Jeff Bingaman: “this is an amendment that the Senator from Texas, Mrs. Hutchison, and myself are offering to add an additional $7…”

“this is an amendment that the Senator from Texas, Mrs. Hutchison, and myself are offering to add an additional $7 million to the funding for advanced placement instruction in our schools. This is an issue she and I have pursued for many years. It is my strong belief one of the clearest ways we can improve the quality of education in our school system is to encourage more students to take advanced placement courses, to encourage more teachers to get the training necessary to teach those advanced placement courses. Those are courses the college board has identified as specified standards nationwide. It is clear to anybody who is involved in secondary education in this country that a student is advantaged in their later education and in their career if they have the opportunity and take advantage of the opportunity to take these advanced placement courses in high school. There are many high schools in my State of New Mexico that do not offer advanced placement courses to their students. I think that is a shame in this day and time. I think it is very unfortunate we do not make this opportunity available nationwide to more students and encourage it. A recent report which the Presiding Officer and I have requested from the National Academy of Sciences talks very extensively about the importance of developing the scientific and technical building blocks we need for this country to strengthen our economy.…”