TOM HARKIN ON EDUCATION
KEY TO AMERICA'S NATIONAL SECURITY
Tom Harkin believes that education is vital to our nation's long-term
economic growth as well as our children's well-being. Now that the Cold
War has ended, how we compete as a nation in the international
marketplace is just as vital to our national security as our prowess
on the battlefield.
Our economic growth depends on investing in our human resources to
make our people the healthiest, most productive and smartest workforce
in the world. That requires making investments in education one of our
top priorities. Tom Harkin knows that demands an increased federal
role and commitment to improving our nation's schools.
George Bush, who campaigned as the education candidate, deserves a
failing grade for his record as President. Bush, the candidate,
promised full funding for Head Start. President Bush won't fully fund
the program until the next century. Under Bush and Reagan, the
federal share of education has declined by nearly half, to just 5.5
percent in 1991. When U.S. public spending on grades K-12 is compared
to public spending for the sixteen major industrialized nations, we
rank fourteenth.
A FIGHTER FOR EDUCATION INVESTMENTS
Since becoming chairman of the Senate appropriations subcommittee
which funds education programs, Tom Harkin has increased funding for
education programs by 46 percent, while funding for Chapter I has
risen 52 percent. Tom Harkin believes that George Bush's budget
agreement is the biggest deterrent to devoting the resources
necessary to invest adequately in education. In 1991, Tom Harkin
tried to break the agreement with an amendment shifting $3 billion
from the outmoded Cold War weapons to Chapter I and Pell Grants and
other domestic programs. A Harkin Administration will devote greater
resources to education, equal to its role in improving our long-term
economic growth and ensuring our national security.
EARLY INTERVENTION: A PRIORITY
Tom Harkin believes that early intervention and prevention are vital
to our overall education policy. That means we need to invest in
programs like Head Start, Women, Infants and Children (WIC), and child
immunization programs. As chairman of the education and health
appropriations subcommittee, Tom Harkin has won record increases in
Head Start and the Maternal and Child Health Care block grants, and
doubled funding for childhood immunizations.
AN ADVOCATE FOR TEACHERS
Tom Harkin knows that teachers play a fundamental role in discouraging
dropouts and improving student achievement. Teachers need more than
praise, they need our support. Yet, in too many schools, teachers are
underpaid, have too many students, work with too few supplies, and
cope with too many social problems. We can help boost student
achievement by recruiting more minority teachers, improve teacher
preparation through mentor programs and more clinical training, and
increase professional deelopment opportunities for experienced
teachers. With expanded counselor programs where caseworkers deliver
social services to students, teachers can spend time doing what they
are trained and want to do -- namely, teach.
ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION
Tom Harkin believes that no qualifled students should be denied the
opportunity to attend college because of their inability to pay.
Federal student aid programs are a wise investment, with every dollar
invested returning more than $4 in tax revenue.
Tom Harkin benefitted from the ROTC program, where in return for
payment of his college education he served in the U.S. Navy. He knows
that students often lack sufficient funds to attend college.
Accordingly, Tom Harkin calls for a program where in return for debt
forgiveness for students'college loans they must engage in national
service in an expanded Teacher Corps, Health Service Corps, Police
Corps, Conservation Corps, or military service. Tom Harkin also
advocates full funding for the Pell Grant programs to more adequately
serve middle-income families.
TRAINING FOR A NEW-HIGH-SKILLED WORKFORCE
The American workplace is a rapidly changing and increasingly
technological environment which requires well educated and
highly-skilled workers. Currently, two- thirds of our workforce does
not go to college. Yet in the past decade, real wages of those high
school graduates who have been working for fewer than 5 years has
declined 20 percent. Getting the economy back on its feet, and
creating high-wage, high-skilled jobs is one solution to this problem.
Tom Harkin also supports programs that offer the technical training so
our future workers can work with computer-driven equipment and take
greater responsibility for decisions in the workplace.
Tom Harkin calls for life-long training programs to help retool and
retrain workers displaced from their current jobs. All workers should
be given the opportunity to return to gainful and productive
employment and contribute to our nation's economic growth.
