Mr. AKAKA--Mr. President, I rise today to express my support for an important education amendment proposed by my colleague from New Mexico, Senator Bingaman, to S.Con.Res. 18, the Fiscal Year 2006 Budget Resolution.
Education is the key to our future. The continued economic growth and future prosperity of the Unites States depends on the quality of our educational system. But the President's FY06 Budget falls short of that goal, and this resolution does nothing to remedy this failure. It is the first budget in over a decade to cut funding for education. Much of the cuts are directed towards new and unproven initiatives at the expense of programs that almost everyone in the education community supports. We must do everything we can to ensure that children in this country get the best education available.
This Budget Resolution, like the President's Budget, aims to eliminate 48 effectual education programs for student success. Programs that prepare students to enter the workforce, such as Adult Education. Programs that help students to prepare for and thrive in college such as TRIO programs. Programs that improve teacher skills such at the Teacher Quality Enhancement program. Programs that prepare children to begin school such as Even Start. And programs that work to improve schools such as Comprehensive School Reform. S.Con.Res. 18 includes nothing to assure funding for these and other education programs.
Mr. President, one of the programs that the Bingaman amendment is working to restore is the Excellence in Economic Education Act. This program was included in the No Child Left Behind Act and works to promote economic and financial literacy in grades K through 12. There is a tremendous opportunity to instill in individuals the knowledge and skills that they need to make good decisions throughout their lives during their years in elementary and secondary education. This is particularly important as our students grow up in a world where we face more and more complex decisions related to managing limited resources and preparing financially for the future.
The majority of the E-E-E's funding, after being competitively granted to a national organization, provides funds to state and local partnerships for teacher training, assistance to school districts desiring to incorporate economics and personal finance into curricula, and evaluations of the impact of economic and financial literacy education on students, related research, and school-based student activities.
In Hawaii, a subgrant from the program is funding the development of a pre- and post-test assessment tool that will allow the Hawaii Council on Economic Education to measure the effectiveness of its teacher training courses and workshops. Another subgrant helped to fund a calendar poster contest on basic economics concepts conducted among elementary school students in Hawaii. A final E-E-E subgrant is focusing on enriching curriculum through economics. One of the wonderful things about some of the projects funded by the E-E-E are that they are shared best practices, meaning that teachers and schools do not have to reinvent the wheel in the ways they convey economics and personal finance education.
Entities across the country received much-needed resources for economic and financial literacy through the E-E-E's first competitive subgranting process in 2004. Although the results of the Act's first year grants have not yet been compiled for evaluation, the program needs a chance to work before it is arbitrarily terminated. I am pleased that the Bingaman amendment will work to give the program this chance.
The cost for this and other programs included in the Bingaman amendment will be $4.8 billion. However, this amendment is more than offset by various tax loopholes closures and other reduction measures. Not only is this amendment revenue neutral, but it provides for fiscally responsible deficit reduction. Educating our children and reducing the budget deficit are both vital endeavors, and the Bingaman amendment does both.
Mr. President, as I said at the start of my statement, this budget resolution is a false promise. It underfunds education and shortchanges our future. It deprives our schoolchildren of needed programs and opportunities. It underfunds some, and cancels others outright. But we cannot afford to shortchange our schools. We cannot afford to shortchange our students. We cannot afford to shortchange our communities. And we cannot afford to shortchange our future. Again, I commend my colleague, Senator Bingaman, for offering this important amendment.
