Bob Etheridge

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, to my friends on my left, I have introduced a death or inheritance tax bill. I would be happy to have my colleagues join me, because there are Democrats that do strongly support tax relief for people who work. Mr. Speaker, on Memorial Day, I was proud to honor John T. Bone, a hero of World War II, at the American Legion in Elm City, NC, and present to him the medals that he had waited half a century to accept. Last week I was proud to join this House in casting my vote to ban the desecration of the American flag. And today I am proud to announce to this House that the American Legion has joined me in support of my resolution for educational standards of excellence for America's schools. Mr. Speaker, I share with my colleagues the words of the American Legion when they say: ``The American Legion applauds your initiative to introduce challenging academic standards into our Nation's educational system. The American Legion has been a long-time supporter of a quality education for each child. The adoption of challenging academic standards by each State would go a long way in helping this Nation reach educational excellence for our children.'' I urge my colleagues to join me in this resolution.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, America needs high education standards, and I rise today to urge my colleagues to sign on to my resolution in support of educational standards of excellence. This simple resolution is a common-sense approach to improving education in this country. As a former State superintendent of my State's public schools, I know firsthand that setting high standards and equipping our students and teachers with the tools they need to meet those standards is the best way to assure quality education in our schools for all of our children. This Congress must take aggressive action to provide leadership that is needed to raise educational standards. Yesterday, I received a letter of support from the Council of Chief State School Officers, which represents the educational policy leadership in each of the 50 States in this country. This letter reads in part: The Council * * * is pleased to support your resolution urging States to adopt challenging academic standards and tests to measure student achievement. Later this week I will introduce my bill, and I urge my colleagues to join with the chief State school officers in each State in support of the educational standards resolution.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing legislation designed to help preserve and protect our Nation's most valuable assets: Families and Family-Owned Businesses. Family-owned farms and small businesses are the backbone of my State and our Nation. They employ our people, generate economic growth and strengthen our communities. However, Uncle Sam has socked it to family- owned businesses over the years with increasing regulations and taxes. Families are finding it harder and harder to continue operating the family business. One of the largest obstacles to staying in business for families is Federal estate taxes or death taxes. Before a family has even had the opportunity to properly mourn the passing of a loved one they must begin to face the task of settling the estate. Often a family must endure two deaths; the death of a loved one followed by the death of a business. With tax rates as high as 55 percent on assets in excess of $600,000, death taxes can sap the lifeblood out of a family-owned business and in many cases force the sale of the entire business to settle up with the IRS. Family farms and small businesses are frequently cash poor but rich in assets such as land and equipment. The current $600,000 exemption can often be eaten up in the increased value of land which often has no correlation to the income generating value of the business. Small businesses and family farm make up 98 percent of all businesses in North Carolina and employ over 50 percent of all workers in North Carolina. The $600,000 exemption is too low and places a burden on some family-owned businesses so severe they cannot survive. People labor too long and hard throughout their lives to see the fruits of their work disappear into Uncle Sam's pockets. That is why today I am introducing the Family Farm and Small Business Estate Tax Relief Act of 1997. This bill will raise the current exemption for family-owned farms and small businesses from $600,000 to $1.5 million. It will also index the exemption to inflation, something that should have been done a long time ago. The current estate tax is an unfair double tax on assets generated through income that has already been taxed. It is a disincentive to saving, hard work and entrepreneurship. Current policy undermines everything that is great about America: family, ingenuity, hard work, and providing for the economic security of our children. There are thousands of Americans across this country that play by the rules and work hard only to be faced with the prospect that their very success will saddle their children with a burden so great that it will force them to abandon the only livelihoods they have ever known. According to the Congressional Research Service 70 percent of family owned businesses do not survive to the second generation and 87 percent do not survive to the third. This is wrong and it must stop. The Family Farm and Small Business Estate Tax Relief Act is good for our economy, is good for families and is good for America. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and the North Carolina Farm Bureau for their support of my legislation. NFIB and the NC Farm Bureau understand the importance of preserving family-owned businesses. With the right policies we can strengthen and preserve the family owned business in America. I urge my colleagues to join me in support of this important legislation initiative.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to call on my colleagues to join me in support of educational standards of excellence for our Nation's students and parents and communities. As a former State superintendent of schools in North Carolina, I have seen firsthand how much progress can be achieved when we aim high in education and give our children and teachers the tools they need to get the job done. I call on this House to go on record in favor of this commonsense approach to improving education in America. Last week I participated in an educational town hall meeting with the Vice President in my home area. The voice I heard from North Carolina students and citizens came through loud and clear. An America needs educational standards of excellence. Mr. Speaker, I have drafted legislation in support of voluntary standards of educational excellence. I urge my colleagues to join me in support of this important legislation.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. If the gentleman thinks about this, the President talked about it like the GI bill. We figured that the young men and women who fought previously in World War II and the Korean war and even in Vietnam had earned a certain stipend and we allowed them to use that to get an education. It turned out a generation, a couple of generations of some of the best educated people that America had ever seen, and it fueled our economy with tremendous growth. And he talked about the AmeriCorps as one of those things. In North Carolina, I hate to keep using that, but I think it is important when the gentleman mentioned this issue of working in return, giving something back, in 1985 we passed legislation to provide for 400 scholarships per year for high school students who would commit to going to college and coming out and teaching in an area that we had great need in in the public schools, be it science, mathematics, whatever the area may be. They were chosen based on their academic standing, and then we broke it up obviously by congressional districts so we could have balance in the State. And in all fairness to the taxpayers, we wanted to make sure we had balance in the ethnic background, so we tried to make that fit. But the point was each one of those students received a $5,000 unrestricted scholarship. They had to teach for 4 years in the State of North Carolina after they received the scholarship. The requirement was, obviously, they had to have a high academic standing even to get in because it was very competitive. And we do that with several other scholarships we do in the State. But to retain that scholarship, they had to have a 2.2 out of a 4.0 their first semester, and to retain it after their sophomore year they had to retain a 2.5 out of a 4.0. And it was amazing what happened, as now we are obviously 12 years or 11 years down the road, with about 7 years of those young people having gone into public schools. They have absolutely started changing the chemistry of our teaching profession, because after the fourth year we start getting 400 students a year in the system. The challenge I think we face as we get more energized and focused is keeping the young people in the profession. How do we pay them? How do we keep them and make sure we keep the brightest and best teaching the next generation? Because that is the commitment of America. That is the responsibility. If we are going to have a well-educated citizenry in the 21st century, we do it by having some of the best people in the classroom. That was our challenge and our goal. The challenge we are facing in North Carolina, I think, is the same challenge we face all across America. When I talk with others, after that fourth and fifth year, how do we make it attractive enough, not necessarily with pay, though that is part of it, obviously, people have to be paid, but it gets back to the gentleman's first point, the reason I am bringing this up, the facility in which they work, the surroundings we ask them to work in, where young people go to learn. As I tell my 17-year-old son, that is his work, that is his job every day when he goes to school. And that is true of all our children. We certainly do not want it to be drudgery, but it does need to be a good environment. A good place to learn, a good environment. And if it is a good environment to learn it will be a good place for our professionals to teach. One of the things we have not talked about that I think is so important in all of this is how we get those volunteers. The very thing the President and all the former Presidents have come together with General Powell to talk about all across this country is this whole issue of voluntarism. We need them in the public schools and in our public sector so that we can encourage parents once again not only to read to their children before they get to school but be a part of that process once they get there. I as a parent found that as one of the real challenges I face, having time, as busy as we are, and all of us in public life encouraging others, but we need to take our own advice and spend the time with our children's teachers and with our children. With that, when we talk about the estimate of the cost, I would refer back to the gentleman as he started talking about this whole infrastructure. One of the things I have used many times, one of the few places that we continue to use temporary buildings and turn them into public buildings are in our public schools, that public sector. Very few other places do we do that. It gets back to the point that the gentleman made so eloquently early on. It has to be a higher priority, recognizing that we do not have the first responsibility for it, but we do have a responsibility to say it is a high priority for our children. And they all are our children, whether they are directly linked to us or not. We have a responsibility to invest.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, as you mentioned, having been at the State level and, of course, I had the privilege of serving as superintendent of schools for the State really at the time that the current President was Governor, so we got to work with him some there, but his commitment to public education is really deep seated. And I think he has a deep understanding for it. He brought with him to Washington that deep commitment, I think, that is very healthy, and I am very pleased to see the highest office in the land talk about the commitment to education. And just by talking about it, it has raised the level of commitment. And talking about raising the standards for all of our students and for all of our schools I think is a laudable commitment. It is already starting to happen. It is amazing what happens when you talk to other teachers and school officers, as I have had a chance to do and I had the chance to meet with someone today. As we look at this whole issue of education and we see that more young people are in public school in the United States this year than we have ever had in history, and that number continues to grow, you get a sense as to why the facilities are so cramped. The problems continue to grow in terms of need not only for facility but for having quality teachers to go in those classrooms, for having leadership at every level to meet the needs and just having the resources to do it. I could not help, when you were talking about the school in your district, in and around the Research Triangle we have schools just literally exploding. Last fall we had so many trailers in the State I had to travel the State, talk about it a lot, as many would do and as I should have done in my role. We passed a $1.8 billion bond issue last November in North Carolina, the largest bond issue in the history of our State by over 60 percent, the largest margin we had ever passed any bond issue. But as large as that bond issue is, the need was identified as over $5 billion just in our State. If you take that number and put it across the country in 51 States, certainly you would not multiply it by 50 because there are fewer States because we only have about 10 percent of the students in North Carolina, but it is a substantial number in terms of need. Some States may be even greater. So facility does have an impact. As we see the growth coming in student enrollment, and that is projected to continue, certainly in our State and in most States that are growing all across the country, over the next 8 to 10 years, that will have a significant impact on the resources, I think, of this Congress or should at the State levels and at the local level, how we set our priorities. If we really and truly follow what the President has said, and I think he is right, that if we are going to compete in the 21st century, it will be with a much better educated work force, who are more productive, who are highly motivated to meet those challenges. And as we train young people, we have to make our schools fit that mold. And to fit that mold, we have to have the facilities, the tools to get the job done and the people to help train them. Certainly as we work together in the task force with what the President has laid out, and he has provided, I think, the kind of leadership over the last several years to get us where we are, now we have a long way to go to finish the job, because it is one of those jobs that you do not really finish. You just improve on it and hopefully you leave it a little bit better when someone else comes to occupy your seat, whatever that seat may be. I think that is the challenge that we face.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, one of the pieces that, having served as the State level before, I came here and been superintendent when we talked about budgets there, I think this is something the public does have a difficult time understanding; when you talked about a budget, you had already appropriated your funding. You had set the spending levels. And when you passed the budget, that was it. And in effect, here when you do a budget resolution, that is not the end of the process. It is just the beginning of the process, which is the very reverse, because at the State levels and local levels when you do a budget, you work at your priorities. You determine what your revenue is and then you fit what you can spend within those parameters. Here once we pass the budget resolution, as we have just previously stated, that begins the process through real hard decisions when we put the appropriations bill out or those number of bills we run in each category. You must fit them, the parameters of the overall budget, and then reconciliation comes when all of them fit within the numbers. Mr. Speaker, my colleague is absolutely correct, that is where the heavy lifting is going to come over the next few months. I think that gives us the opportunity to really set the agenda. One of the points just made that is so important as we go home for the Memorial Day weekend, I plan to spend some of my time, as I know many of our colleagues do on the Democratic side, and I trust the other side as well, going into our schools because I do on a regular basis and actually teach a class. You do not have to be a teacher to do it. And this may be the last month we get a chance unless you have a year-round school because they will be taking the break for the summer. It is amazing what you learn. You find out how bright some of the young people are, some of the conditions of some of our buildings and the needs they have. But at the same time you find out from young people how hungry they are to learn from officials, to know something about their government and how it really works. I know you do that from time to time. I trust that we can encourage more of our colleagues to do the same thing. Go in and really give a teacher a break over the next few weeks.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. That is a very debatable item right now. I think most of the people on the committee feel very strongly that is the way it should be.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, one of the areas we have talked about, and I hope we can roll it out in the not-too-distant future, is for that to be refundable. That way it would serve the same purpose as if it were part of the Pell grant funds for those in need.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend from New Jersey, Mr. Pallone, for organizing this special order on education this evening. Yes, we have been doing a lot of things. This Congress has been doing a lot. Let me touch on a couple of things. A lot of the dialogue over the last week has been about the balanced budget, as it should be, and I supported it, as did most of the Members of this House, but we cannot lose sight of the important responsibility we have in this body this year to expand the educational opportunities for middle-class families in this country, but also for those families who have their hopes and dreams set on becoming part of the middle class. As the gentleman knows and Members of this body know and many people across this country, given the challenges of the 21st century, education is the one thing that is going to open that door of opportunity for so many people, and it has really been true through the ages, but now it is more important. As our task force has worked, and I want to commend the Members of the task force that was set up by the leadership, we have had excellent attendance. Of all of the task forces I have served on, I think more people have been in attendance and have had more input, and it seems that at every meeting we get more new ideas and hopefully we will be able to roll those out pretty soon. As I said to the gentleman on this House floor back on February 25, when it comes to education, as we talk about it, there seems to be many times a whole lot more talk than there is action. That is true of a lot of bodies. But I believe this year, with the focus that our party has had historically on education, with the focus that the President has placed on it, and with the framework that is now being put together and was provided for in the balanced budget agreement that passed last evening, not everything we would like to have had, of course, as the gentleman indicated, but that does not and should not stop us from looking at those broader needs outside the budget agreement; because if the economy continues to grow, as we think it will, and the conservative numbers are as they are, and the economy grows, there will be resources to do some things. As I look across this country, and our task force heard from a number of folks, and in the original proposals there was about $5 billion to use as leverage money to help some of the most hard-pressed cities and counties across this country meet some of their facility needs, and I have often said when I was State superintendent in North Carolina, and I have a number of cartoons to prove it, that it is important for children to go to school. As important as it is to have prisons, to lock up the people who are violent criminals and have broken the law, it is unacceptable in a society that has the resources that we have in America that we have prisons that are nicer than some of the schools we send our children to. Unfortunately, that is true today. It should not be. A child should not ride by a new $20 million prison to go to a rundown school where the water fountains do not work the way they should, the bathrooms will not flush, the rooms are not air-conditioned; and when we talk of technology, as important as it is in every classroom, the Internet, that unfortunately, for many of the teachers in that school, there are not even telephones available for them to use to call parents when they have a need. So these are some of the infrastructure needs that we have to address. There are those who would say that that is the responsibility of the local units of government, and I would agree, but so are a lot of other things in this country. We did not ask those questions and do not necessarily ask them when it comes time to make grants on law and order, which I have strongly supported in this House and at the State level. It has been my experience that children do not normally ask who provides the resources for their education. Usually, their parents do not ask. They just want to make sure they are there. I have often said that children do not know what they need, they only know what they get. It is our responsibility to make sure what they get as students is the very best we can provide. Not that money is the only answer, but the gentleman may have heard me say this, not on this floor, but I have said it at civic clubs and I have said this to my friends at civic clubs; if buildings are not important, when our industrial hunters in our Chamber of Commerce invite the new industrialists to town, take them down and show them the rundown warehouses and say, this is where we want you to open your new business. Because the facility really does not make any difference, it is the quality that you have inside. Mr. Speaker, we say that to our schools many times, and the quality inside is very important. I would not want anyone to mistake that. It is important. But the quality of what we have on the outside says what we value, and I think that is important as we look at facilities. I trust that as this process moves along, we will have time to draw attention to that. I think it is important, because if we are going to have excellence, as we must have for our children to compete, and provide for them that opportunity, that gives them a chance to not only get a high school diploma that is so important, but to get a diploma that really does mean something. I happen to believe that our schools are doing a far better job today than they are getting credit for, because we have some of the best people in the classrooms teaching today than we have ever had. Our students are coming out better prepared. That having been said, we have not reached the level that we need to reach in this country. I think anyone would say that. But I think we do have to acknowledge the successes that we have had, because unless we are willing to acknowledge the successes, then it is very easy for people to get discouraged, and once discouraged, it is hard to get it going again. Mr. Speaker, if we look at the National Assessment of Education Progress, which is one of the measures that roughly 42 States in this country ascribe to for fourth and eighth graders in math, and in reading, that report just came out in the last 2 months showing substantial growth across the country. Some States showed far more growth than others. I was very pleased that my home State over the last 4 years showed the largest growth of any State in the Nation, a real tribute to the teachers and to the students, but that did not happen in 2 years or 3 years. It has been about a 10-year process. I only mention that because I think it is important, as we think of education. It is a process and it is a journey, it is not a destination, as the gentleman spoke earlier about the opportunity for providing that door of opportunity for our middle-income young people and parents to make sure their children have a chance to go to college. We are now recognizing that it is no longer acceptable for 20, 25 percent to go on to the university. Everyone needs to get an education beyond high school. The reason for that is because of where the jobs are going to be in the 21st century. On our task force, as we began to look at it, and we listened to some of the speakers who came and talked with us about where the jobs are going to be, in the high-technology industry, and the responsibility, they triggered on several areas in the country. I will only use my home State as one of those, only for an example this evening. As we think of North Carolina, having been a rural State over the years, and the Research Triangle being there and the growth that has taken place, high-technology is now the second largest industry in the State of North Carolina, larger than furniture, larger than agriculture in terms of the number of people directly employed. If you take agriculture and take the secondary benefit, then it would be different. But over 100,000 people in our State are now employed in high- technology. In 1995, the average salary, the average salary of a person employed in high-tech is $42,166. These are some of the best jobs around, when we look at the average across the country. That is roughly about $24,000. So the gentleman can see that is important, but those jobs are going to people who have education beyond high school. Of the jobs that will be created over the next 5 to 6 years, it will require at least 2 years beyond high school. When we talk about investing in children and getting them ready to learn, according to a Rutgers University study, every dollar that we invest in early childhood education, this is before that student gets to elementary school, he is not thinking about high school, before they get there, for every dollar we invest in early childhood education we save the taxpayers of this country, State, local, and Federal, $7. That is a pretty significant return. Those are not my figures, those are independent figures that were done. If that is true, and we think in terms of the standards of excellence in math and reading that are part of that core responsibility we put on education, then if we will deal with that crumbling infrastructure, we provide teachers with the resources they need, not only just in technology but in the support they need on a daily basis, and we get children to school ready to learn. It is easy to talk about it, but we are unwilling to put the dollars. Yes, it does cost money. It is an investment. If we are going to save the dollars on the back side, for a period of time jointly, Federal, State, and local, we have to do both. We have to get children ready for school and ready to learn, and we have to get them to education beyond high school, because depending on where you are in the United States, depending on the level of incarceration, the expenditure for incarceration for those people that do not make it, and roughly, depending on where you are, anywhere from 75 to 80 percent of the people who are incarcerated in this country were high school dropouts, it tells us there is a relationship between success in the schools and the problems people encounter later. I have often said as I traveled at the State level, if you really want to see the stark reality, go into the courtrooms. Go into the criminal justice side. You will really see the reality of the people who did not make it at the public school level, for a variety of reasons. If you go over on the civil side you may see other people suing one another. They tend to have much better educations. But on the criminal side, you really see the stark reality of the problems we face, and we have to work together. It is not an issue that we can transfer to someone else, and we cannot say, This is the Federal part, this is the State part. We all have to realize our resources are limited. For those areas that are so difficult, as the gentleman touched on earlier, as it relates to infrastructure, facilities, there would be those that would say to us, and I have heard it said, the buildings are not the difference. I disagree with them. If they really believe that, if they truly believe that, then I cite them the example of a business. But more importantly, I would ask them if facilities are not important, then why do businesses continue to build new facilities? Why do we want to move into nicer and nicer homes? Because it says a lot about us, it says a lot about what we value. If you move children into a nice new building, and I have seen it happen time and time again, as I have spoken on a number of occasions, you go in that building several years later and it is still in good shape. It is amazing what happens to the attendance rate. It goes up, in many instances. People feel better about themselves. Dropout rates tend to go down. Academics improve, as long as you have a good instructional program. All of these things do work together. Some have said that it costs us in this country roughly seven times as much, and that will vary some from State to State, but almost seven times as much to keep a person incarcerated as we spend on education in Federal, State and local funds. That is not to say that we should not have some people incarcerated. There are some who need to be there and they need to stay there. But my point in making that is that when we think in terms of education and our responsibility, we need to look at education as an investment. It is not an expenditure, it is an investment. As a businessman for 20 years I understand what it means to invest and get a good return. If we will invest in education and in those opportunities for young people, they come back many times over. As we talk about this leveraging, the gentleman mentioned it earlier, and I do trust that before this Congress goes home we will find a way to work together to come up with a one-time $5 billion infrastructure piece, because that will leverage roughly $20 billion in investment across the country in some much-needed infrastructure. But if the gentleman is looking at it beyond education, as just a purely business investment, it employs people. It will return dividends down the road in terms of dollars paid, and pay itself back many times. The gentleman touched on the technology piece, because it is important. Let me share with the gentleman very briefly, and then I will see, the gentleman may want to ask a question. I was in a school 2 weeks ago tomorrow back in my home district where we were hooked up on the Internet. One of the schools was in England. The other school was in Belgium. The other school was in Massachusetts. I was with a fourth grade class right outside Raleigh, NC. Those students, each class had done a project from each school. They shared the project, how they developed it, why they developed it. One was on the lighthouses on the coast that were in danger of falling in the ocean, and one was in England who had a project on the Common Market, and each one had explained to the other three schools their project. Then they were able to ask questions. I only share this when the gentleman touches the technology piece, because this is an example of what we will see, I think, in the very near future, because this is a joint partnership, as the gentleman remembers. Many of us in this body signed a letter and sent it to the Federal Communications Commission. They in turn issued an order for lower rates, roughly as much as 90 percent, for Internet access to schools and libraries all across the country, not unlike what happened in the 1930's in this country when the Commission issued an order that we would have universal access to telephones, or the rates would be varied so we could have it. I think the next few years are going to be very exciting in schools, but it is going to take a partnership and cooperation; as someone said one time, a lot less heat with a lot more light on the part of those of us who are setting policy, to make sure that children in this country get the opportunity to compete in an economy that is daily becoming more and more globalized in terms of our resources. With that, let me ask the gentleman a question, because he has followed this very closely, as we talk about education being a journey and really not a destination. If I may refer back to the gentleman, my good friend, on this whole issue of the HOPE scholarship and the opportunity for providing resources for the middle class, there is a dialogue on that about whether or not it would be refundable, so you would reach down for the Pell grants and others. I hope the gentleman would touch on that briefly, and maybe we could have a little dialog on it.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. I want to close by thanking the gentleman for setting up this special order and hope I get a chance on several more occasions to thank the members of the task force and the Democratic Members of this Congress who have really given the support and the leadership. As the gentleman has indicated, we have just started this process. It will be long. There will be some times when we will be discouraged, but we should never, ever give up because it is too important and the investment will pay far greater dividends than anything we can invest on Wall Street.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Chairman, I rise to support the Stenholm-Stupak substitute. Over the past several weeks I have had the opportunity to ride with extensive law enforcement officers in my district. I have ridden with police chiefs, I have ridden with sheriffs who on a daily basis put their lives on the line protecting property and protecting lives. The challenges facing these brave men and women are daunting. Each day they confront the ugly face of drugs, violence, and crime that is more serious than ever and is being committed by younger and younger individuals. Mr. Chairman, local police officers need our help in fighting juvenile crime. They have asked me to tell Congress that they need the tools and the flexibility to respond effectively to this growing threat. This substitute is tough, but it is smart. My mother taught me a long time ago that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I am all for locking up violent criminals, but we must also be smart enough to invest an ounce of prevention to save the costs of the heavy cure.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support educational standards of excellence for every child in this Nation. I know setting House standards is the best way to achieve educational excellence. Our students are working hard, and their teachers and parents strive to give them the support that they need. We must give them the tools to make the most of their God-given ability. Last week we dedicated a memorial to this century's greatest President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It is fitting that we honor FDR as a leader who brought this country back from our worst economic calamity ever and brought us to the brink of greatness and our triumph over global tyranny. One of FDR's guiding principles is captured by his observation that we will all be better off when we all are better off. As the 105th Congress considers measures to strengthen education in this country, we must heed FDR's words and expand educational opportunities to all the children in America.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to support a resolution to protect our seniors from politically motivated cuts in Social Security, veterans benefits, and pensions. This Congress must balance the Federal budget and we must do so in a manner that is consistent with our Nation's values and honors our commitments to older Americans. These citizens have worked hard all their lives and now only want a dignified retirement. My North Carolina citizens have told me that we should not turn their cost of living adjustments into a political football behind closed doors in a Washington deal. Mr. Speaker, the professionals at the Bureau of Labor Statistics should be allowed to do the job for which they are hired: determine the Consumer Price Index free of political pressure and protect our seniors.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. The gentleman's point is well made. They are now talking about that more has been learned in the development of the brain in the last 5 years than in the last 30, 35 years, and we are beginning to realize that zero to age 3 is such an important period for our children. But even with that, if we look at Head Start and the young people who need to be there, we are still serving less than half of the young people that need to be served in that area. I was in Durham just 2 weeks ago, and they served somewhere in the neighborhood of over 700 children in an old abandoned school that they moved out of several years ago, but they have moved into it and done a lot of work. Certainly they need new facilities. But if one meets with those children and sees what is happening in their lives, and I visited twice in the last 10 days and met with the children, the bright eyes and the flow of enthusiasm. I have often said to folks, if you really want to see where we are headed in this country, go into a classroom of little folks, 5-, 6-, 7- year-olds, and ask them if they can dance and ask them to raise their hand, they will all raise their hands. If you ask them if they can sing, they will all raise their hands. Ask them anything, they will agree, they can do it. Then wait as they get older, into high school, and ask that same question, and they have qualifiers. I only slow dance, I can only sing this, et cetera. What I am saying is that we have the opportunity I think in 1997 in this Congress to link up all of these folks who are reaching out there, the business community and others, with the President's leadership, and make a difference as we move to the 21st century like we have never made in this country before, and provide a springboard for democracy to be here for our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren, if we do the right things in providing educational opportunities for our children.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I think the point the gentleman is making, talking about an expenditure versus an investment, is a good one. Any good businessman wants to invest, any person does. Certainly when we invest in our children, the point the gentleman made about as young people get an education, we break a lot of cycles when the educational opportunity is there, because what we have done is enriched the next generation, allowing them to earn more money, obviously. They are better able to look after their children and the members of their family. They are less likely to follow a life of crime, and they are able to move up in society into the middle class. As we move people into the middle class, all of us benefit. So the gentleman is absolutely right. As we enrich and broaden that base, that is how we become a richer and a fuller Nation. We have done that over generations as a result of education.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] for organizing this special order on education. I believe it is one of the most important issues that we will cover in this session of the 105th Congress. Having spent a number of years at the State level as a legislator and the last 8 as superintendent of schools for the State of North Carolina, I know a lot about what we should do and a number of the things we should not do. I happen to, as I said to some of my colleagues the other day, being the first member of my family to have had the opportunity to graduate from college, I happen to believe that everyone should have that opportunity, and today we see that college is becoming more and more difficult for more and more people as the cost of higher education continues to rise and the opportunity tends to be farther and farther away for those young people who have the greatest needs. I guess I might say that one of the reasons I got into politics and really into education, and I think both of them have some of the same things, was an opportunity to help people and really to help young people. I have had the opportunity to work, in the few short months I have been a Member of this Congress, with some outstanding members of the Democratic caucus, working on education, talking about those things that I think are important, and I think it is an issue that people on both sides of the aisle this year can come together on. Secretary Riley will be speaking with us and has spoken with us on a number of occasions, and I think the President deserves a great deal of credit for putting education at the top of his agenda in 1997. It is one of those issues that everyone can rally behind. Mr. Speaker, it is the issue that businesses are talking about, parents are talking about, everyone in the State and national level is beginning to focus on. We are talking about raising and having higher standards, that students do need to work harder and be responsible. Earlier this year my home State of North Carolina earned the distinction which I am quite proud of, and I have called it to the attention of my colleagues before, and I want to do it again today because the National Assessment of Education Progress released the data, and it is called NAEP and it is probably one of the more reliable standards in which students are measured across the country. And our fourth graders in mathematics gained three times the national average of growth in their mathematics scores, and our eighth graders doubled it, and North Carolina was ranked as one of only three States in the Nation to receive exemplary status by the Secretary of Education. Mr. Speaker, these are the kinds of things we are going to have to do for all children all across this country, set high standards, work with them, provide the resources, help our teachers, help our parents so that they can reach those standards. As we look to the new century technology is changing the way we work, we learn and the way we live. Here in this body we vote electronically. In our offices we have TVs and electronic machinery and computers. Every modern business office has a computer on their desk, and many are hooked into the Internet, and as we approach the 21st century it is a shame that we have classrooms that have no computers, let alone access to the Internet, and too few schools even have telephones that are accessible by the teachers. I have said many times as we talk about high technology there are many teachers who just like to have a telephone where they call a parent when they need them, when they have a problem in the classroom, and they have to go down to the office or stand in line for another phone. That is not acceptable in a nation that has the resources that we have, and we are asking our children to meet those standards. We can do better, and I trust that this Congress will do it. My district has high-technology firms because of the Research Triangle, an area that we are proud of in North Carolina, and it reaches all the way out to the heartland of our State, where we literally have high-technology firms in a field right next to tobacco. Now, that is a tremendous contrast in the Nation and in the State, but we must win in both those areas. We must win with our agricultural interests, and we certainly must win with our high-technology interests. High technology in North Carolina is now the second leading industry in our State. It is bigger than furniture, it is bigger than agriculture in terms of the number of people directly employed, with over 100,000 people, and in 1995 the average wage base for people working in technology in North Carolina was $42,166. Those are the best jobs around, the best paying jobs, and people must have the skills to fill those jobs, and just because a new industry moves in and provides that technology and those job opportunities, you do not automatically gain those skills. Those skills are required over a time, and they are acquired with education, and it starts long before a child shows up at the public schoolhouse door. We have to start earlier providing opportunities for enrichment for our children so that when they come to school they are ready to learn. We must invest in our children, get them ready to learn. According to a recent Rutgers University study, every dollar, every single dollar that we invest in early childhood education returns us $7, $7. What a tremendous return. That is a great investment, and yet we hear people talking about the expense of this and the expense of that. That is an investment with tremendous dividends for all of us. And then we have the standards of excellence, as I talked about a few moments ago, in math and reading, the basic foundations that we build everything else on, in my opinion, in public education. We have to have those standards of excellence so parents can know that their children are learning. They know after we adopt those rigorous standards, as we have done in North Carolina, we also need to do the same thing at the national level for every single child in this country so that we know the standards are there and the children are meeting them. But, more importantly, we no longer deal in an economy that is within the borders of the United States. We do not compete even with just the people at our borders to the north and south. We have an international economy, and money moves, and so do jobs, and we must have an educated citizenry if we are going to have access to the jobs of the 21st century. And as we do that, my colleagues, we must rebuild the crumbling infrastructure of our schools. Mr. Speaker, it is appalling to me that we will build prisons nicer than the schools we send our children to every day. I have seen multimillion-dollar prisons next door to crummy, crumbling, decaying public schools, and then we have the gall to tell our children that education is important. They can see the difference in where we put our money. Certainly, we need places to put people who need to be incarcerated. I am all for that. Last year in North Carolina I used that speech so many times, Mr. Speaker, that we put a $1.8 billion bond issue on the ballot in our State, the largest bond issue in the history of our State, and to the credit of the business community in our State, the parents, and everyone else, it was on the ballot from November of last year, and it passed by the largest margin that any bond issue has ever passed in our State. The people said enough is enough. We had roughly almost 6,000 trailers where children were going to every day, and even with those trailers they were working toward excellence in academics. So we have to get our infrastructure in order not only in our State but across this country. And I commend the President for proposing resources in this budget to help provide for the process of beginning to deal with that crumbling infrastructure. Certainly it is not enough money, but at least the $5 billion investment, if we turn it into bonds, will provide about $20 billion in this country to help with it. Let me turn to one other issue that, as we talk about education, we cannot talk about it just in education without talking in other areas, and it is an area in a number of States we need to look at. It certainly may be right outside some of our purview, but I read an article recently that there are 63,000 geriatric inmates in our Nation's prisons. Those are inmates that are there because they committed a heinous crime, but they are so old we do not have them anywhere else, and they cost on average; according to the National Criminal Justice Commission, these elderly prisoners cost on average $69,000 per inmate to incarcerate: $69,000. We need to find a better way to deal with those elderly inmates than to spend $69,000 a year when our children have tremendous needs. We are spending it in the wrong place. We need to spend it in preschool, and we need to spend it in our educational system. Some reports estimate it costs taxpayers seven times as much to incarcerate as it does to educate. Now granted we have got people we need to lock up and keep there, but we need to look at where we are putting our priorities. Let me touch on one other issue, if I may, in this whole area of education because all of it is important, and when we talk about investment I happen to believe education is an investment. It is an investment in our future, it is an investment in this country's future, and it is really not an expenditure because it pays rich dividends. We do need to spend money on technology, but we need to make sure as we spend those dollars, and this is true in every State, and this becomes as much a State responsibility, I guess, Mr. Speaker, as anything else. Our teachers need to understand technology and be able to use it because, if we put it in the classrooms without them understanding it, it will not be used the way it should be used. I have said that time and time again. I recommended in our State several years ago that we give every teacher a laptop and let her take it home--him or her--and they learn to use it. Now some have done it, and it works because then it becomes integrated with their lessons and it gets used. No question that young people can adapt to technology much quicker than some of us 35 years of age. We have a little bit of a difficult time dealing with it. We do not want folks to see that we really do not understand it that well. But it is important and imperative, I think, that we provide Internet to our schools. It would be great if it were in every classroom, but certainly will not have that access in schools so that that information is readily available to the children who live in some of the poorest areas of this country, as well as those who live in the more affluent areas, because we are all part of one Nation, the United States of America, as we are of our individual States, and any child deprived of that opportunity, in my opinion all of us lose when that happens. And we need to help families who are struggling to pay for college. Today we have so many young people who are bright, who want to go to school, and if they borrow the money that is required for them to get through college, they come out with such a debt, and we are working on something, we have introduced a bill. As a matter of fact, the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Price] and I introduced House bill 553 called the Education Affordability Act which will provide for some student--allows the interest on the student loans to be deducted just like we do on the home loans. It seems to me that if we can allow the deductibility on a second home at the beach, at a minimum we can allow for that investment in a young person and their family makes in their children's education; and I want to again commend the President for his proposal to help those struggling families who are really reaching out and trying to help their children get an education because they realize, and there are many young people today who will be the first in their families to graduate from college, and there are many who may be the second generation that because of the level of income of their families are going to have a difficult time. The President has proposed the HOPE scholarship for those who work hard and do well academically. They ought to have that opportunity and a $1,500 tax credit expansion of the Pell grants. I talked today, Mr. Speaker, with a college president of a university where he said if there is one thing I could do for these young people and others we are recruiting, give us Pell grant moneys, raise that level because the cost has gone up and we have not kept up with inflation over the years. Also, we ought to allow parents who have saved and been frugal to reach into their IRA's without penalty and apply those dollars to their children's educational opportunities. They saved that money for an investment. What better investment can you make than an investment in your child's future, in their education that will allow them to provide for their families in the years to come? We have to remember, and I remember growing up, people talked about education as if it were a destination: ``I received a high school diploma,'' or ``I graduated from X college with a degree,'' or ``I have a Masters or a Ph.D.'' Today, we cannot talk in terms of education as a destination. It is a journey that lasts all of our lives. It is lifelong learning, and it starts when a child is born and it is never- ending until we cease to draw our last breath. If we are going to be involved in the economy of the 21st century, and it really does not matter whether we work for a high-tech firm in Silicon Valley or the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, or if we work in the tobacco fields of eastern North Carolina or the wheat fields in the Midwest, the technology of the jobs that we do, whether it be in textiles or wherever, requires education, education, education, and business firms in this country understand it. They have been investing for a long time. We all need to get together and make it an effort where we do not just talk about it. Preschool education, K through 12 education, university education, education on the job, it is an education of lifelong learning, and we need to work together so that we can make it happen. It is a journey, it is not a destination. I thank the gentleman for these moments, and let me thank the gentleman for organizing this time.

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

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on an issue that is important to all of us. On Sunday, April 13, 20-year-old Kevin Pridgen stood outside a neighbor's house on Glenn Road in Durham, NC, in my district, just visiting like many folks do on Sunday afternoon. In an instant, after he had been there just briefly, after 15 rounds were fired by an assault rifle, Kevin Pridgen lay in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the stomach, a victim of a drive-by shooting two doors from his own home. The alleged shooter in this terrible crime is reported to have been a 17-year-old juvenile whom police arrested and charged with assault with intent to kill. Sadly, episodes like this outrageous crime are no longer rare events but are increasingly part of the everyday routine in communities all across this country. Over the past several weeks I have taken the opportunity to meet with police officials in Durham and across my district to discuss these disturbing trends. Our brave law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every day in service to the public interest. They described to me the frightening details, the dangers they and the general public face with sharply increasing rates of violent juvenile crime. North Carolina's finest tell me that the juveniles involved in these crimes are younger than ever, while the seriousness of their crimes has never been worse. Statistics tell us that, despite the fact that overall violent crime in America is on the decline, youth violence is increasing. In fact, the latest numbers in my State show that overall violent crime is down by 5 percent, but youth violent crime is up by 6 percent. According to the criminal justice experts, they have projected that the demographic changes will increase the problems of violent crime of young people in record numbers in the coming decade. We must act now to protect our citizens today and address the long- term problems that are to come. I met with law enforcement officials across my district, sheriffs, police chiefs, small-town cops, juvenile detention officials and youth service providers. The message I received from these officials and from ordinary citizens comes through loud and clear: We must take aggressive action to stem the growing tide of violent juvenile crime, we must crack down on the most egregious offenders, and we must equip local law enforcement and youth services to meet the variety of challenges of our juvenile justice system. We must support Boys' and Girls' Clubs, YMCA's and other efforts to give our young people a positive alternative to the bleak choice of the streets. We must have a balanced approach of tough and smart efforts to deal with the complex and growing problem. Mr. Speaker, the American people desperately need leadership from this Congress on serious issues like juvenile crime. The voters of North Carolina sent me to the people's House to help provide that leadership. I call on my colleagues to join on a bipartisan basis to fulfill that mission, in the name of Kevin Pridgen and all our citizens who look to us for leadership to address the urgent issues that confront us in America.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, on two recent occasions, I was unavoidably detained on official business in my congressional district while the House was in session. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yes'' on rollcall votes 72 and 73 and ``no'' on rollcall vote 85. I ask that this statement appear at the appropriate place in the permanent Record.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, nothing is more important to the future of our American families, our communities, and our economy than the success of our public schools. In North Carolina, we have proven that over the last 8 years that if you want to make great strides in public education, you can do it through innovation, high standards, and good old-fashioned hard work. I rise today to urge this Congress to take aggressive action to support excellence in our public schools. North Carolina has proven that by challenging our people to become the best, we bring out their best efforts. This Congress must take the same approach by providing the necessary tools to equip our young people to provide for quality education for every child in every point and every place in America for those that are willing to work. Mr. Speaker, I will soon introduce legislation to support voluntary standards in our States to provide for higher standards. We must measure our progress and chart our future to a better America. I urge my colleagues to join me in the support of this legislation.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call on the people's House to put education first on our Nation's agenda. As a former two-term State superintendent in North Carolina, I know firsthand what can happen and what a difference a strong educational system can make in the lives of our people. My State has proven that bold, visionary leadership can make a difference tangibly in the lives of young people when we do the right thing. Mr. Speaker, when students, parents, teachers, and communities get involved, strong improvement is the result of what happens. Several weeks ago, the rigorous NAEP scores came out, and in our State, North Carolina, students came out near the top in this country. Mr. Speaker, as the first member of my family to graduate from college, I learned long ago the value of educational excellence. As a Congressman, I know how important education is to my constituents and to this Nation. We must provide safe healthy schools and we must do it now.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to mark the passing of a great North Carolinian. Russell Swindell served his State and its people in many capacities during his 90 years, and he will surely be missed by all. Russell Swindell was born in Swan Quarter, NC, and represented Hyde County in the North Carolina House from 1951 to 1955. He loved to spend time outdoors, and was a longtime member of the First United Methodist Church in Cary. But his greatest accomplishment, and the one that has undoubtedly impacted the lives of countless North Carolinians, was his help in creating the State's community college system. Mr. Speaker, there is a lot of talk these days in our Nation's Capital and throughout this country about the value and importance of a quality education. Russell Swindell knew that long ago, and with his help and hard work, North Carolina set up a quality community college system that educates our young people and provides necessary training for workers still today. His vision helped thousands receive an education and vocational skills that has allowed them a brighter future in our society. After leaving his job with the State Department of Education, he maintained his interest in the community colleges during the 20 years he was the executive director of the North Carolina Railroad Association. We are all thankful for his wisdom and vision and for the contributions he made to our lives. I wish to pass on my condolences to those who survive him: His wife, Martha, his daughters Sue Martin and Mary Anne Brannon, and his son A.B. Swindell, and all his grandchildren.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, there is a lot of talk in Washington these days about education. The President is talking about education. Business people are talking about education. At just about every level someone is talking about education, and every politician I bump into wants to talk about education. But as a former two-term State superintendent of schools, I can tell you talk is cheap, ladies and gentlemen. That is why last week I went into the classroom and began a program I call Give Teachers a Break. I took over a history and political science class and taught a group of students in Lee County High School in Sanford, NC in an effort to really give a teacher a break. This program puts Congressmen in the classroom where children are so they can understand what is happening day in and day out with a teacher, the problems they face, the difficulties of education, so we can learn from what is happening and we can look into the face of the next generation and have a reminder of what is at stake. I am proud that a number of my colleagues in this House have already decided to join in this program, and I challenge every Member of the U.S. Congress to do it. Mr. Speaker, it is no great feat to talk the talk on education. Today I challenge every Member to walk the walk and give a teacher a break.