Opening Statement of House Education and the Workforce Chairman John Kline (remarks as prepared):
The bill before us today, the Setting New Priorities in Education Spending Act, introduced by my colleague Mr. Hunter, is the first in a series of reform bills geared toward streamlining and simplifying the federal role in education. It is an important first step that will help reduce the federal government’s footprint in K-12 classrooms and ensure taxpayer dollars aren’t wasted on unnecessary, inefficient elementary and secondary education programs.
Over the past several months, members of this committee have heard testimony from superintendents, state officials, and myriad school administrators. Many of these folks expressed frustration with the magnitude of federal education programs, some of which, school officials told us, offer very little benefit despite imposing significant regulatory burdens.
The Department of Education currently administers more than 80 programs tied to K-12 classrooms. Virtually every program has its own application process, reporting requirements, and eligibility criteria. It’s a complicated system levied on our schools, and the time and resources necessary to navigate this bureaucratic maze divert time and resources away from the classroom.
It’s time to lessen the burden on our schools by cutting the most unnecessary, duplicative education programs. The Setting New Priorities in Education Spending Act proposes to reduce the number of K-12 education programs by half, eliminating 43 wasteful federal elementary and secondary education programs:
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Statement of Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (remarks as prepared):
Statistics illustrate the urgent need to fix what’s broken in our nation’s education system. Roughly two-thirds of eighth graders lack basic reading and math skills. Only 70 percent of students graduate high school. Meanwhile, federal education spending is at an all-time high.
Clearly, it’s not how much we spend on education, but how we spend it. And right now, far too many of those federal education dollars are dedicated to ineffective programs. The Setting New Priorities in Education Spending Act would eliminate 43 wasteful education programs, cutting the total number of Elementary and Secondary Education Act programs by half. This legislation is not designed to cut for the sake of cutting - the programs targeted for elimination in this bill are inefficient, redundant, and unnecessary.
Take, for example, the Ready to Learn Television program, which has received more than 100 million dollars over the last four years, including 27.2 million dollars in fiscal year 2011. This program funds the development of educational television, but has been criticized for failing to have any substantial impact on student outcomes. Or consider the Partnerships for Character Education program, which provides grants for poorly-defined programs to educate students on ‘elements of character,’ but is duplicative of the Safe and Drug Free National Grant program and has also shown negligible results.
Particularly in these times of trillion-dollar deficits and record debt, Congressional leaders must be careful stewards of taxpayer dollars. If a federally-funded program is failing, it is our duty to get rid of it. That is why H.R. 1891 proposes the elimination of programs such as Enhancing Education through Technology and Teaching American History. Despite a multi-million dollar investment, the Office of Management and Budget has reported both of these initiatives fail to produce demonstrable results. Additionally, they are duplicative of existing Teacher Quality programs.
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