Political Quotes

“during this summer's debate on the ESEA reauthorization legislation, I offered an amendment to increase the authorization for the new math and science partnerships program from $500 million in the Senate bill to $900 million in fiscal year 2002. Raising the authorization to this level brought math and science partnership participated and science partnership funding to the same level as the Reading First program also created in the education bill. My amendment passed by voice vote. During that debate, I joined several of my colleagues in emphasizing the critical need to improve math and science education in our nation's elementary and secondary schools. U.S. students consistently score lower than their counterparts in other nations in math and science, yet more than one in four high school math teachers and nearly one in five high school science teachers lack even a minor in their main teaching field. The training and preparation of math and science teachers must be a top priority. I am disappointed that the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill funds the math and science partnerships at just $12.5 million in fiscal year 2002-- a level far below the $450 million authorized by Congress for this program in the final ESEA legislation.”