 |
| Lower Our Voices and Raise Our Sights |
June 13, 2000 |
| |
Dear Friends,
I missed you last week. We married off my little brother over the weekend and then dove directly back into the Washington business of hearings on the Los Alamos fire, medicare reimbursement rates, education amendments and the Baca land purchase.
Now is the busy time in Washington. Every year, no matter what, we have to pass a budget for the federal government to operate. Having passed the blueprint earlier this spring -- with Senate leadership from our own Pete Domenici -- now we are working through the 13 bills that give detail to the blueprint.
I just returned from the floor offering an amendment to get a GI Bill for Teachers started this year. My amendment is based on a bill I introduced earlier this year to use college scholarships in return for service in the classroom to get the best and brightest we can into the profession of teaching. It`s smaller than I wanted, but would be a $25 million start to the program.
We`ll take a vote on it in a few hours I`m not sure we will get it through this time. But we will have identified the core supporters and build further consensus from there for the long haul.
So why would people oppose a GI Bill for Teachers? For some it is ideological -- no more federal programs. For some it is procedural -- the spending committees don`t like anyone to amend their bills on the floor of the House because it invades their turf. For some it is political -- don`t support even a good idea until you "get something" in exchange for it.
I believe it is time to lower our voices and raise our sights to embrace the greatest challenge of the 21st Century: public education.
I support increasing funds for public education. The base bill I expect to vote for will increase funds by some 10%. I also expect to support further increases as this process continues. But we can`t keep doing things the same old way and expect different results.
The two most important factors determining a child`s success in school are parental involvement and the quality of the teacher.
Teacher training matters and I`ll keep fighting for it.
Wish you were here,
Heather |
|
|
|