This week, the House approved two measures to improve teacher training and recruit “highly qualified” teachers in mathematics, science, and special education. The House also approved an administration proposal to provide financial assistance for unemployed workers. The three bills have been bundled into one legislative package (H.R. 444) for Senate consideration.
On June 2, the House approved, by voice vote, a bill (H.R. 4409) that would reauthorize through FY2008 the teacher quality and preparation programs authorized under Title II of the Higher Education Act. Sponsored by Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-PA), the measure would provide incentives for teachers in subjects with teacher shortages — namely math, science, and special education — to teach in “high-need” schools. The bill would authorize three types of grants for teacher training: state grants for reforming requirements for teacher preparation; teacher recruitment grants aimed at attracting high-quality talent into schools; and partnership grants, which would be used to fund collaborations to train teachers. The measure would require that college teaching programs receiving federal grants graduate teachers highly skilled in teaching their core subjects. The House approved a similar bill (H.R. 2211) last July (see The Source, 7/11/03).
Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA) said that teacher preparation programs “have a great deal of responsibility in contributing to the preparation of our Nation’s teachers, and this bill will make sure they are meeting their responsibilities. We owe our teachers the opportunity they are seeking to become highly qualified and ready to teach.”
Pointing out that the House approved a bill to reauthorize the teacher training programs last year, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) stated, “It is time to move forward. It is time to address the real needs of students. Those real needs are to make higher education more accessible and more affordable. College tuition fees have increased by almost 30 percent over the last 3 years. At State schools last year, 49 of the 50 States increased tuition. The average student debt is now almost $19,000, up 66 percent since 1997. Nearly half of all working postsecondary students work more than 25 hours a week in order to afford to stay in school.”
On June 2, the House approved, by voice vote, a bill (H.R. 4411) that would reauthorize Title VII graduate education programs. Sponsored by Rep. Max Burns (R-GA), the measure would authorize $120 million for FY2004 and such sums as may be necessary through FY2009 for the following programs: Javits Fellowships, Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need, Thurgood Marshall Legal Educational Opportunities, and the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education. The House approved a nearly identical bill (H.R. 3076) in October.
Rep. Max Burns (R-GA) said that the graduate programs authorized under the bill “produce immeasurable benefits for our Nation. Not only do these programs enrich our citizenry but they also nurture discovery and innovation that will lead to medical, educational, and technological advancements. Graduate programs train the next generation of teachers, the next generation of researchers and engineers and doctors and lawyers and professors. These individuals will be vitally important in preparing the United States to meet the challenges of a global economy.”
Focusing on unemployment benefits during the discussion on H.R. 4411, Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI) spoke “on how this Republican Congress and the Bush administration have not provided economic security for the American worker and their families.” He stated, “The Republican Congress and the Bush administration have refused to provide extended unemployment benefits to those workers who have exhausted their initial benefits. Despite the fact that 1.5 million workers have exhausted their benefits, this Congress has refused to act. These workers who have lost their jobs due to outsourcing and the sour economy do not have the financial security to provide for their families. This Congress and the administration continue to turn a blind eye.”
On June 3, the House approved, 213-203, a bill (H.R. 444) to create personal reemployment accounts of up to $3,000 for workers who have exhausted their regular unemployment benefits. The House Education and the Workforce Committee approved the measure on March 5, 2003.
Sponsored by Rep. Jon Porter (R-NV), the Back to Work Incentive Act would allow unemployed individuals to use their personal reemployment accounts for employment counseling, job training, child care, transportation, or other services to help them reenter the workforce. Under the bill, workers who are able to obtain a job before exhausting their unemployment assistance would receive a cash reemployment bonus.
The rule for H.R. 444 substituted the text of a bill (H.R. 4444) that would establish a personal reemployment accounts demonstration project. The measure would allow states to use demonstration and pilot project funding under the Workforce Investment Act to fund the demonstration project. The underlying bill would have authorized new funding of $3.6 billion for the accounts.
Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) said that job training and worker education “is more important to this effort in today’s changing economy now more than ever before. Every member of our society, including those who are most vulnerable and the hardest to employ, want to achieve independence and self-sufficiency. No American wants endless reliance on our government, and I think the President recognizes that and providing personal reemployment accounts represents one more way we are helping the unemployed by specifically tailoring job training and employment services to meet their unique needs.”
Arguing that the goal of the bill “is to pave the way for placing a Federal cap” on reemployment services and job training, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) stated, “In an economy with a million and a half workers who have already exhausted their unemployment benefits, reducing these services without providing any job creation program is not only bad economic policy it is outright dismissive of what these families are going through day after day, particularly women in transition, nearly half of whom are already finding Workforce Investment Act services, like local women’s education and training programs, insufficient.”
After the vote, Rep. Kildee offered a motion to recommit that would have provided up to 13 weeks of additional unemployment benefits for jobless workers who have exhausted their regular unemployment benefits. The motion was defeated, 199-216.
