Herb Kohl: “I rise today in support of both the pending amendment and the underlying Education Savings Account bill. Education…”

“I rise today in support of both the pending amendment and the underlying Education Savings Account bill. Education Savings Accounts will clearly help some families save money for their children's education, but they are only part of the solution to improving education in our country. The amendment proposed by the Senator from Louisiana is another part. It represents the work of several Senators who are trying to take a realistic, effective approach to improving public education. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to take a serious look at our bill, the Public Education Reinvestment, Reinvention, and Responsibility Act--better known as ``Three R's''. We have made great strides in the past six years toward improving public education. Nearly all States now have academic standards in place. More students are taking more challenging courses. Test scores have risen slightly. Dropout rates have decreased. But there are still significant improvements to be made. A recent study of students from 41 different countries found that American students still score far behind those in other countries. Addressing this sort of fundamental failure is going to take more than cosmetic reform. We are going to have to take a fresh look at the structure of Federal education programs.”