James Webb on Education Democratic Sr Senator

More pre-K programs; more second-chance high schools

• Pre-K: "The first [challenge we face in American education] is the benefit we can get through pre-K programs that would allow less privileged children to begin socialization and education at an earlier age."
• Cost of college: "The second challenge is the huge student loan debt that is hanging over the heads of so many of our talented young people who must mortgage their futures in order to have one. We could find a way for those who have finished their education to complete a period of public service, with loan forgiveness as an incentive for that service."
• High school graduation rates: "The third challenge is the reality that about 25% of the young people in this country do not even finish high school. During my time in the Senate, we worked hard to create second-chance programs for those who had not finished high school, financed in part by employer tax credits combined with programs in local community colleges."

Rebuild our public educational system

• October 2006.No Child Left Behind: "You have federal requirements that are being put into place without the full amount of funding so that local jurisdictions are having to make up the difference, which is taking money away from other things they could be doing."
• September 2008.De facto tracking: "We tend to label kids early on, and we've gotten worse at it rather than better over the years."
• July 2015.Fixing education and making it equal: "Let's put a priority on fixing our educational system and, in the process, giving our young people the priorities in our society and the future that they deserve. Let's rebuild an educational system that gives everyone a fair chance. A democracy is only as strong as the promise it offers its young citizens through the public education system."

Public education levels the playing field

Voted YES on additional $10.2B for federal education & HHS projects.

Proponents support voting YES because:

Rep. OBEY: This bill, more than any other, determines how willing we are to make the investment necessary to assure the future strength of this country and its working families. The President has chosen to cut the investments in this bill by more than $7.5 billion in real terms. This bill rejects most of those cuts.

Opponents recommend voting NO because:

Rep. LEWIS: This bill reflects a fundamental difference in opinion on the level of funding necessary to support the Federal Government's role in education, health and workforce programs. The bill is $10.2 billion over the President's budget request. While many of these programs are popular on both sides of the aisle, this bill contains what can rightly be considered lower priority and duplicative programs. For example, this legislation continues three different programs that deal with violence prevention. An omnibus bill is absolutely the wrong and fiscally reckless approach to completing this year's work. It would negate any semblance of fiscal discipline demonstrated by this body in recent years.

Veto message from President Bush:

This bill spends too much. It exceeds [by $10.2 billion] the reasonable and responsible levels for discretionary spending that I proposed to balance the budget by 2012. This bill continues to fund 56 programs that I proposed to terminate because they are duplicative, narrowly focused, or not producing results. This bill does not sufficiently fund programs that are delivering positive outcomes. This bill has too many earmarks--more than 2,200 earmarks totaling nearly $1 billion. I urge the Congress to send me a fiscally responsible bill that sets priorities.