Judd Gregg: “the fact is, what counts is what is actually being spent in relation to what was spent the year before and in relation…”

“the fact is, what counts is what is actually being spent in relation to what was spent the year before and in relation to the rest of the priorities of the Government. As I have mentioned, this President's commitment to education has been $20 billion higher in 2001 than the Clinton administration's commitment in its last year. As a percentage of spending of the Federal Government, it dwarfs everything else. We are outspending defense by a factor of 3 and outspending health and human services by a factor of 2. Yet the letter went on to say that the funds were not adequately increased for teacher funding. I mentioned that earlier. That is because we raised it $742 million the year before. We have a total funding for teachers of $3 billion in the appropriations process. So it is totally inconsistent to say: Well, they have not increased it this year--when they ignore and do not give credit for last year's $740 million increase in teacher funding. You can go down the list. The same is true with representations made in the area of weakening the dropout provisions or in the area of alternative certification. Just the idea that there is opposition to alternative certification is pretty outrageous. We are trying to get classroom teachers who know what they are doing. Alternative certification is one of the best ways of accomplishing that.”