Education

Click here for a recent statement on education by Congressman Engel

No Child Left Behind

When I voted for No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2001, I was assured that the law would be fully funded. However, since NCLB was enacted, the law has never been fully funded. I believe that if we are going to set high standards for schools but not give them the resources to achieve those goals, then we are setting our schools up to fail. Recently, the Bush Administration has proposed extending NCLB to high schools. I believe that we must first fully fund NCLB and work out all the difficulties that schools are having before we extend the law to high schools.

One of the many problems with NCLB is the potential for students whose performance is rapidly improving to be categorized as failing students despite their success. NCLB subjects students and schools to "failure" or "success" status, and without adequate funding, cannot overcome these weaknesses. I will support a reauthorization of NCLB when adequate funding is provided to expand the program to help students, schools, and teachers.

Student Loans

If America is to maintain its leadership in the world, we must encourage the education of our children up to and including college. The cost of education in America has been rising faster than the rate of inflation, by 41 percent at public colleges since 2001, and it is getting harder and harder for our families to keep up.

I was proud to vote in support of H.R. 5, the College Student Loan Reduction Act in January 2007. This bill is designed to make college more affordable and accessible by cutting the interest rate on subsidized student loans from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent. This proposal is targeted towards low- and middle-income students and their families, and is a vital step to making education more affordable for all Americans.

In New York State, the average subsidized Stafford loan debt for a four year graduate is $14,276. H.R. 5 reduces these outrageous loan debts to bring higher education within reach for thousands of New York families who have never had this option before.

Drug Education

As a father of three, keeping our schools and communities drug-free is a matter of great importance to me. I have long supported extensive drug education in our schools and youth drug prevention and intervention programs to help clean up our streets. The SDFSC program is the backbone of youth drug education in schools and has contributed to a significant decline in drug use over the past five years. The SDFSC program provides financial assistance for state and local drug and violence prevention activities in elementary, secondary and post-secondary educational institutions.

The FY07 Appropriations bill for the Department of Education contained $400 million for the SDFSC program, which equaled FY06 funding and was $37 million less than the funding in FY05. It is deplorable that despite their successes, these kinds of education programs continue to be less and less of a priority. Without the funding provided by the federal government, the vast majority of our schools and children would have no drug or violence prevention programming.

Student Nutrition and Health

As a parent and elected official I believe our public schools must provide students with nutritious meals and educate children on maintaining healthy eating habits that can continue throughout their entire life. The Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection is a provision of the Healthy Lifestyles and Prevention America Act, which was introduced on March 6, 2007 and referred to the Committee on Education and Labor. This bill would amend the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 by expanding the definition of "junk food." It would furthermore enable the USDA to prohibit the sale of junk food from being sold in our public schools. I agree that selling food of poor nutritional value in vending machines undermines the health goals of the federal school meal programs. Should I have the opportunity to vote on a House version of this legislation, it will have my full support.

School Prayer

As you may know, some members of Congress support a constitutional amendment aimed at protecting religious expression in public places. This amendment states that nothing in the Constitution prohibits voluntary prayer in a public place or during a public activity and that no person may be coerced by the United States or by any State to participate in prayer. The affect of the amendment would be felt, largely, in public schools.

As an American citizen, I firmly believe in the individual's rights to religious expression under the Constitution. I do not believe that an amendment to the Constitution is necessary in order to secure religious freedom. I understand that this is a very emotional and controversial issue. If read correctly, however, I believe that the first amendment of the Constitution protects voluntary prayer.

Head Start

I am an ardent supporter of Head Start. The Head Start program provides educational opportunities to many of the nation's youth. Head Start has been a vital program to our children since the day it was created in 1965 as part of the Great Society. In its history, over 22 million children have been served by Head Start, including over 900,000 in this year alone.

I was proud to support the Head Start reauthorization Act on May 2 of 2007. The bill, H.R. 1429, would reauthorize the Head Start program , while at the same time offering improvements that have been necessary but neglected for a number of years. By enhancing children's cognitive, social, and emotional development, the bill would establish a learning environment supporting a child's growth in language, literacy, mathematics, science, social and emotional functioning, physical skills, and approaches to learning. It would also provide to low-income children and their families health, educational, nutritional, social, and other services based on family needs assessments.

School Vouchers

I oppose the use of vouchers and tuition tax credits to reform our elementary and secondary educational system. Voucher programs offer parents publicly-financed "coupons" that they could use to help pay for their children's tuition at private schools. Likewise, tuition tax initiatives would allow parents to take a tax credit for tuition they pay to send their children to a private school. I oppose such measures because they take valuable resources away from the public educational system. Our public schools need reform and using taxpayer money to assist private schools would only shift valuable resources from already cash strapped classrooms.

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