Max Baucus: “I rise today to shift the direction of the education debate for a moment. For the past few weeks, we have been debating…”

“I rise today to shift the direction of the education debate for a moment. For the past few weeks, we have been debating now best to engage the Federal Government in ways to improve our K-12 schools. There has been a lot of constructive debate on a number of important topics. An amendment that I planned to offer, S.A. 387, would have addressed another important topic relative to our schools: recruitment and retention of teachers in rural areas. I have spoken with Senator Kennedy and agreed to withdraw my amendment, but I want to speak for a moment about its importance. My amendment would have increased the scope of current loan forgiveness provisions for teachers, including an expansion of eligibility to those teachers who teach in districts identified within the Rural Education Achievement Program. I offered this amendment because there is a significant need in our rural schools for assistance in attracting and keeping good teachers. My amendment may have helped that situation. I understand that the issue of rural teacher recruitment and retention is one that needs further investigation, though, and am pleased that Senator Kennedy has agreed to address the needs of rural schools in Senate HELP Committee hearings. We need to better understand rural needs and find effective ways to provide our rural schools, home to roughly 17 percent of students throughout the country, with the resources they need to delivery a quality education.”