Senate Proceeding on May 12th, 2009 :: 0:33:55 to 0:43:55
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0:33:50 to 0:34:11( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: senator from tennessee if he's no improvement in math scores of the students in the d.c. voucher schools over a three-year period of time? mr. alexander: i thank the senator for his questions, and i know he is the most ardent supporter and defender of the idea of not using federal dollars to give poor children the same choices that middle- and hire-income children have. i respect that difference of

0:33:55 to 0:43:55( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Lamar Alexander

0:34:12 to 0:34:33( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: opinion and i'm going to go on with my remarks. but i believe it is a wise, it is a wise decision -- thank you very much. i'm going to continue with the time on the republican side, if i may. i look forward to a longer discussion with the senator from illinois on this subject, and i would hope that when senator

0:34:34 to 0:34:54( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: lieberman holds his hearing that we'll have a full discussion of why it's a good idea to say to poor kids and poor families, you can't have a choice of a better school, but people with money can. that's not the way we operate our college system. this is our nation's capital. we'r program. i've met with many of the

0:34:55 to 0:35:15( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: children. their lives are not going to be instantly changed in three years, but there was much in that analysis that was just kpwhraoeted by the -- completed by the department of education that showed the choices they made were helping the students academically and otherwise. i'll be glad to come back floor and discuss that when i have more time.

0:35:16 to 0:35:36( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: but let me go on to my concern about, beyond the d.c. voucher i regret to say this, but the really bad news has to do with pell grants and student loans. pell grants, of course, are the 5 million grants that are made to low-income students this year to help them pay for college by $19 billion that we've

0:35:37 to 0:35:59( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: appropriated for that purpose. on the day -- almost on the day that it was announced that we had a $1.8 trillion deficit for this one year -- four times bigger than it was last year -- the president's budget wants to add $293 billion over ten years

0:36:00 to 0:36:21( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: that is automatic mr. president, that is -- that is the reason the country's debt is so high. 60% of our spending here is entitlement spending. and i think the punishment for the administration should be that they should all be made to stay after

0:36:22 to 0:36:42( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: the blackboard each 100 times, "i will entitlement spending, even for a worthy purpose." it is no gift give them a scholarship to live in a country they can't afford to live in, because it has an interest payment of $800 billion a year, which it would in the tenth year of the president's budget.

0:36:43 to 0:37:04( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: it's not as if the congress has been they've gone from $7.7 billion ten years ago to today. and 5 million students are getting them. all we say today is that if we don't have the money that we've appropriated, we can't spend it on scholarships. the president's proposal would say we're going to spend it whether we have it or thought.

0:37:05 to 0:37:25( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: spend it whether we have it or not, despite the fact that our debt has grown to such levels that we couldn't even qualify to be union which is a huge impassement. that -- that deserves an "f" and to stay after school in detention hall. here's another "f."

0:37:26 to 0:37:47( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: that's for student loans. there are 15 million of student loans. what the president's budget proposes to do is turn this wide recruit, this blue-chip recruit, who i think has a good chance of banker of the year. he wants another washington takeover, this time of student loans.

0:37:48 to 0:38:08( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: instead of letting 12 million students decide they would prefer to institutions on campuses all across america -- 4,400 campuses, 2,000 institutions. they are saying everybody lines up it the department of education to get your student loan.

0:38:09 to 0:38:29( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: the only justification for that i can see is that the administration says it might save the taxpayers money because the federal government can borrow cheaper than the banks can. well, if that's true, then we ought to not have any private financial institutions in america. we ought to turn every financial institution into a national bank. let the president run it, and

0:38:30 to 0:38:51( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: anew jackson, the democratic party would turn over in his grave because he ran against the national bank during his whole political career. it u.s. department of education into a national bank for student loans. it savings are illusory. and the president's budget, they

0:38:52 to 0:39:12( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: say $94 billion is what will be saved, but they leave out adnistrative costs which could go as high as $32 billion. and they leave out the fact that what they're really doing is borrowing money at .25% and loaning it to the students at 6.8%. they are taking money from the students and using it to pay

0:39:13 to 0:39:34( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: somebody else's scholarship with the congressman taking the credit for that. there needs tor some truth in lending here so that when students line up to get their student loans, somebody says did you know that the interest that you are paying by working an extra job or by going at night is using to pay somebody else's scholarship? if we take that part out of it,

0:39:35 to 0:39:55( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: we could lea like it 12 million out of 15 million students prefer to have a phraoeuft choice. -- private choice. they have had 15 years to choose either the public option or the private choice, and they've consistently decided they'd rather dl with the community bank than a federal agency. well, i'm about through with the

0:39:56 to 0:40:16( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: report the rest i would put under incomplete. there's still a lot of good-faith effort here. deregulating higher education is a goal of mine and senator mikulski's as well. and the new secretary of educion said he'll work on that. more flexibility in no child left behind is a goal of mine, and it may bof the secretary's

0:40:17 to 0:40:37( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: as well. we can work on that. but my respectful suggestion to the presi of trying to make a tackle out of this wide receiver that you recruited as your -- instead of making banker of the year your edution secretary, why don't you let him work on the education agenda? why don't you let him focus

0:40:38 to 0:40:58( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: paying teachers more for teaching well and charter schools? and if he runs out of things to do to help parents, he could work on a tax system that is more favorable to parents with children. we used to have that in this country. or encouraging prenatal care so every child has a medical home. or helping nurses to help

0:40:59 to 0:41:19( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: parents in their homes so children can grow up healthy or to make sure we do nothing to discourage home schooling for dedicated parents. or helping adults learn there are lines in boston and in other cities of adults who want to learn english. or work-site day care for

0:41:20 to 0:41:43( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: parents who work and want to take their child to work with them. all that would help create better parents. the mentioned. after-school programs. higher standards in data collection. i know the secretary is interested teach for america, that's an important part of new energy in our schools. the secretary, instead of trying

0:41:44 to 0:42:04( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: take on the teachers colleges who have had a hard time spending tim on such things such as hard to -- how to give parents more choices, how to make charter schools successful, how to help newly arrived children learn english. or expand the you teach program started at the university of texas in which our america competes legislation put into national law.

0:42:05 to 0:42:27( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: that needs to be implemented. and then the summer academies to help outstanding teachers and outstanding students in united states history so our children can grow up learning what it means to be an american. that would be a good thing to do. i look forward to working with the new secretary of education. i give the president credit.

0:42:28 to 0:42:48( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: i give him him an a-plus for recruiting and a high grade for his focus on charter schools. i'm grateful for that. i stand ready to work with him. i give him horrible grades for stopping the d.c. voucher program and for another government takeover, this one of student loans, and of taking money away from students who are getting loans to pay scholarships for other students.

0:42:49 to 0:43:10( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: that's just not right. and i think in this day and age, when we're adding $1.8 trillion to the debt certainly no time to add $293 billion in entitlement spending to the budget the whole administration ought to write on the blackboard "i will never ever again add to entitlement spending."

0:43:11 to 0:43:35( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: and then i look forward to working with theresident and the -- and his outstanding new secretary on that incomplete agenda. many of the items that i mentioned are things in which they're interested as well and things which all of us in the senate would want to do to help improve our system of elementary and secondary education as well as our excellent colleges and universities. i thank t