Ric Keller

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of House Concurrent Resolution 95, which acknowledges and commends the charter school movement for its contribution to improving our Nation's public school system, and calls for a National Charter Schools Week to be established. We have all seen the results of inflicting the many unfunded mandates on our Nation's public schools, and believe that the charter school movement, led by California, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, New Mexico, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin in the early 1990s, is a direct result of the desire for parents to increase their personal involvement and control of their children's education. My home State of Florida passed its charter school law in 1996. The latest information available shows that there are 149 charter schools operating in the State of Florida serving over 27,000 students. New charter schools have swept the country to the point of including 36 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico. This represents a clear change in how education is disseminated across the great country. There are nearly 2,150 charter schools across the country serving almost 550,000 children. Laboratories of learning are being established from coast-to-coast, and the common denominator between them all is a staunch desire for local hands-on control by parents and teachers. From back-to-back basic schools in Arizona to magnet programs in Colorado, they are all proving that there is not just one way to teach. Two weeks ago, the State of Indiana passed a very strong charter school law which will likely rank the State in the top dozen of States with the strongest laws. This is an outstanding victory for parents and teachers, who have been waiting a long time to affect their children's education in a positive way. A recent report by professor Scott Milliman of James Madison University, Frederick Hess, and Robert Maranto of the University of Virginia, and social psychologist April Gresham, revealed that the establishment of charter schools has spurred noticeable differences in the public school system. For example, based on a March, 1998, survey of Arizona public school teachers, the researchers concluded that the power of choice and market competition from charter schools led to the following changes between the 1994-1995 and the 1997-1998 school years. First, districts made greater attempts to inform parents about school programs and options. Second, districts placed greater emphasis on promoting professional development for teachers. Third, school principals increased consultation with the teaching staffs. The authors also found that charter schools do not replace district schools, but rather, push district schools to compete, primarily because State subsidies follow the students. This resolution supporting National Charter Schools Week must be used as a means of celebrating true diversity: diversity in education, diversity in learning, and diversity in thought. Supporting National Charter Schools Week lends credence to the proclamation that not everyone thinks alike and not everyone learns alike. Combined with the Charter Schools Expansion Act from the 105th Congress, it acknowledges the success of thinking outside the box by supporting and commending those communities who have chosen to take control of their own destiny. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on the concurrent resolution under consideration.

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 95) supporting a National Charter Schools Week, as amended.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella).

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Virginia (Mrs. Jo Ann Davis).

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Mentoring for Success Act which we filed earlier today. This bill authorizes $100 million for competitive grants to be allocated by local school districts and nonprofit community-based organizations for the purpose of starting up mentoring programs for high school students, to encourage them not to drop out of high school, to reduce their involvement in gangs, and also to improve the performance for children, elementary and middle schools. The chief sponsor of the Mentoring for Success Act is the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne). I am proud to be the original cosponsor of this important legislation. I would like to address just three points today. First, I would like to talk a little bit about the background of the sponsors of this bill and why it is so important to us. Second, I would like to talk about the educational benefits of this bill. Third, I would like to talk about the crime prevention benefits of this bill. First, with respect to the sponsor of this legislation, there is probably no Member of Congress who has had more success with mentoring young people than the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne), a former coach. Coach Osborne led the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team to three national championships, and he has the winningest coaching record in the history of college football. As for me, my background in this area is far more humble than Coach Osborne's. However, I did have the privilege of serving as the volunteer Chairman of the Board of the Orlando-Orange County Compact Program, the largest mentoring program in the State of Florida. I also had the privilege of serving as a mentor myself to two students at Boone High School in Orlando, where I attended. I have been a big believer in mentoring programs since I was a small child. Back when I was in elementary school, my mom, who was a single parent, thought it would be a good idea for me to have a mentor. She went down to the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization and arranged for me to have a mentor. My mentor throughout my childhood was a man named Tom Luke. Tom has worked for the Orlando Sentinel, which is a local paper in Orlando, Florida, for the past 28 years as their manager of the computer services department. Tom, along with my mom, played a very key role in mentoring me as a child. They are, in large part, responsible for whatever success I may have today. Mr. Speaker, I would now like to address the educational benefits of the Mentoring for Success Act, particularly as it relates to preventing children from dropping out of high school. In my home State of Florida, we had a big problem: Only 53 percent of our children were graduating from high school. So we in the Orlando area decided to do something about it. We created what is known as the Orlando/Orange County Compact Program. That is a mentoring program that matches up students who are at risk of dropping out of public high schools with mentors from the business community who work with these young people 1 hour a week. It is sort of like a Big Brothers Big Sisters program. The results from this mentoring program have been dramatic. Over the past 10 years, 98 percent of the children in the Compact Program in Orlando have graduated from high school, the number one graduation rate in the United States. Let me give just one example of how this program is successful, because this is exactly the type of program that the Mentoring for Success Act seeks to create. There was a young 18-year-old African American man named Lenard who was attending Jones High School, which is an inner city school in Orlando. Lenard was struggling in school. He was making Ds and Fs. He was skipping school. He had been arrested for selling drugs. He announced that he was intending to drop out of school. Lenard agreed to be in the Compact Program on one condition. He said, Just do not give me a white mentor. Naturally, we assigned Lenard a white mentor, an AT&T executive named Paul Hurley. To make a long story short, Lenard's mentor developed a friendship with him, and met with him every week. By Lenard's senior year, he went on to become Orange County's student of the year. In his senior year, Lenard won a raffle at Jones High School. The winner got two tickets to the Orlando Magic basketball game, great seats. He called his mentor and said, ``Hey, I just won two tickets to the Orlando Magic game tonight.'' His mentor replied, ``That is great. Why don't you ask your best friend?'' Lenard said, ``That is why I called you.'' Mentoring makes a difference, one child at a time. Finally, I would like to discuss the crime prevention benefits of this important legislation. In Florida, 70 percent of the inmates in our jails and prisons are high school dropouts. It costs the taxpayers $25,000 a year for each of these prisoners in our Federal prisons, compared to only $5,000 a year to educate a child in the public schools. Clearly, making this small investment in mentoring now will save us hundreds of millions of dollars down the road in reduced prison and welfare costs. In summary, the Mentoring for Success Act sponsored by Coach Osborne and myself will make a meaningful difference in the lives of young people, will improve education, will prevent crime, will save us money, and I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this legislation and vote yes on this important bill.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Reynolds) for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this important legislation to completely repeal the death tax once and for all. The death tax is itself the leading cause of death for over one-third of small family-owned businesses. Similarly, heart attacks are the leading cause of death among individuals. It would not surprise me at all if there are some small business owners back in my hometown of Orlando who have almost had heart attacks when they found out that they would have to pay a death tax of 55 percent in order to keep the family business alive. This is an unfair tax because the money has already been taxed once on the income level. Let me just give one example of the devastating impact the death tax would have on one of my constituents back in Central Florida. Mr. Bruce O'Donohue is the owner of a small family- owned business called Control Specialists in Winter Park, Florida. His company sells and installs traffic lights, and he happens to employ 25 people in his small company. The company has been in the O'Donohue family for 35 years. If by some unfortunate and tragic accident Mr. O'Donohue and his lovely wife were taken away from us today, his business would collapse under the tax load that he estimates to be nearly half of the business' worth, and Control Specialists would have no choice but to lay off all of its two dozen employees. It is important for my House colleagues to realize that the death tax does not just affect small business owners. It impacts the families that are employed by small business owners as well. Now, those who say they like the death tax say that it is needed to bring in money to the Federal Treasury. The truth of the matter is that the Federal Government spends more money to administer the death tax than it brings in. Repealing the death tax will bring some fairness and common sense into the system and will create an additional 200,000 extra jobs per year, according to the Wall Street Journal. I urge my colleagues to vote yes to completely repeal the death tax once and for all.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, as someone who campaigned on the platform of providing tax relief to working families in central Florida, I am especially proud today to be an original cosponsor of this important legislation to fully eliminate the marriage tax penalty. Why do I support this legislation? Because it will make a meaningful difference in the lives of approximately 60,000 working families in central Florida, who will receive an average tax break of $1,400 per year. $1,400 per year will have a positive impact on the lives of working families back home. For example, a married couple with two children, a $1,400 tax savings translates into $117 worth of groceries in the refrigerator every month that otherwise would not be there. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation today and vote yes on H.R. 6 when it comes to the floor in a little while. This is the type of legislation that we came to Congress for.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, as the only Member of Congress from Florida on the Committee on Education and the Workforce, I am proud to be an original cosponsor of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this important education reform legislation. This legislation will do three key things. First, we will invest an additional $5 billion in reading over the next 5 years for children in grades K through 2. This is critical since right now 70 percent of the fourth graders in our inner-city schools cannot read at basic levels. Second, we will require the States to conduct annual tests in grades 3 through 8 in reading and mathematics. This is critical to ensure that none of our children somehow fall through the cracks. How many times have we turned on the television only to see a college athlete explain that he is not able to read even though he somehow graduated from high school? We are going to put a stop to that right here, right now in this Congress. Third, in exchange for pumping historic levels of money into our public education system, we are going to insist on accountability. There must be a safety valve for students who are trapped in persistently failing schools. Therefore, if a school continues to fail for 3 consecutive years, the student is going to have the option of staying in that school and receiving $1,500 to use toward tutoring or he could transfer to a public school or he could transfer to a charter school or even a private school if that is in his best interest. Now why do I support this legislation? Because I know it will make a meaningful difference in the lives of young people, and it will ensure that every child in this great country of ours will have the opportunity, whether he is rich or poor, to get a first class education. Now how do I know this to be true? Because we have already implemented these same principles, measuring performance and demanding accountability, in the great State of Florida. What happened as a result? We went from having 78 F-rated schools based on low test scores to only 4 F schools in the course of only a year. Let me give you two examples. First, in my district of Orlando, Florida, there is a school called Orlo Vista Elementary School. At this school, 92 percent of the children are from low-income families and they are entitled to receive the free hot lunch program. Eighty-six percent of the students are minorities. This school was rated as an F school by the State of Florida based on abysmally low test scores. However, after measuring the students' performance, pumping Federal title I dollars into the school, along with local school board money and State dollars, we were able to make sure that we cured the problem and that all children were able to read, write and perform math appropriately. As a result, the school went from having 30 percent of the children pass a standardized test in 1 year to over 79 percent of the students being able to pass that same test a year later. It is no longer an F school. Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of taking our U.S. Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, on a personal tour of this same Orlo Vista Elementary School in Orlando. I wanted him to see firsthand why the school was successful. I took him into a reading lab, and while there he observed a little 6-year-old African-American boy reading. This is a child who, 1 month earlier, was having problems with reading and was set apart. The student-teacher ratio for this child was one-to-one. As he leaned over the shoulder watching this little child read, he was blown away and so impressed. This child was flying through that book, reading as well as most adults that I know. We were making a difference. We caught the problem and solved it with a one-to-one student/teacher ratio. This particular situation in Orlando was not unique. For example, at Dixon Elementary School, which is up in the Panhandle in Escambia County, another F-rated school existed because of persistently failing test scores. Yet in one year, after implementing similar legislation in Florida, we saw the students go from only 28 percent being able to pass a standardized test to this year over 94 percent passing that same test. I genuinely believe that we can replicate the same success that we have had in Florida all across the United States by passing the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, and I urge my colleagues to support this important education reform legislation.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I had the distinguished honor to welcome the President of the United States to my district of Orlando, Florida. Together, we attended an event with 4,000 doctors from the American College of Cardiology at the Orange County Convention Center. At this gathering, we discussed the importance of passing a meaningful Patients Bill of Rights which will put doctors and their patients in charge of their medical decisions. Unfortunately, because I was in Orlando, Florida with the President, I missed Roll Call votes 53, 54, and 55. If I had been present, I would have voted ``yea'' for all three missed votes.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. I rise today in support of the rule and in support of this important piece of tax relief legislation. I would like to tell my colleagues why. We all pay taxes and we are all entitled to tax relief. It could not be more simple. There are two big myths put out here about this tax relief plan: First, they say it is too big. Second, they say it is only for the wealthy. Let us address each. First, it is too big. We are using 70 percent of the tax surplus to pay down the debt, shore up Social Security, shore up Medicare and provide prescription drugs, with only 30 percent going back to the folks who paid the taxes, the taxpayers. Now, we could keep that money in Washington, but Washington is going to spend it if we keep it here. Whether it is a Republican Congress, a Democrat Congress, a Congress made up of space aliens, they will spend it if we keep it here. The second myth is that this is only for the rich. The truth of the matter is that a secretary raising three children, a single mom making $35,000 a year, will get a 100 percent tax cut. Her boss, a lawyer making $100,000 a year, will get a 16 percent tax cut. The folks on the low end of the income spectrum are the big winners. The top 10 percent of wage earners provide 66 percent of the tax revenue. Of course they are entitled to relief. They are the people who provide jobs in this country. I owe it to my colleagues to vote yes on the rule and yes on this tax relief measure.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, earlier today I filed legislation called the Pell Grant Math and Science Incentive Act of 2001, and I rise today to speak in favor of this piece of legislation. I would like to tell my colleagues about what it is, why we need it, and who is supporting it. Under this bill, a low-income college student who qualifies for a Pell grant would be eligible for an additional $1,000 grant that he would not have to pay back if he has demonstrated a proficiency in math and science while in high school. Let me tell my colleagues why this legislation is desperately needed. We have a problem with filling high-tech jobs in the United States right now. Currently, there are over 300,000 high-tech jobs that are unfilled in the United States because we just do not have the math-and- science-educated workforce to fill these jobs. This is costing businesses $4.5 billion a year in loss of productivity. Now, we do what we can to increase H1B visas. Currently there are over 100,000, so we go to foreign countries and allow their high-tech people in to fill these jobs, but yet we are still 300,000 jobs short. We desperately need college graduates trained in math and science. I learned this firsthand when I held a high-tech conference in my hometown of Orlando, Florida. At this conference was 75 leaders from the education community, high-tech industry, and political leaders, as well as leaders from Congress. What I learned there was one thing: what is most important to the high-tech business folks is having a well- educated workforce that produces graduates from our local universities who have experience in math and science. It does not have to be a specific computer major, not a specific Internet major, but someone who can do trigonometry, calculus, and basic science. I also went and met with Silicon Valley executives, and I learned from them that the reason they are in Silicon Valley is because of Stanford and Berkeley. They have a steady stream of high-tech workforce produced there. They told me that the main thing they need is math and science graduates. Mr. Speaker, we have a second reason for this legislation. We have a desperate need for more math and science teachers in this country. We will need to hire over 2 million teachers in the next 10 years. The biggest shortage we have are math and science teachers. According to a survey just completed of large city school superintendents, 97 school districts in the United States require more science teachers today, and 95 percent of the school districts need more math teachers today. So we desperately need to help those low- income folks who may not otherwise go to college, but who have the ability in math and science to open the door of college to them and to provide them with this additional grant. Now, who supports this legislation? Well, President George W. Bush is one. President Bush campaigned on the platform of providing an extra $1,000 for first-year college students who have demonstrated proficiency in math and science. In fact, his position is laid out in detail on his Web site: www.georgewbush.com. A second key supporter is the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Ehlers), who this House knows is one of the gurus here in terms of math and science education and is a strong supporter of this legislation. Perhaps the best part of this legislation is that it pays for itself. Right now, companies pay over $100 million a year collectively to provide for H1B visas to provide a short-term solution for the lack of high-tech workers. We can take that money and use it to fund this Pell Grant Math and Answer Incentive Act and would not have to raise any taxes and yet fix the long-term problem with the short-term money here. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to sign on as cosponsors for this important piece of legislation, and I urge all of my colleagues to vote for it. It will make a meaningful difference in the lives of our young people who need help going to college; it will make a meaningful difference in the lives of high-tech folks who need additional workers, and it makes good common sense.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the joint resolution to disapprove the ergonomics rule. I would like to tell my colleagues why. This will cost businesses, large and small, approximately $90 billion a year, a $90 billion-a-year unfunded mandate on private businesses. Someone mentioned grocery stores a few minutes ago. It is also true that if a bagger in a grocery store lifts a turkey up and we are in the Thanksgiving season, that is 16 pounds, he is now violating Federal law in the minds of some OSHA bureaucrats because they think you should not be able to lift anything over 15 pounds. We need a little common sense here. Now, should there be incentives for workplace safety? Absolutely, there should. We have that right now under workers' compensation insurance premiums. One small employer in my district who runs a gas station found his workers' compensation insurance went up $3,000 this year. Why? Because there was a serious workplace accident the year before. That is a pretty strong incentive to maintain a strong and safe workplace. Mr. Speaker, we do not need to nationalize our workers' compensation laws. I ask my colleagues to vote ``yes'' and disapprove these ergonomics regulations.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, as someone who campaigned on the platform of providing tax relief for working American families, I am particularly proud today to announce my support for President Bush's plan to lower income tax rates across the board and to eliminate the marriage tax penalty. I would like to address two issues today: number one, why I am supporting this plan; and, number two, what our opponents are saying about this plan and address those issues fairly and squarely. First, why do I support this plan? Well, I support it because it is going to make a meaningful difference in the lives of so many working families here in the United States. For example, for a married couple raising two children on a salary of $50,000 combined, they will receive a 50 percent tax cut. That is a savings of $1,600 a year. Now, a savings of $1,600 a year for that family translates into an extra $133 of groceries in their refrigerator every month for those two children that otherwise would not be there. Now, as someone who himself grew up in relatively humble circumstances, raised by a single mom on a salary of a secretary with three children, I do not have to guess about how much working families and single mothers need tax relief. And that is why I am so enthusiastic in my support of President Bush's tax cut plan. Now, not everybody agrees with me here. Our opponents have two things they are saying about this bill. And I believe these things are myths. But let us go ahead and address them squarely. The first thing they say is this tax cut is simply too big, it does not leave enough money to shore up Social Security, Medicare and pay down the debt. Well, here is the truth: 70 percent of this tax surplus goes to shore up Social Security, provide for prescription drugs, pay down the debt, with only 30 percent being used to return to taxpayers in the form of tax relief, the very folks who are responsible for this tax surplus. Now, they say we could leave that 30 percent here in Washington, D.C. And I suppose we could. But what would happen? Congress would simply spend that money. Whether it is Republican Congress, Democrat Congress, or alien Congress, that money will be spent. It deserves to be returned to the people who paid these excessive taxes. The second myth they say is that this is a tax cut just for the rich. Well, let us look at that little myth there. For a secretary making $38,000, a single mom raising three children, she will get a 100 percent tax cut, she will pay no taxes under this plan. For her boss, the lawyer making $100,000 a year with two kids, he will get a 16 percent tax cut. Secretary, 100 percent. Attorney, 16 percent. The low- income Americans are the big winners under this plan. Now, why is that? Because we take the lowest rate of 15 percent and lower it down to 10 percent and we double the $500 per child tax credit. Now, with that said, some folks say, well, that is all fine and good for the single moms and folks at the low end of the spectrum, let us just have taxes for the special people, let us not have the taxes for what they call the rich. Well, once again, all of us pay taxes and all of us are entitled to tax relief. The truth of the matter is that the top 10 percent of wage earners in this country pay 66 percent of the taxes. These are the same people who every year create hundreds of thousands of jobs. Are these folks not entitled to the tax relief? Should we not encourage them to provide additional jobs in this economy? In summary, this tax relief is desperately needed. It is going to make a meaningful difference in the lives of single moms and working families. A tax cut is not too big and it is not just for the rich. In closing, let me say this. The leading cause of divorce in the United States today is arguments about money. On this Valentine's Day, we have a happy message of hope for married couples who are struggling to make ends meet: Help is on the way.

Mr. KELLER

Mr. KELLER. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to honor one of my constituents, Joseph N. Kremonas. After over 45 years of dedicated service in the United States Defense Industry, Mr. Joseph N. Kremonas has recently retired from the Lockheed Martin Corporation. Mr. Kremonas has served the United States defense community by leading in the development of numerous systems for the United States Department of Defense to support our nation's warfighter. Several professional associations have benefited from his membership such as the Association of the Army, The American Defense Preparedness Association, National Security Industrial Association and the National Aeronautic Association. Mr. Speaker, I urge my fellow Members of Congress to join me in expressing thanks to Mr. Kremonas for his service.