Opening Statement of Howard P. "Buck" McKeon
Chairman

Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness
Committee on Education and the Workforce

Field Hearing On
"H.R. 2649, the Schools Safely Acquiring Faculty Excellence Act of 2003"

May 24, 2004

Good morning. I’d like to welcome each of you to our hearing today to discuss the need for teacher background checks and to examine the provisions of H.R. 2649, the Schools Safely Acquiring Faculty Excellence of 2003, a bill that was introduced by my colleague – Congressman Porter – to help keep children safe in the classroom.

The success of education reform efforts is increasingly seen as directly dependent on the quality of classroom instruction, and ensuring the quality of America’s 3.2 million teachers is an essential part of providing an excellent education to all our children. A growing number of studies provide conclusive evidence that teacher quality is the primary school-related factor affecting student achievement. Students who are taught by effective and competent teachers excel quickly, while those who are assigned to the least effective teachers lag behind and often never catch up.

The bipartisan No Child Left Behind law asks each state – in exchange for billions of dollars in federal teacher quality aid – to develop and implement a plan to place a highly qualified teacher in every public classroom by the close of the 2005-2006 school year.

Since No Child Left Behind was enacted more than two years ago, Congress and President Bush have continued to provide record teacher quality aid to states and local school districts, at levels far higher than provided under the previous Administration. Federal teacher quality aid has been increased by more than 35 percent under President Bush, who requested nearly three billion dollars in annual teacher quality funding for states and teachers in his 2005 budget request to Congress – compared with just $787 million provided under President Clinton’s final budget.

In addition, President Bush and Congress have taken numerous steps since the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act to help teachers, local educational agencies, and states meet the law’s highly qualified teacher provisions and improve our nation’s teaching force.

To provide incentives for good teachers to remain in the teaching profession, President Bush and congressional Republicans in 2002 enacted legislation allowing teachers to take a $250 tax deduction when they pay money out of their own pockets for classroom expenses, such as crayons and books. We are currently working to expand this so-called "Crayola Credit" to $400 or more.

During the 108^th Congress, the House passed legislation to more than triple the amount of federal student loan forgiveness available to highly qualified reading specialists and math, science, and special education teachers who commit to teaching in high-need schools for five years. The Teacher Recruitment and Retention Act would increase maximum federal loan forgiveness for such teachers from $5,000 to $17,500.

In 2003, the House also passed legislation to strengthen teacher-training programs at America’s colleges. The Ready to Teach Act would reauthorize and strengthen teacher-training programs under the Higher Education Act to ensure tomorrow’s highly qualified teachers are prepared to meet the needs of the nation’s students.

It is important to note that members of the Committee re-introduced these bills last week as part of a competitiveness package aimed at helping teachers receive quality training they need to improve student achievement.

Today, the Subcommittee continues its focus on teachers – but we are looking at a different issue. The purposes of today’s hearing are to discuss the need for teacher background checks and to examine the provisions of H.R. 2649, the Schools Safely Acquiring Faculty Excellence of 2003.

Mr. Porter will talk more about his legislation – but I want to thank him for his leadership on this issue and his efforts to help ensure that our nation’s students are safe in the classroom.

We have a distinguished panel of witnesses for today’s hearing. I would like to thank each of you for your appearance before the Subcommittee and I look forward to your testimony.