parents to be engaged, asking the business communities to be engaged, because all of us share a responsibility for our children. One issue that we must make a top priority is the issue of school facilities and school construction and, yes, the repairing of those buildings in many cases. All across this country we have crumbling schools, some in our inner cities as well as in rural areas of this country. And we have major overcrowding in schools where areas are growing and growing very rapidly. And in some cases they are adjacent to urban centers where those areas are poor and do not have the resources to match it. I know because my district contains areas, directs spending and faces all of these problems. My State just passed last November the largest bond issue in the history of our State, $1.9 billion for school construction, by the largest majority of any bond issue in the history of our State. That tells me people care about children. They care about them having quality facilities, and people want action on this important issue. We have to get beyond the dialogue and the rhetoric of whose responsibility it is and just say it is our responsibility, it is our country, and these are our children. We have to deal with all of them. There are some communities that cannot do it without help, without some leveraging. I think that is an issue that we have to grapple with, and we have to grapple with it at the Federal level. There was a time when it was not our responsibility at the Federal level to determine whether or not people had electric power. But in the 1930's we decided we ought to do that and we put a policy in place that every citizen of this country would have electric power and we put in the REA. We also made the same decision as related to telephones and, shock of all things, we decided that water and sewer was important. It was not a national priority before that. And I happen to believe if there is anything important to this country beyond the defense of our borders, it is education for the young children of this country, making sure that they have the minds to be able to compete in the 21st century. And, yes, education is all of our responsibilities so that children can develop their God-given ability. The President made a very sound school construction proposal during the budget talks but, unfortunately, the Republican leadership refused to allow it to be included in the final budget package. That was very disappointing. It was a very disappointing decision by the Republican leadership because the American people need some help to repair their local schools, and this Congress should do more to provide that help. Sure, we have balanced the budget. I am proud of that. And now that we have balanced the budget, we should not shirk our responsibilities to help our children. While Washington often bickers over what role the Federal Government should and should not take on these issues, our focus should really be on the needs of our local communities and making sure that our children have the best opportunity. You can walk into a school in any community in America and immediately know where education ranks in that community. As a matter of fact, you do not have to walk into a school. You can drive into a community and find out where the nicest buildings are and you will know what the priority is in that community. We have to change attitudes and support public schools and public education. Many poor communities do not have the resources to build the quality facilities that they need. We should help them. We must help them. Many growing communities cannot keep up with the pace of expansion that they have to meet the needs of all the children in the school system. We should help them. I speak to many chambers of commerce, as I know other Members of this Congress do, to business leaders, community leaders and other groups. Sometimes someone will say to me that the quality of buildings really does not make a difference. I have a ready answer for those folks. I say, when you go out and recruit new business and bring jobs to your community, why do you not take them down to the side of town where you have the old run-down warehouses or old run- down buildings and say the quality of the building really does not make any difference? Why do you not put your business in that old building? It is the quality of the people you put in it that makes the difference. And yes, it is important, the quality of people you put in it, but the quality of that facility says a lot about what you care about. It also says to your employees that you care about their environment. It also says to children that you care about education when you improve the quality of the facility. The town fathers always wanted to show off the shiny new facilities that attracted those new buildings. That is why today we are seeing communities all across America and parents and others raise the issue of school facilities and the quality of education, because that is what business interests are asking about. It is their pride and joy. And the quality of the opportunities for our children will be the thing that will make a difference in the 21st century. I say our schools should be our pride and joy also, because it is important that children see the quality and that we do care about their schools and that we do have the quality of facility they need, because it does have a significant impact. I know. I have seen it. I have been there, as the gentleman has. It makes all the difference in the world. It has an impact on their attitudes, and it certainly translates into a better learning environment and we see the difference. It also has an impact on discipline, and we see a drop in the number of problems that children have. If you have a nice facility, it is amazing what happens to your attendance rate. It goes up. Children want to be in a nice environment. That should be our top priority. There are a lot of other things we can be doing. I am working on legislation that will be drafted to help rebuild our schools in our run-down areas and build new schools in areas that are growing. This bill will help direct resources to areas where they are needed most, where school populations are projected to explode in the next several years, and we know what is happening. We have the largest enrollment in our public schools today that we have ever had in our history. It is projected to increase dramatically over the next 10 years. We have areas of the country that are growing by 10, 15, 20 and some as much as 35 and 40 percent. Those areas can absolutely not meet the needs that they have. I am very pleased to have my colleague from New Jersey join me this evening, and other colleagues will be joining us later. I know, to the gentleman from New Jersey, this is an an issue of interest to him. I see we have another colleague joining us to talk about this issue of not only facility that is important but the quality of the academic offering and how important it is to have accountability. And, hopefully, before we finish, we will have time to talk about the proposal the President has made for us to deal with this issue, of how to have accountability in our schools and assure the American public that the schools in North Carolina, in every corner of our State, and in New Jersey and in Texas, as people are mobile and move about, that their children have a quality education. I yield to my colleague from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone].

Mr. ETHERIDGE. I thank the gentleman, because he is absolutely right. We are not talking about putting additional dollars into the system. If we go down that road, then all those who are currently out there who are not in the public schools, who are either in private schools or parochial schools or wherever they may be, they are going to be standing in line for their dollars once we cross that threshold. What we would be talking about doing is in every public school in America, in the inner city, in the suburbs, and in rural America, we will be taking dollars out of those schools and reducing that opportunity for every single child. And the child that gets hurt the most is the child who is most vulnerable, in most cases, but all of them suffer. The last time I checked, as our three children went through the public schools, and we still have one in it, the PTA, in almost every school that I am aware of, certainly in our State and I assume it is true in the gentleman's, they do not have enough money. Otherwise, why would they be having candy sales and hot dog sales and book sales and all these other things they do to raise money? They are raising money to supplement the resources in the schools that are not now available. So if we are to go in and take additional dollars out, we will do one of two things, should it happen: We will increase the sales by the PTA in other areas or we will deprive them of more opportunities than they are now being deprived. And I think that would be a shame and a disgrace at a time when education in America, in my opinion, is at a premium. I agree with the gentleman. I think he is absolutely right, and I would yield back.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone], because I think he has something he wants to add to that.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. It is easy. If we do not want to do something, we can find a thousand reasons. If we want to do it, it is not hard to find a reason. Last time I checked, I have not heard anyone get up on this floor and say we should not send water and sewer money to our municipalities to clean them up because we might take control of it. They will find another way if they do not want to spend the dollars. But the truth is, if we want to do it, we can find a way to do it. The gentleman talked about the schools. And the truth is what we really are about in the whole litany of things is reforming, repairing, and renewing. The three R's. We have to reform and certainly go on about doing things. I really get frustrated, and I was out there 2 years ago when this Congress talked about doing away with the Department of Education and education was under assault, and both of the gentleman here were fighting to make sure we saved it, and we did. But my colleagues cannot imagine what that did for the morale of teachers and principals and people on the frontlines educating children. They just sort of tuned it out and kept working. They work hard every day. They are some of the hardest working people in our society today. And I think what we need to do is raise up the tremendous job they do and give them an uplift rather than beating them down. I know my good friend, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Green], his wife is a teacher, and she is an outstanding one, and I yield to the gentleman because I know he has something he would like to contribute to this dialog.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. The gentleman is absolutely correct. I was there when we got the Goals 2000 money. Of all the money the Federal Government sent to our State, that was the most flexible money; very few strings attached, other than fill out about a 2-page form and send to it to the Department of Education on what you were going to do with the money, how you were going to use it, what results you were going to get. That is the money that has been used in North Carolina, and I would assume in the other 49 States and territories, to allow for the reform, the change that is now taking place all across this country. I thank the gentleman, and I hope we can get back and spend a whole evening on this whole issue of academic reform and accountability in these areas, and talk about assessment, because I feel very strongly about it and I think the American people do. I thank the gentleman for joining me.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Let me thank the gentleman. He is absolutely correct. We have talked about after hours, and I just wanted to make a point of that, because I have been in a number of schools where they actually have an after hours program for a number of students who have difficulty at home. They drop out of school. They decide they want to come back to the public schools, they do not want to go to the community college and get a GED. They want to get their high school diploma. And I know it is happening in North Carolina, where they actually can come to school at night, have a full-time job during the day because they have to earn a living. They may have already gotten married early, but they want to get their degree, and this happens. The public schools are changing. We can put together another special order very shortly, hopefully before this week is out, and actually talk about some of these things, but more importantly talk about the strengths of our public schools, the academic things that are happening. Our schools certainly have a lot of challenges today, but they are meeting those challenges in a way they have never met them, because as both of my friends have said this evening, they are working harder, our teachers are working hard, they are committed, and we have some of the best qualified people in those classrooms we have ever had and the leadership, the principalship. I think we need to talk about it. I know we are seeing student achievement go up, as we talk about the National Assessment of Education Progress, which I happen to believe is a better measure than the SAT that we use on an intermittent basis, because NAEP tends to do it by sampling, and that is where we can absolutely sample and they come back with a statistical number and it is accurate. We have seen some dramatic growth in our State and really across the country since 1990 in math and reading, and those are two of the core areas, and we have to see that continue and escalate across this country for all children. That is one of the things I hope we will be able to talk about and have some data on over the next several days, and that gets back to the issue the President proposed and that others are saying we ought not to do. Well, that is silly. That is absolutely silly. It is voluntary. We are now giving it to 43 States in this country. Forty-three States are taking the NAEP right now, and they are doing it on a voluntary basis. When I was a superintendent and we met all 50 chiefs, we absolutely said there will not be a national curriculum; we will not support it, we will not have any part of it, but we will participate and want to participate in a voluntary testing program. Why? Because the people who live in North Carolina today very well may live in Texas next week or New Jersey the year after that, and they have a right to know that their children, as they move from place to place, that it is measured and they are getting the kind of education they want. I think that is why we are seeing the American public on almost everything we read say they are willing to make sure that their children have a good education, and they want that assessment and they want it on a voluntary basis. I hope we can talk about that and erase that myth that our schools are not doing better than we are doing, because they really are, because we are doing it with children, as my friend from Texas said, that are coming to school with a lot of baggage these days. They are coming to school when they have not had a chance to sleep the night before; many come when the first meal they have had since they left lunch the day before is the breakfast they get when they show up in the morning.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is absolutely correct. We have schools across this country, and I know in my State, before-school programs for children, before school opens they actually open the school and provide a morning day care, provide breakfast for them, and it is on a sliding scale and the schools actually make money on it. For those who cannot afford to pay and those that can, they put together different programs to work. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, as the gentleman says, it is part of our national security, and I think it is just as important or certainly measures in importance with defending our borders, because if our young people cannot compete in the economic environment we find ourselves in in the world economy, we are going to be in trouble in the 21st century. I yield to my friend from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone].

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I think the gentleman is absolutely correct. What the gentleman was talking about is, the gentleman said we are setting a national priority and he is saying that is important. I know in my home State in North Carolina we passed a bond issue this year, $1.9 billion, and it may seem like a lot of money, and it is a large sum of money in our State, but we were looking at school facility needs 2 years ago in excess of $5 billion. So the State was going to assist the locals; they had to pass their own referendums on a match, on a sliding scale, for assistance. Well, now we are growing so fast that a lot of those communities are going to still see themselves with tremendous needs over the next several years. But that is really what the gentleman is talking about, those that show the initiative locally, that draw from a pool, and this money would be used to draw down, to make the interest rates lower. So in effect one is able to have a larger bond issue for less money, is really what the bottom line is.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, if we take that another step and we look at industry, and one of the first things I remember in the D.C. situation that my colleague mentioned was, they went in to put the roofs on the buildings because the buildings were leaking. It is one thing to have poor lighting. It is another thing to have trash cans in the building catching the water when it rains. And that leads to a multitude of problems of safety and additional deterioration and on and on. There is no question that the quality of the environment makes a difference. There are enough studies. The gentleman from Texas [Mr. Green] mentioned growth. Let me just share a few of the States, if I may, that are growing so rapidly. Over the next 10 years, it is projected, this is just high school enrollment, because it goes back to the point he made about those youngsters showing up at elementary school. I have often said, some people want to know why communities are growing so and schools are growing. I said, well, you know, people move into communities, and when they move there, they tend to want to bring the children with them if they have children. That is normally what happens. And when they bring them there, normally they want to go to school. And in growing communities, we understand that. And for some communities, they can pretty well determine how large their first-grade class will be by the number of live births that happened 5 or 6 years earlier. The problem most schools have are in those fast-growing communities where you have in-migration; people move in and bring the children. As an example, in California, over the next 10 years, it is projected that there will be a 35-percent increase in the high school enrollment in the State of California, a State right now that is a large State, a State that most of us think of as being a State that is fairly affluent. But when we have that kind of growth continue in a State that is right now already struggling to meet the needs, we wind up with major overcrowding. And overcrowding leads to all those problems that we talk about of discipline, lack of academic achievement. There is no question of the studies, and there will be more studies that will continue to come out, beyond having quality teachers in the classroom and a good curriculum, the next best thing we can do for children to provide for them learning opportunities where they excel is smaller class sizes. We can talk to any teacher in this country, in urban or rural systems, in elementary grades or high school, and what they will say is, ``Let me have a small class.'' It gets back to the point the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Green] made earlier about the teacher teaching under the tree. If we have got a small enough class, you can teach most anywhere. The problem we have is, as those classes grow, we really do need space in the larger classes so that children have places to move around, or students, for that matter, who happen to be in high school. But let me give my colleagues a couple of other States. For the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Green], your State is one that is proposed to grow very rapidly over the next 10 years. High school enrollment will increase by 19 percent. They can take their high school enrollment right now and figure out how many more schools they are going to need across the State and classrooms. My home State, which happens to be the ninth or tenth largest State in terms of public schools, depending how you measure it, but I think we are about ninth, is going to grow 27 percent at the high school level in the next 10 years. We are building buildings as fast as we can. We will not keep up. And the list goes. Nevada, 24; Georgia, the tenth or eleventh largest State, depending on how you look at it in terms of numbers, they are always right close to North Carolina, they will grow by 20 percent in population at the high school level. So we are seeing a tremendous need. Virginia, 20 percent. All across this country, we are going to see the most rapid, the largest growth at the high school level over the next 10 years we have seen at any period since the end of World War II. It is what some are calling the baby boom echo. We had the baby boomers. Now the baby boomers are echoing, and we are having children, and it is growing very, very rapidly. These numbers in no way reflect the tremendous need that my colleagues have talked about that is out there for repairs, for renovations, for making sure that buildings are wired to take care of the access to the Internet and computers to deal with all the information that is now bombarding society and certainly children and teachers and students have to deal with. It does not say anything about all the other needs outside those school buildings just in the learning environment, because if we are going to have a large number of students together, we have got all those auxiliary needs at the high school level, for the athletic program, for the extracurricular activities that are absolutely needed. When we get that many young people together, we had better have something for them to do beyond academics. We all know that that is awfully important. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Green].

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to final passage of H.R. 2267, the Commerce-Justice-State appropriations bill, despite my strong support for certain provisions of the bill. I fully support most provisions in H.R. 2267 which provides funding for the Commerce, Justice, and State Departments, the judiciary, and other related agencies. However, as the Representative for a rural, tobacco growing district in North Carolina, I oppose final passage of this legislation. I support those provisions in H.R. 2267 addressing crime, environmental protection, and technology advancement. Specifically, of the $30 billion included in the bill, I favor the $5.3 billion for the Violent Crime Reduction Trust Fund, the $497 million increase for the Immigration and Naturalization Service which would provide for 1,000 new border control agents and 2,700 more detention cells, the increase by $129 million for the Drug and Enforcement Administration, $112 million more for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, $250 million for the Legal Services Corporation [LSC], including more thorough oversight by the Congress of the LSC without overburdening its effective administration, the Advanced Technology Program [ATP], National Endowment for Democracy, and increase by $1 million for fiscal year 1998 funding for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to equip the agency to defend national, state, local and territorial law adversely affected by international agreements. The bill also contains an important provision passed by amendment which I co-sponsored, the Hoyer-Cardin-Etheridge amendment, to add $3 million to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's [NOAA] National Ocean Service Account to respond effectively to pfiesteria and pfiesteria-like conditions throughout the Eastern Seaboard. NOAA has the mechanisms in place to study and assess the causes of pfiesteria and how we can begin to control it. Our natural resources and waterways are simply too valuable for us not to act to protect both them and the public health. I hope this marks the beginning of a strong federal- state partnership to protect North Carolina's citizens and our waterways. There are two provisions however to which I am strongly opposed: the Doggett amendment included in the bill and the bipartisan Mollohan- Shays amendment which is not. The Doggett language prohibits the use of funds in the bill to promote the sale or export of tobacco or tobacco products, and prohibits funds in the bill to be used to seek the reduction or removal by any foreign country of restrictions on the marketing of tobacco or tobacco products. I also strongly oppose the bill's language on statistical sampling as part of the 2000 Census. Statistical sampling will provide a more accurate census of the population and demographic groups of our country, including rural areas such as the Second District of North Carolina and save millions in taxpayer dollars. I am hopeful the conference committee will correct these two provisions in the bill which hurt my district so that I may vote in favor of the crime, environmental, and advanced technology provisions I wholeheartedly support.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to this attack on farmers. Singling out one legal product is wrong. It this amendment passes, the U.S. Trade Representative will be prevented from using America's influence with foreign countries to eliminate unfair foreign trade barriers imposed on a legal, American product grown by family farmers. One third of the tobacco grown in this country is exported. Foreign markets for American tobacco are vital to small tobacco farmers and their communities. This legislation represents an assault on America's family farmers. If USTR is no longer allowed to take action against trade barriers imposed on these American products, foreign governments will impose such barriers at will. We would never do this to other legal, products such as American automobiles, American computers, American seafood, American beef, or American airplanes. We're fighting to gain access to foreign markets for these products. Not doing so for tobacco is unfair and is bad policy. Congress would not dare do this to any other group of American Producers. USTR's hands would be tied in negotiating trade deals with countries where tobacco is but one of a host of items considered. A country could ban all American tobacco, a violation of the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade. Yet, USTR would be prevented from taking action, even if a clear violation has occurred. There is nothing to be gained by tying the hands of USTR. This will not prevent people from smoking. Those who choose to smoke will simply buy cigarettes made in countries where tobacco production is not regulated as it is here. Countries where children are paid poverty wages to make cigarettes in horrible working conditions. Countries that do not regulate the use of pesticides. Countries that do not inspect manufacturers for sanitary procedures. This amendment won't reduce smoking. It will only benefit foreign tobacco companies and farmers at the expense of 124,000 American family farmers. This is the crop insurance vote all over again. This body agreed that singling out one commodity that receives crop insurance would be discriminatory, and defeated an attempt earlier this year to eliminate it for tobacco farmers. This amendment is another unfair attack on hard-working, god-fearing farmers playing by the rules. I urge you to support America's right and responsibility to enforce international agreements and to support American farmers. Vote ``no'' on this amendment.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

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

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the gentleman from Maryland and all of those who have worked so hard. This has had a significant impact on my home State. We have lost over a billion fish, and an awful lot of people have been sick. I thank the gentleman for the efforts that have gone forward on this. Mr. Chairman, I am proud to cosponsor this amendment with the gentleman from Maryland and with many of my colleagues from North Carolina and other mid-Atlantic States. I want to commend the gentleman from Maryland, [Mr. Hoyer] for his leadership on this issue. For many years he has played a leading role in protecting the environment and cleaning up the waterways of his beautiful State and across the country. He has now taken the lead in bringing the problem of pfiesteria to the national stage and for what I want to express my sincere gratitude. I also want to thank my colleagues in the House for taking the first step on this issue by providing $7 million in the recent appropriations bill for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to monitor, research, and react to the public health effects of pfiesteria. Since 1991 over 1 billion fish have been killed in North Carolina alone as a result of pfiesteria. Recently, fish kills have also been reported in Maryland and it is feared that past fish kills in other States may have been caused by pfiesteria. Pfiesteria has been blamed for sores, burning skin, respiratory ailments, and short-term memory loss in human beings. This is a serious public health and environmental issue that requires national leadership. Pfiesteria has become a genuine and immediate public health concern for at least seven States between Delaware and Florida and if not address its eventual impact could go far beyond these States. Like fish, pfiesteria knows of no State boundaries. Our natural resources and our waterways are simply too valuable for us not to act to protect them and the public health. I urge my colleagues to join me in support of this $3 million appropriation for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA] to effectively respond to pfiesteria and pfiesteria-like conditions throughout the eastern seaboard. NOAA has the mechanisms in place to study and assess the causes and how we can begin to control pfiesteria. I hope this marks the beginning of a strong Federal-State partnership to protect American citizens, our waterways, and the marine life in them that is so important to our food supply. Again, I want to thank the gentleman from Maryland for taking the lead on this issue. Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this important amendment.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the Hoyer-Cardin- Etheridge amendment to H.R. 2267, the fiscal year 1998 Commerce, Justice, State Appropriations Act. This amendment will add $3 million to the National Ocean Service Account of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA] to respond effectively to Pfiesteria, and Pfiesteria-like conditions, along the Eastern Seaboard. As you know, Pfiesteria is a single-celled organism which in certain stages, produces a toxin that kills fish and may have human health effects. In several cases now under investigations, individuals reported that they become ill after direct exposure to the organism's toxins. It was first linked to massive fish kills in North Carolina waters in 1988. In North Carolina alone, over a billion fish have been killed as a result of Pfiesteria. In light of recent findings, North Carolina has set up a toll-free hot line and organized a panel of experts to review how North Carolina should respond to future fish kills. Chemical analysis is the key to other needed research that will answer more specific questions about health impacts. More funding is critically needed to augment the research that North Carolina has already begun on characterization and analysis of the Pfiesteria toxin. Presently, NOAA has the mechanisms in place to study and assess the causes and possible controls of Pfiesteria and Pfiesteria-like conditions. Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment. It is a cost-effective measure, and it will enable NOAA to assist States from North Carolina to Delaware effected by this micro-organism.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Chairman, I also rise in opposition to this amendment and encourage the gentleman to withdraw it because it literally will do away with the programs that help our children in the public schools. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the Hoekstra amendment to eliminate the vital functions of the Education Department. As the former two-term superintendent of North Carolina's public schools--a statewide, elected position--I know firsthand the critical importance of the partnership between the Education Department and the State of this Nation. Make no mistake about it: this amendment would do great harm to the education and well-being of America's children. Mr. Chairman, earlier this year, I testified in front of the House Education Committee in defense of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program, in opposition to the very same block grant scheme as this amendment. I told the committee that it is crucial that we maintain Safe and Drug-Free Schools as an Education Department priority because it is an essential component of our effort to develop a safe and secure environment for learning. The principle is very simple: our children cannot learn if they are not safe. We cannot expect our children to learn geometry if they are scared to death from gunfire. We cannot expect our teachers to teach effectively when the scourge of drugs invades their classrooms. And we cannot expect our parents to have any faith in our schools as learning institutions without the faith that they are free from drugs and violence. Safe and Drug-Free Schools plays an essential role in that effort, providing support to 97 percent of all school districts in the country. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The Safe and Drug-Free Schools initiative is an effective and vitally important effort to improve our Nation's schools, this House should defeat this amendment's attempt to destroy that effort. This misguided amendment would also eliminate School-to-Work, an innovative approach to help people gain the skills they need to compete and succeed in the modern workforce. Mr. Chairman, I represent one of the most economically booming regions in the country. The unemployment rate in Raleigh-Durham is less than 2 percent. Driven by the technology sector, our economy is growing so rapidly that businesses cannot find workers with the training required for these jobs. Many of these jobs do not require a college education, and Schools-to-Work is an effective tool for skills training. The Technology Challenge Fund, Goals 2000 education standards, and Eisenhower Teacher Training are all important education initiatives that would be eliminated by the Hoekstra amendment. During the previous Congress, I served on the front lines of the effort to educate our children. When Members of the people's House tried to abolish the Department of Education it had a devastating effect on the morale of the men and women who teach our children. I came here to fight that effort, and I call on my colleagues to defeat this amendment.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. I thank the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] and the others who have organized this evening. The point my colleague made earlier I think is so important for us to understand as we are talking about block grants and education. I do not know why it is just block grant education we want to deal with. We are not talking about block granting funds to the Department of Defense. We do not talk about block granting materials to other things. As my colleague just indicated, it is important to have a priority; and if there is an issue we want to deal with, what we are talking about is reducing the funds. I cannot imagine this body ever, or any other body who has to report to people, turning over the funds without asking for accountability. The truth is that is a good way to put it out and do away with it. That is really the bottom line. I remember revenue sharing a long time ago when I was a county commissioner. And when revenue sharing came, I said to the folks, ``We do not spend any of this money in programs, because I guarantee you it is going to be cut out because we are getting it without any strings.'' Guess what happened to it? It got cut out. If you block grant it without the people who are in your appropriations process understanding what is happening and having feedback directly from what is happening, it is going to be cut out. The last thing we need to do at a time when this country is growing and expanding and we are dealing in a global economy, we are asking our young people to change and the whole economy to change for that matter in a way like we have never had, we do not need to be pulling away the needed resources for our schools. Six to 7 percent, depending on the State, where they are, is about all the Federal Government is putting in. By and large those dollars are going to specific programs. Most of it goes to chapter 1 and other programs that are for children who have special needs, and that really helps with reading and with math, some of it in very targeted areas for children who are the poorest among our poor children in this country. That does not go equally to States. It really is divided up among the States who have the greatest population of those students and with the greatest needs. As the gentleman indicated, funds for safe and drug-free schools, that is based on a student population. But if it is sent down and it does not have some direction, I can assure the gentleman, I have been in the Department, I know what will happen. There will be competition for those dollars, and unless there is a requirement to go to certain areas, they may not get there, because the last time I checked, there were those who will stand up and tell us there are too many dollars in education, that we are spending too much money. If that is true, if that is true as a premise, then why does almost every school in this country have a PTA, and every night on TV we have parents complaining about children retailing to get funds into schools to buy paper and books and all the other things? It is nothing more than a half truth at best and an outright sham at worse. It is not true. It is absolutely not true. It may be true in some communities, but in the bulk of the communities in my State, it is absolutely not true. Otherwise we would not have parents from PTA's selling all these things and doing things and having kids to sell them. There are not enough resources. We have allowed our schools, as the gentleman indicated, almost half of them in this country have need of some attention, either plumbing, electrical or overcrowding, for a variety of reasons. What we care about in our communities are what we pay attention to. If you ride through a community, the last thing that is really held in communities in this country right now, in my opinion, that is still intact is that public school where children go. The families are having problems. There are a lot of problems in a lot of institutions, and the school may be the last thing that is holding the community together. The last thing we need to do as a Nation is to pull the underpinnings out from under the one thing that is helping hold this country together. I would be the first to say if every family was intact, and we had two-parent households and they were there, man, things would be great. It is great to wish that. It is just not true. It is not true in this country today. We need to give children a safe haven if we can and an opportunity to learn and participate in this great adventure we call America and we call democracy. Education is the one way that we allow those children, whether they come from a Hispanic household, an African-American household, wherever they may come from, as they come to the shores of this country, or if they have been here for 10 generations, they have an opportunity to share in the American dream. If we take away that opportunity for education, and their parents cannot afford to send them to a private school, we have guaranteed them and the next generation that they will not have the opportunity to participate in it. We should never let that happen as long as this Congress meets in Washington, DC.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. I could not agree more. I think the American people do believe in the institution of public schools because most of them came through it. The truth is that will be where they will be in the future. We need to strengthen every institution we have, and we can define any number in America today. Those institutions are changing. Whether it be financial, whether it be legal, whether it be medical, whatever that institution is, it is changing. The public schools are changing. If we are defining the public schools as some do as they ride by and see the same building they have seen, they do not go inside and they do not talk, they do not see what is happening in those classrooms. I have had occasion to do that, as the gentleman has. You will see they are changing. But it takes time, and it takes resources, and it takes commitment, and as the gentleman indicated earlier, it takes support. It is awful hard to ask an institution to change when all you do is throw rocks because you are too busy ducking. I served in the military. There is one thing you learn to do is keep your head down when you are in a fire storm. When you have got your head down, it is kind of hard to be moving forward. We need to as an institution, Democrats and Republicans, stop throwing rocks and start giving a helping hand. Stop the rhetoric. Quit being rhetoric makers and become help makers. The teachers would applaud us, the children will appreciate it, and I can assure my colleagues their parents would welcome it. That is what it is about. That is one reason I ran for this people's House, because I want us to have a positive voice in Washington, talking about there are good things happening. Are there problems? Absolutely, as everyone has said already. There are problems in every institution. But we ought to help correct those problems and not just try to destroy the institution. That is so important to the foundations of our democracy, because if we destroy it, I can assure my colleagues our democracy will shortly follow.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, the point is what you are talking about is truly taking money, not putting additional money in for anything. I was in a school just this past Monday, and schools have changed. I think a lot of folks forget how much they have changed. And this is just not in an upscale neighborhood or in a poor neighborhood, or even in a middle class neighborhood. This is in all neighborhoods, by and large. These were two-parent households. They are dropping their children off at school at 6:15 in the morning. They have the gym open, where the parents were paying for prior to school opening at 8 o'clock. They were picking the children up at 6 p.m. These folks work in textile plants. Some of them work in the Research Triangle in North Carolina, in which they make good money, so they pay the full cost of the before and after school child care. My point in making this is a point you just made. Schools have changed dramatically. We are asking people in education to do more than just educate children. There are a lot of folks who would like for schools to continue to have custodial care. That means you take care of them during the day and teach them when you can, but just take care of them. It is about more than that. It is about education, it is about opportunity, and it is about giving that child a vision of where he or she can go, what he or she can be, and what the future holds. Go visit most any school today and you will see bankers, you will see astronauts in the schools, you will see a lot of business people, because in most communities now they are starting to form those partnerships. That is why when you talk about the polling data, it says we are not in favor of vouchers, we are really in favor of the public schools. We realize they are working hard to change. Our friend from Massachusetts talked a while ago, and I must get this personal point in, about how hard teachers work. Teachers, by and large, and I think this would be true anywhere in this country, put in 50 to 60 hours every week when school is in session. I believe that. I have a wife who works in the public school system. I have two children, one who is teaching the second grade and the other who will start. I know how hard they work. I have seen them work, because their day does not end when they leave. They are a little bit like legislators. They carry work home with them, but they have to bring it back the next day prepared for the student, they have to prepare the lesson plan and grade those papers. That is why I think it is so important that at the highest level, in this Congress, and I am glad the President has made it a high priority and raised that vision, and I think he has given educators an awful lot of hope and the American people a lot of hope, that we are going to pay attention to education. Even though we do not put the bulk of the money to the K-12 level, we can do a lot toward raising the vision and the hope. We have seen business people across this country come together and say ``we want to be your partner.'' I think that is why we are seeing such strong indications of their help. I am very committed to that.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Without the public schools, he would not have had the opportunities.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. If the gentlewoman would yield, I could not agree more. One of the things we need to keep in mind as we are talking about our schools as they change, et cetera, is the public school system that we now see and that has served us well does not go to the founding of this country. Truthfully, in a lot of States, particularly the southern States, we are talking about the turn of the century. If you dropped out of school, there was a job in business, somewhere in industry, and a place you could be plugged in. Today we are asking the public schools to have 100 percent graduates, we are asking them to be at a much higher level than they ever have been. So schools are changing. This is a tremendous challenge, and they need all the help to get there, because our economy changed, and as our schools change, they meet some very difficult tasks. All of us can cite some examples that why we made it was because of the public schools, and there are a lot of examples in the Halls of this Congress on both sides, and it is true all across the country.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Obey] for yielding me the time. Mr. Chairman, I want to be very brief and maybe set out a few quick points, if I may. We have been talking about tests. And the last time I checked, math is pretty much math anywhere in this country. I state that having been State superintendent, elected by the people in the State of North Carolina for two consecutive 4-year terms. Reading is something that every child needs to know. It is the foundation of all learning. And we are really talking about testing that in fourth and eighth grade, and we are talking about a voluntary test. This is voluntary. It is not mandatory. The other point I would make, Mr. Chairman, is that when we are talking about these issues, we are talking about the fundamental issues of education. Let me very quickly talk about my State for just a moment. In North Carolina we became a part of the National Assessment of Education Progress, and the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Hoekstra] talked about that a few moments ago. That does not require a national curriculum. States can elect to be a part of it, and 45 States in this Nation have participated. I would say to my colleagues that North Carolina has volunteered to be one of the six States, and we will be a part of any national test that is put in place. But I want to talk about the National Assessment of Education Progress for just a moment and why it is important to have some standard, because I happen to believe in high standards for our children so that all children can gain and do well. North Carolina has been a leader of that over the last several years, and here is why: No other State in this country has experienced the sustained gains demonstrated by North Carolina schools since 1990. Today, North Carolina's public schools are performing well above other schools anywhere in this country, and let me tell my colleagues why. When tests were taken this year on NAEP, in 1996, North Carolina gained 17 points in eighth grade mathematics for the 6 years reported by NAEP. That is twice the national average, which happened to have been eight points for all the other States in the Nation, and approximately 50 percent higher than the gain of any other State in the Nation. The State's average performance was just short of the national average. Why? Because we started right at the bottom. Why did we grow so fast? Because we had standards, we measured them, and every single school knew it. We gave our teachers the resources, and they performed admirably. And so did our students. North Carolina students have improved the equivalent of one full grade level during the decade of the nineties. In other words, an eighth grade student in 1996 was one full year ahead of eighth grade students in 1990. So in little over 6 years, right at 6 years, they gained a full grade level in elementary grade. North Carolina's fourth and eighth grade African-American students were five points ahead of African-American students nationally. Why? Because we measured, we put the resources there, and it makes a difference. If it does not make a difference to assess and measure, then why do we do it in other things? Why do we keep the score of a basketball player or football player? It is important to let people know where they are and put the resources and make a difference. I close by reminding my colleagues that we are talking about voluntary tests, we are talking about reading and mathematics, and it is time that we get away from the rhetoric of who is in charge and let the American people know that we mean to have high standards and we are going to make sure that our children can compete with any children anywhere in the world. Secretary Riley said, when the tests were released this spring, if we look at the States that are on the way up, States like North Carolina, Michigan, Maryland, and Kentucky, I say it does make a difference to measure. It makes a difference to let children know what we want. And that is why I oppose this amendment.