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Congressman
Elijah E. Cummings |
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Congressman
Elijah E. Cummings |
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(6/25/05 Baltimore AFRO-American Newspaper)
Investing in America's future
by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
Each June, I have the privilege of participating in graduation ceremonies, both in Maryland and across the country. It uplifts my spirits to join these wonderful young people in their caps and gowns as they experience their final rites of passage into our adult world.
During the ceremonies, our distinguished graduates typically receive inspirational messages of hope. Their elders declare that the whole world is before them, ready to offer them success in exchange for their hard work.
For most, these dreams of success will indeed come true - although, perhaps, not right away. Yet, as I leave their graduation celebrations, my pride in their accomplishments is tempered by deep concerns.
Like these graduates, I too was once fortunate to receive the good education that prepared me for a productive and rewarding life. Luck, however, cannot be the cornerstone of our national education policy.
In my youth, our failure to adequately educate all young Americans consigned many of my childhood friends to lives of failure and despair. Today, despite all of the high-sounding political rhetoric, far too many young people continue to be left behind.
Barred by indifference, too many young Americans are being robbed of their right to receive a quality education.
A record-breaking 49.6 million children are enrolled in U.S. schools today.
With adequate and effective investment in their education, they present an
untapped resource that can maintain this nation as a world leader in technology
and science - the engines that fuel the modern world economy.
Tragically, however, studies show that science and technology-oriented
educational programs continue to be underfunded, especially in those schools
that serve communities of color.
According to the non-profit Committee for Economic Development (CED), challenging programs in science and technology are not widely available to all students - and the CED also notes that a large number of students, especially minorities and women, are discouraged from pursuing these fields.
These disparities constitute moral challenges of the highest order. We must be clear, however, that it is not only these abandoned children's future that is in jeopardy, but our entire nation's future.
Recently, during testimony before the Joint Economic Committee on which I serve, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan observed, quite correctly, that our nation is not educating our children to meet the demands of the 21st Century global economy.
"Our children fall . . . well below . . . the median in the world," Chairman Greenspan declared, referring to the decline of highly-skilled workers in the United States.
The results of that shortcoming are becoming plain for all to see. Inadequately training our workforce overloads the low-skilled market and pushes wages down. Meanwhile, highly-educated workers in nations like India and China are increasingly filling the high-tech jobs of today.
"This is not the type of thing which a democratic society -- a capitalist democratic society -- can really accept," Chairman Greenspan concluded - and I agree.
That is why the budgetary decisions being made by the Republican leadership of our country today are so shortsighted and unwise.
Democrats and many Republicans in Washington agree that President Bush's Fiscal Year 2006 budget plan - and the nearly-identical budget adopted by the Congress last April - fail to adequately fund science and technology education in our public schools.
For example, the budget plans recommend the termination of the federal Assistive Technology State Grant program, which, since 1998, has provided our nation's schools with more than $20 million annually to close the digital divide. Although, thus far, House and Senate Appropriators have preserved the program, we learned just this week that the House Appropriations Committee has refused to provide any funding to other critical technology programs (such as the Community Technology Centers and the Tech-Prep Demonstration, which received about $4 million each in Fiscal Year 2005).
In more global terms, the Administration's 2006 budget under-funds the "No Child Left Behind" program in Maryland by $163.8 million. As a result, nearly 40,000 Maryland children will go without the additional help in reading and math that they were promised and need.
Taken together, these illustrations demonstrate that the future intellectual strength of this nation has not yet become a top-tier federal priority. This is not a minor failing. It threatens everyone's future, including the young people who are graduating this month.
That is why we must continue to work, on a bipartisan basis, to secure public education funding at levels that are consistent with the true, long-term priorities of this country.
For example, I am the original co-sponsor of the Teach Act of 2005 (H.R. 2835), which would authorize $200 million to help local jurisdictions in recruiting good teachers in science and math.
I also have joined my Republican colleague, Congressman John Sweeney of New York, in co-sponsoring the Higher Education Science and Technology Competitiveness Act (H.R. 226), legislation that would allow associate-degree and bachelor-degree programs to work more closely in providing college-level science and technology courses.
As a nation, we can continue to lead the world into a better future, but only if we invest in our children's education today.
-The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives.
