Schools aren't businesses. Schools are institutions of public service. Their job--their product--is not measured in terms of revenues gained. It's measured in terms of young lives whose potential can be realized. And you don't measure that either in terms of popularity of the school, or in terms of the standardized test scores in the school. You measure it child-by-child, in the interaction of the child with the teacher, the parent with the teacher, and the child in a larger environment later on in life.

So when people say that competition is-this is sort of sloganeering, "Hey, you know, schools need this competition." No. I've challenged people: Tell me why it is that competition would improve a school. Most of them can't explain it. It's just like, "Well, competition improves everything so therefore it must improve schools.

If you want to improve schools, you've got to go inside the processes that make a school great. You've got to look at the teachers, their qualifications, their motivation, what it is that gives a teacher satisfaction, what it is a teacher wants to do in a classroom.

Excerpt from Iowa Central Community College
Senator Harkin’s “Hear it from the Heartland” Forum
October 5, 2003.

How do we compete in a global market?

It starts with great education. And I’m a believer in public education. I don’t think there’s any replacement for great American public schools. That’s one of the things that’s made America what it is. It’s not only good for democracy, but it’s essential for the economy. And now we need to Work on our public schools. They need to be improved across America.

What we need to do is to put the teacher back into a position of authority in the classroom. We need to resource those teachers, train them, coach them , counsel them. They’re the most important leaders in America. They’re the centerpiece of American public education. It’s the only way we’re going to be able to compete into the future.

Impact aid was designed to reimburse public school districts the full cost of educating the military child attending public or private school off post . . . Currently, there are approximately a half million military dependants who attend school in districts surrounding military bases. Less than 15% of military children are in DoD schools; the rest attend public and private schools off-post.

In my home state of Arkansas, in the vicinity of Little Rock Air Force Base, there are approximately 2500 students who attend school off post. The three school districts are eligible to receive assistance under the federal impact aid program. However, the impact aid program is funded nationally at only around the 60% level. What does this mean for Little Rock?

This means that the three school districts in Little Rock bear a great burden in meeting the educational requirements of each child, both military and civilian. Currently, the three districts receive $575,000 in federal impact aid. If the program were fully funded, the school districts would receive somewhere around $3.8 million. This significant shortfall translates into a decrease in the number and quality of academic and extracurricular programs the schools can provide to its military and civilian children. It also means a decrease in armed forces retention and recruitment, which is cause for great concern.

Such schools tend to suffer from restricted funding and higher than average per pupil cost due to the turnover of students associated with military reassignments. In normal communities, the public schools draw on a diverse tax base and enjoy a relatively stable student population. This stability reduces school stress, disciplinary problems, and the general frictions that are inevitable at the beginning of each school year. Civilian schools with substantial population of military families often suffer from reduced tax base as well as extraordinarily high turn over of students even during the school year.

The DoD education system is the 37th largest U.S. public school system, with 160 schools serving 78,000 students. USEUCOM provides logistical support for 111 of these schools and 46,368 students. We should not lose programmed funding for all-day kindergarten. Improved student-to-teacher ratios are also extremely important. Program based staffing is critical to provide a full range of educational opportunity for all of our DoD schools.

Athletics, music, art, and associated after school activities are as critical as the core academic subjects of math, science, history, and English. We must take aggressive action to expand vocational, technical and school-to-work opportunities for our students.