10,000 Teachers, 10 Million Minds Science and Math Scholarship Act
Floor Speech
10,000 TEACHERS, 10 MILLION MINDS SCIENCE AND MATH SCHOLARSHIP ACT
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Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of H.R. 362. Let me first congratulate Chairman Gordon for the leadership that he is providing, along with Ranking Member Hall, and let us note that since the change of the guard here in the House of Representatives a few months ago, we have had an exemplary approach to bipartisanship and a positive spirit that we have seen in the Science Committee, and this legislation reflects that positive atmosphere and working environment that we have in the Science Committee.
H.R. 362 seeks to address the lack of qualified teachers for math and science in K-12 throughout our country. I support H.R. 362 because it is not just a giving of something to someone, a scholarship, but it is actually providing young people who may not have the means to go to school and to get their education. It requires 5 years of service as a science and mathematics teacher in order for them to get this scholarship. I see that as a two-for, if not a three-for or a four-for, because the kids are going to benefit, the schools are going to benefit, the country is going to benefit.
Trading service for education is an American tradition. I guess it goes back even further than the GI bill, but that is what brought it to mind. All of us had parents who were probably recipients of the GI bill. I know my father was.
We should be beefing up education benefits through the GI bill and other things like that for our Reserves and our National Guard and Active Duty people, now that we are at war and now that we are thinking about this. But this particular scholarship program we are talking about today will fill a need for our country of finding math and science teachers in order to fill these positions throughout our country that now can't be filled.
Let us note that 10,000 teachers provided these scholarships is certainly going to help. But the basic problem is not touched by this legislation, and that is that we would not need these scholarships if math and science teachers throughout the country were paid more than they are today.
What is happening is today, math and science teachers are being forced to accept wages, and then they don't accept them and just go someplace else, at the same level as teachers who teach things that are not quite as necessary. Or, in fact, there are many, many more teachers available for these other courses, whether it be social sciences or whatever. So since we do not have a pay differential, it is very difficult to fill these positions, and at least this legislation today will help meet the immediate challenge.
Instead, however, we should have worked on the fundamental problem throughout our country of making sure that people can go into math and science and be attracted to it. Fundamentally, what we need to do in America to address these types of shortages is to make sure that people who go into math and science and engineering make more money, whether they are teachers or anything else. Quite often, we do things that go contrary to this. Insisting that all teachers make the same money is one of those mistakes. H-1B visas that bring in hundreds of thousands of people from overseas and just depress the wages of people who are in math and science and engineering in our country is something else that is wrong, that ends up taking us in the wrong direction.
We need our young people attracted to math, science and engineering, and to get that education because they know they can earn a good living for their family and earn a decent living if they get that type of training.
So the legislation we pass today will help. It will provide scholarships. I support that. I salute the chairman and the ranking member for the leadership they provided in providing this help for our young people in exchange for what they will do teaching young people in our country. But again, that doesn't change the fact that there are some fundamental things we need to do in America to make sure that people go into math and science and don't have to subsidize our mistaken policies.
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