Jack Reed: “I thank Senator Kennedy for yielding and for sponsoring this amendment. He has grasped the most critical aspect of…”

“I thank Senator Kennedy for yielding and for sponsoring this amendment. He has grasped the most critical aspect of educational reform in the United States today--improving the quality of teachers. He has simply brought forward the bipartisan, unanimous consent we reached in the Higher Education Act amendments of 1998 where, in the vote of 96-0, we passed the teacher quality enhancement grants program. We authorized a magnificent program on a unanimous vote, but we have failed to fully fund it. If we have the plan, but not the money, we are not going to succeed. Senator Kennedy is simply saying, we have a good plan, let's put the resources behind it. We understand we need to have high-quality teachers to meet the challenges of the 21st century classroom. These challenges are different from 50, 30, 20, even 10 years ago. It is no longer sufficient for a student to go to a teacher college and learn about pedagogy and then go into the classroom. They need to have clinical exposure. They must have real-life experiences in the classroom before they become new teachers. They also have to understand their subject matter. Technique is one aspect, but it can't substitute for detailed knowledge of the subject-- be it science, history, or mathematics. They also have to understand how to integrate technology, which is at the key of most of the breakthroughs in education in the United States today.”