Jim Jeffords

Mr. JEFFORDS

Mr. JEFFORDS. First, Mr. President, I want to thank the Senator from Massachusetts. We have been working with him on the questions of accountability. I am hopeful that we will reach agreement on an amendment, which he may propose, so that we will not have issues in that regard. I point out that the substitute amendment which I offered today includes many improvements with respect to accountability over the bill that we passed last year out of committee 17-1. I will run through, very briefly, the areas where we have already improved the accountability and are still attempting to reach agreement with the minority. First, the substitute amendment I offered strengthens the accountability features already included in S. 280. It adds State application requirements relating to the coordination of the Education Flexibility plan with the State comprehensive reform plan, or with the challenging standards and assessment provisions of title I of the ESEA. This Managers Package adds emphasis that student performance is an objective of Ed-Flex. It adds provisions regarding annual performance reviews, by the State, of local educational agencies and schools which have received waivers, and reemphasizes the authority of the State to determine waivers if LEAs or schools are not meeting their goals. It also adds provisions of public notice and comment, and provisions requiring additional reporting by the secretary regarding his rationale for approving waiver authority and the use of that authority. We will continue to work and, hopefully, we can reach agreement so that we will not lengthen the time necessary for passing this important legislation. Mr. President, I yield the floor. Mr. WYDEN addressed the Chair.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask, with the concurrence of the Senator from Connecticut, that the Senator from Wyoming be recognized for a period of not more than 5 minutes in morning business.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask that the Senator from Wyoming be allowed to proceed as in morning business for 5 minutes.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I'll use a few moments to take a look at last year. What we are talking about right now is where we ended last year as far as passing bills on education. Let us take a look at what we did accomplish during that period of time. This chart lists all of the bills which we passed out of our committee, almost all of them by unanimous or close to unanimous votes. They all became law. They were very important. First of all, we had the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, for which we had tremendous bipartisan agreement, and we took time to do it. It came out and passed practically unanimously by both the House and Senate. That is what happens when we have good, bipartisan working together. The next one was the Emergency Student Loan Consolidation Act of 1997. We had some important problems that came up with respect to student loans, but were able to take care of them. This Act passed with a very substantial vote. Next, was the National Science Foundation Authorization Act, which had not been reauthorized for many years. An important component of the National Science Foundation is education; we sometimes forget that. But a tremendous amount of funding for the important areas of education, in the areas of science, comes through this bill, and that was accomplished. Then we had a real step forward with the Work Force Investment Act of 1998, including the Rehabilitation Act Amendments. That bill has turned this country around in its attitude and ability to prepare people for the workforce. Not only that, but it recognized that workforce training is nonstop at high schools and colleges. Training goes on and on and on. We now have the nontraditional students of the past who are actually outnumbering the so-called traditional students on the recommendation that a person's job is going to change many times during a lifetime. We had close to unanimous agreement on the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. And for the first time in 5 years, we did a thorough review of the Higher Education Act, taking into consideration the needs of the Nation. Again, with very hard work and long, long hours, we were able to complete the Higher Education Amendments. Also included were the Education of the Deaf Act Amendments of 1998. The Higher Education Amendments took a close look at not only higher education, but what higher education was doing with respect to the teacher colleges. We found we had serious problems with the teacher colleges and things had to be changed. We also recognized that we had a huge problem trying to get our teachers in schools the kind of retraining that is necessary in order to bring them up to speed on the needs not only in the next century but this century. This Act passed close to unanimously. The work being done now in professional development--we eliminated all the bills on professional development in there. They were useless. We have now created a very firm foundation for professional development in higher education institutions to assist us in our K-through-12 education. The Reading Excellence Act was unanimous here. In close cooperation with the President, we came out with that act, and it is in law and already having an impact upon the serious problems we have with a number of young people graduating from high school who are presently functionally illiterate and do not have the basic skills necessary to warrant a diploma. We have had what is called social promotion, and the President emphasized that we have to do away with social promotion. The way that can be done is to try to make sure every kid can read, and the Reading Excellence Act will be an important part of that. In addition, we had the Charter School Expansion Act. As we go forward, it is necessary to experiment in the kinds of institutions we can create to have the flexibility and dedication to be able to change the relatively low results we have been getting out of our K-through-12 educational system. Some of the charter schools are working well. We have learned a lot. Those will be models for what we can do in the public school system. It is an important step forward. In addition, we had the Human Services Reauthorization Act of 1998. That is Head Start and other programs for the very young, as well as for those in special low-income areas. It was the first reauthorization of Head Start in many years. We came out with an excellent bill, all working together, Republicans and Democrats, and with the White House. Finally--and this is an important act--is the Carl D. Perkins Vocational-Technical Education Act Amendments. We had not been able to get that amended in many years. We did a thorough review of its application. We upgraded it and brought it into the modern day situation. I am pleased to say that we almost reached our goal on all the bills that we had. However, one bill didn't make it, and it was this Ed-Flex bill. The reason it didn't make it is not because the Members did not agree with what we had in the bill, but it was seen to be a vehicle on which perhaps many other ideas and thoughts about how to change education could be amended to it. I hope that doesn't occur this time. I hope we don't find ourselves in the position of not taking a bill which everybody agrees is important. The President has said that he favors it. He gave strong words of support for it. The Governors have unanimously agreed that they want it. I hope we will be able to get this out in the next few days in order to be sure that we can give the flexibility to the States that they need. My State has had it. It has worked very well. It is not a huge success in the sense that it is going to change that much that goes on, but it makes it easier for States to coordinate things. You have situations--at least in our State--where school districts are very close to the 50 percent or the 125 percent thresholds for poverty. If you don't quite make it, it fouls everything up. With the flexibility we have had in Vermont as one of those six States that have been able to use the flexibility, we have found that it has reduced the time and effort which go into trying to work with title I. That is all we are trying to do today. I think we are hearing now an agreement on accountability. If we have learned anything over the past year, it has been the tremendous lack of accountability in this country in our educational system. If there is any area that we need to improve upon--and I serve on the Goals 2000 panel--it is accountability. One of the most disturbing things I have found is that we really don't know what is going on in this country. We still can't measure performance, still can't determine--in fact, in the report we have no evidence that there was any improvement from the date that we got the ``Nation at Risk'' report in 1983. Fifteen years and there is no measurable improvement in our schools. But then we found that the data we were using to determine whether or not there was any improvement was 1994 data, and here it was 1998. So we have other improvements to make, and one of those is accountability and to be able to measure what is going on in our school system. The flexibility will help the States to be able to really ascertain and work better with their school systems to determine exactly what is going on, how to measure success. That is one of the reasons. So I am hopeful that that one bill we were unable to get passed last year in the area of education, which we knew was appropriate and necessary--I hope we can get it done quickly this week. I yield the floor. Mr. FRIST addressed the Chair.

Mr. JEFFORDS. I object. I prefer to have it read.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. JEFFORDS. I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Pennsylvania have 5 minutes as in morning business.

Mr. JEFFORDS. That is correct.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senator from Louisiana be allowed to speak in debate only for 10 minutes.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, reserving the right to object. This is for debate only.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Then the Senator would be recognized for debate only.

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

Mr. JEFFORDS. I ask unanimous consent that there be 15 minutes in order prior to the motion to table the pending amendment, No. 32, with 5 minutes under the control of Senator Jeffords, myself, and 10 minutes under the control of Senator Wellstone, and that no amendments be in order prior to the motion to table.

Mr. JEFFORDS. I further ask that following that vote, if the amendment is tabled, the only remaining amendments in order this evening be an amendment by Senator Wellstone regarding 75 percent and an amendment by Senator Kennedy regarding accountability.

Mr. JEFFORDS. I would just as soon speak now.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I will take my 5 minutes.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, this is an amendment by Senator Wellstone. I will give you a little history. This bill was voted out of committee earlier this year. It was basically the same amendment which was passed out of the committee unanimously last year--I am sorry, with one objection last year. It is generally agreed to. However, there are some areas that some Members wanted to address. I rise in opposition and I will move to table the pending Wellstone amendment. This issue was addressed in the managers' amendment package by including the eligibility of the State as a condition for approval and consideration. Also, under the eligibility requirement, States must have the very standards and assessments as laid out in title I. SEAs are prohibited from waiving statewide requirements for local school districts. And, finally, the States are required to implement corrective action pursuant to title I. Therefore, we believe it is redundant and unnecessary. At the appropriate time I will move to table. I yield the remainder of my time.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I move to table the pending amendment, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, what is the pending business?

Mr. JEFFORDS. It is my understanding that two amendments would be in order, if offered--the Kennedy amendment and a Wellstone amendment.

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

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I have no objection to the amendment.

Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, I think the amendment is a helpful addition to the bill. We appreciate the efforts of Senator Kennedy and are happy to accept it.