Patsy T. Mink: “I rise here tonight because I am somewhat concerned that in agreeing to the overall dollar allocations to education, and…”

“I rise here tonight because I am somewhat concerned that in agreeing to the overall dollar allocations to education, and seemingly in agreeing to the 100,000 new teachers that will be placed into our school systems across the country, that in fact what they are talking about is putting these monies into what is known as title VI. Title VI is a block grant provision that exists in current law, so if we put this extra money presumably for 100,000 new teachers into a block grant provision, there is absolutely no assurance whatsoever that the monies will be utilized for the hiring of additional teachers. The primary objective that the President and those of us who served on the Committee on Education and the Workforce and who have headed up the task force for the Democrats on this side, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Etheridge), who will be speaking very shortly, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Roemer), the three of us have served as task force cochairs. We were primarily concerned about the needs of our school districts. We want to make sure that the funds that are allocated go directly to the schools.”