Education: Keeping the Promise of Quality and Affordability
Quality education for every American is a keystone of the American Dream. I believe that an educated America is the single most important factor in maintaining our productivity and global leadership, and preparing our children to contribute to their communities and the nation at their full potential. That is why I have fought for critical education investments in my leadership position on the Senate Appropriations panel that funds education programs. We have made progress in important areas, such as modernizing Iowa’s schools, increasing funding for No Child Left Behind programs and expanding access to a college education. However, more needs to be done.
Ensuring that every person in Iowa and America has a quality education requires federal leadership at three levels. We must properly fund the No Child Left Behind law so that we have a realistic chance to close the achievement gap and modernize our schools, and make changes to the law to give states the flexibility they need to properly educate our children. We must do more to make a college degree and the greater skills, higher salary and better employment opportunities that it brings, more affordable. And we must make new investments in maintaining and improving our edge in math and science education and other initiatives that will help keep the American economy strong.
Building and Rebuilding Schools Across Iowa - The Harkin School Grants
A child cannot be expected to learn to his or her full potential if the classroom in which they sit is crumbling around them. That was my thinking in creating the Harkin School Construction grants. Between 1998 and 2007, these grants provided $120 million in federal dollars to the Iowa Department of Education to make competitive grants for school repair and construction. Because the grants required a local match, over $ 700 million has been leveraged for construction and repairs in over 260 Iowa school districts. For example, the Amana Clear Creek School District was able to take a $500,000 Harkin grant and pass a $25 million bond, financing construction of 2 new schools in a county with a history of rejecting bond initiatives. Passage of the bond led to local cities providing an additional $2.5 million in financing for the projects. I hope that this method of using a small infusion of federal dollars to leverage construction and repair of schools in Iowa can become a national model to provide all children with safe, modern school facilities conducive to world-class learning.
A list of the Iowa schools that have received Harkin School Grants
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Strengthening and Expanding Head Start and Quality K-12 Education
Investing in our future requires that our youngest learners get the support they need to prepare for school. This requires improving access to education and developmental services to get our youngest children off to the right start through the Head Start Program. I was pleased to recently help modernize and update the Head Start for School Readiness Act, which allows more families access to programs, improves early childhood training for Head Start educators, and updates learning standards to reflect the latest research in child development. I also made sure that early learning programs do not ignore the importance of wellness and healthy behaviors by requiring training to integrate physical activity and good nutrition in the classroom.
I supported the No Child Left Behind law (NCLB) in 2001 because I believed it offered a much-need framework that, for the first time, stated that schools would be held accountable for the adequate yearly progress of all children, including specific groups of children who were neglected in the past. But we cannot realistically expect to achieve its goals of higher student achievement, more quality teachers in classrooms, reduced class size and increased availability of after school programs without providing the funding to make it work. In his most recent budget, President Bush proposed underfunding NCLB by $14.7 billion, for a cumulative shortfall of $85.6 billion. As Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations panel that funds education initiatives, I have fought and will continue to fight to ensure the federal government makes the critical necessary investments in public education.
Read more about my views on the importance of full funding for NCLB
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Beyond additional resources, however, I also believe that we need to use the upcoming reauthorization of NCLB to make needed reforms to the law. When we look at why a given school is not making adequate yearly progress, we need a broader assessment than test scores alone. We must take decisive action to recruit, support, and retain high-quality teachers and make sure they are teaching students who most need their guidance. I will work to ensure that reauthorization of NCLB takes all of these factors into account.
Along with that, we must continue to meet our educational obligations to children with disabilities. I was proud to lead the effort to reauthorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that provides for early intervention and special education in the general education curriculum and I will continue to fight to ensure that the federal government meets its obligation to schools to share the cost of improving education for children with disabilities.
While I have been able to increase Iowa’s funding for educating students with disabilities by more than $44 million, or 63 percent, from 2001 to 2007, the federal government still only provides roughly 17 percent of the additional cost of educating students with disabilities. More than 30 years ago, the federal government promised to provide 40 percent and I will continue my efforts to see that this commitment is met.
College Affordability
A college education is simultaneously becoming more critical and less affordable each year. The cost of public and private universities have skyrocketed 40 percent over the last six years. As a result Iowa students now graduate with an average of almost $23,000 in debt, the sixth highest rate in the country. Yet there has been no similar increase in the availability of federal grant aid that has been critical in helping us develop the highly skilled and educated middle class in our country today.
In 2007 I was able to increase the maximum Pell Grant amount by $250 for the first time in 7 years! A key piece of the Democratic agenda, the College Cost Reduction Act, which was signed into law in 2007, builds on my success by providing additional increases over the next five years, funded by curbs on the excessive subsidies charged by private student lenders. It also brings needed relief to new graduates by capping loan payments at 15% of discretionary income and providing new loan forgiveness programs for Iowans and others who enter public service careers including, teaching, nursing, and law enforcement.
I will continue to take every step possible to ensure that a college education and the greater skills, higher salary and better employment opportunities that it brings remains within reach of every American student.
American Competitiveness
To maintain our economic leadership in the face of challenges from rapidly industrializing countries like China and India, I believe that we need to make additional investments in math and science at all levels of education and to continue to expand job training programs. I was pleased to support the recently enacted America COMPETES Act, which makes improvements to math and science education and represents a commitment to ensure U.S. students, teachers, businesses, and workers are prepared to continue leading the world in innovation, research, and technology well into the future.
A program critical in Iowa, the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education program also provides funding for career and technical training in fields including agriculture, business, health care in both Iowa high schools and community colleges. The program was recently updated and modernized, to encourage and make possible for young people to pursue some post-secondary education no matter what career they seek.
