Address by Senator John McCain Cable 99 - Technology and Education 

                  Thank you for your warm reception. I'm honored that you have asked me to join you as you meet in
                  convention for the last time before the year 2000. The advantage of being chairman of the Senate
                  Commerce Committee is the extent to which my responsibilities involve me in communications issues
                  that emerge at the hyper-speed of cyberspace. There is, I assure you, no more challenging experience
                  in Congress. 

                  Were I not privileged to be in this position, these extraordinarily interesting and complex issues
                  would be lost on someone who graduated fifth from the bottom at the Naval Academy. Classes that
                  dealt with such arcane subjects as ships boilers once proved a great challenge to me. You can see
                  how fortunate I am to be exposed to many of the galvanizing issues of a revolution that has already
                  proven to be as historically important as the industrial revolution. I surely don't have as thorough an
                  understanding of these issues as all of you do, but I recognize their importance to the future of my
                  children, my country and the world. And that recognition is a great blessing for a man of my years
                  who still hopes to acquire a little wisdom while I can still put it to good use. 

                  Your industry grasps the sweep of this revolution. You are its pathfinders. In the years since cable
                  television service began, you have experienced an astonishing series of technological advances. From
                  twelve analog channels to hundreds in digital, from microwave hops to satellite transmission, from
                  automated local originations to cable modem service. 

                  Cable has adroitly used technological change to expand our choices in television entertainment. You
                  have succeeded beyond anyone's expectations and you have challenged the traditional basis of
                  government regulation of mass media. Cable's multi-channel video capability has undercut the
                  scarcity rationale that supports much broadcast regulation. 

                  But the tempo of change in the past pales in comparison to the changes that digital technology and the
                  appearance of advanced high-speed Internet service are poised to usher in. The multi-channel video
                  past -- impressive as it is -- is but prologue to the Internet future. 

                  Let me give you an example of what I mean. Low bit-rate video streaming and smart digital devices
                  will soon enable people to call up virtually any kind of video programming they wish, whenever they
                  wish to see it - on TV, on PCs or on hand held units. This service will be complemented by
                  Internet-based wireless telephony, with Internet-ready wireless phones just around the corner. 

                  Advanced Internet-based digital technology challenges us to rethink the way government currently
                  regulates electronic media. Human progress made possible by new technologies should be confined
                  only by the limits of our imagination. 
                  Unfortunately, we are still constrained by government policies that seek to control our advance rather
                  than facilitate it. Just as the communications industry is remaking itself to meet the needs of a new
                  century, government must reform itself, from dictator to steward, from regulator to referee, from
                  paternalism to partnership. 

                  The only thing that can slow the rapid pace of technological change is government intrusion. At this
                  moment, special interests in Washington conspire to rein in growth and opportunity for their own
                  competitive advantage. As most of you know, I don't believe in false competition. I am and will
                  remain unyielding in my determination to encourage a wide-open, competitive telecommunications
                  market where there are abundant choices, and where consumers and not bureaucrats pick winners and
                  losers. 

                  By the year's end, cable will have made high-speed cable modem service available to twice as many
                  households as in 1998. Moreover, your deployment of high-speed Internet service is providing such a
                  jump-start to other competitors that within two years the number of households subscribing to these
                  services is expected to increase over tenfold. 

                  Given the fact that one dollar invested in broad band infrastructure development produces three
                  dollars in GDP growth, your deployment of high-speed Internet connections is an engine for
                  tremendous economic growth. But that isn't all it does. In a much more fundamental and profound way,
                  the proliferation of advanced Internet-based technologies is changing the way we live in and learn
                  from the world around us. 

                  I've lived through some pretty exciting times, but this is the most wonderful time to be alive.
                  Information and capital move around the globe with lightening speed and at costs that shrink by the
                  day, breaching the economic and political walls of the Cold War. Our principles of political and
                  economic freedom have become the creed of many societies that had long lived in the shadow of
                  tyranny. 

                  Trade barriers are withering, markets are opening, more ideas, innovations and entrepreneurs are
                  competing in the marketplace through a unifying communications network. The global economy and
                  borderless competition are defining this new age. Maximizing this opportunity as a force for good
                  demands American leadership. It requires that along with trade goods and services we export our
                  values; and that we regard our principles as the most important information we have to communicate. 

                  If America is to lead the technological revolution and use it as a great force for good, we must turn
                  our hands to the most fundamental work of a successful society - educating our children. We aren't
                  doing that as well as we should. Forty million Americans can't fill out a job application or read a
                  menu in a restaurant much less a computer menu. High tech firms are begging for well trained,
                  well-educated workers. A recent survey showed American high school students near the bottom
                  worldwide in math and science and dead last in physics. America will remain neither prosperous nor
                  proud unless we make the reforms necessary to rescue our education system from the disrepair it has
                  fallen into. 

                  The people most responsible for failing to prevent the decline of American educational standards are
                  those of us privileged to be America's political leaders. The state of education is far too important to
                  continue using as a partisan wedge issue. But that is what we do - both parties, and we need to knock
                  it off now. When partisan ambitions take precedence over the good of our children, we squander their
                  birthright as Americans; their opportunity to live better, more fulfilling lives than their parents. 
                  Republicans have to acknowledge that there is a role for the federal government, not in issuing
                  one-size-fits-all bureaucratic mandates, but by serving as a clearinghouse to share with states what is
                  and is not working for students across the country and overseas. 

                  It is important that we have a federal bully pulpit to encourage states and cities to improve local
                  standards. But we shouldn't spend all our federal education money to pad government payrolls in
                  Washington. We should insist that at least ninety cents of every federal dollar is sent to local
                  communities to be used for purposes that local educators are in the best position to prioritize. 

                  We should help parents finance their children's education. Last year, President Clinton vetoed a bill
                  that would have helped families finance their children's education by opening tax-free education
                  savings accounts. Republicans have opposed innovative ways to support school districts in desperate
                  straits. And Democrats continually refuse to accept that competition breeds excellence in education no
                  less than in the telecommunications industry. 

                  It's time to democratize educational choice. Today, families who have the means can send their
                  children to the school that provides the best education. Middle and lower-income families should
                  enjoy that same freedom. If one of the aims of education is to prepare children to enter an economy in
                  which excellence is forged through competition, shouldn't their schools share the same principle? It is
                  long past time for a broad national test of school vouchers. 

                  Charter schools that feature a disciplinary specialty, operate free of regulatory shackles, and where
                  enrollment is not defined by geography but by excellence were once considered a threat to the
                  educational status quo. Today they are competing and thriving. Rather than lose students to charter
                  schools, public schools must and will improve. That's competition, and as in every industry, the
                  consumer is the ultimate beneficiary. 

                  I would like to recognize a very special person with us today, a pioneer in the charter school
                  movement and other educational reforms, Arizona's Superintendent of Public Instruction, Lisa
                  Graham-Keegan. To me and a great many Arizona parents she is an American hero. Lisa, please stand
                  up. 

                  Republicans should also recognize the urgent necessity of paying teachers salaries that are
                  commensurate with the invaluable service they provide. It is unconscionable that a bad politician is
                  paid more than a good teacher. But Democrats must agree that pay should be merit-based, and that
                  teachers should be periodically tested for competence by local authorities. By all means, we should
                  reward good teachers. They have answered one of the highest callings in our society, and they should
                  be honored for the sacrifices they make on our children's behalf. But we should also weed out
                  problem teachers who have lost the desire to teach or who have failed to improve their teaching skills
                  in this high tech age. 

                  Teachers who refuse to demonstrate their competency, are probably not competent to teach. Every
                  child in every classroom deserves a teacher who is qualified and enthusiastic about teaching. Some
                  people just aren't meant to be teachers, and we should help them find another line of work. 

                  Every child in America should have access to the technological wonders of our age, and I strongly
                  support wiring all of our schools to the Internet. I commend the cable industry's contributions to this
                  effort. The Internet is a powerful learning tool, responsive, interactive, and up-to-date. It can
                  transcend the boundaries of geography, age, nationality and economic status that persist in dividing
                  people. 

                  The advent of advanced Internet-based learning technologies demands that we reconsider fundamental
                  assumptions about our current educational system. New technology is going to change the learning
                  process completely. In the years before computers -- the process of learning was a largely
                  teacher-dependent. Knowledge was accumulated in a mostly communal effort, in step with the
                  maturity and skills of the students comprising the class. 

                  Today, however, Internet-based learning is much different. Children can find information instantly
                  with the click of a mouse. The good news is that the Internet can expose young people to subjects that
                  increase their intellectual maturity so that they can advance apace with their potential. The bad news
                  is that it can expose children to material that overwhelms their emotional maturity. And, perhaps most
                  troubling, the Internet can provide a refuge for the most disaffected and a repository for expressions of
                  alienation and rage. 

                  One of our great challenges will be using the Internet as an educational tool, while protecting children
                  from inappropriate material. Meeting that challenge will require the best efforts of families, the
                  industry and all of us. As a first step, Congress should pass legislation to promote the use of Internet
                  filtering technology. 

                  The advent of new learning technology must be complemented by the advent of new attitudes towards
                  education. It will be increasingly more important for adults to give children perspective rather than
                  information, vision rather than facts and context rather than content. And that in turn presupposes an
                  openness to rethinking what schools should be allowed to do and what parents should be expected to
                  do. 

                  In the end, however, the future of education -- the future of our kids -- isn't in the halls of Congress, or
                  in the labyrinths of educational bureaucracies, or -- for that matter -- in a computer. It's in the
                  classroom, at school, in the local community, and most importantly at the kitchen table. The home is
                  the first and most important Department of Education. 
                  Nor will technology invent new truths for our children to learn or better principles for them to live by
                  than the ones we were raised to uphold. Communicating the values of democracy and the virtues of
                  good people must still be done parent to child, teacher to student, offered with love, and affirmed by
                  our example and the example of all community and national leaders. The most important lesson we
                  can teach any child is the happiness derived from serving a cause greater than self-interest. 

                  I often ask young Americans at the start of their adult lives to take up a new challenge, a new patriotic
                  challenge, to join together to defeat the cynicism that so many Americans, especially the young, feel
                  about public life, and to help restore to Americans a sense of noble purpose. This is such an
                  extraordinary time to be alive. Yet cynicism and boredom deny young people the conviction that there
                  is a purpose beyond materialism to being an American. To encourage them to be patriots, we must
                  first convince them that there are great causes left to serve. 

                  My father's generation fought the depression and World War Two. My generation fought the Cold
                  War. They were noble causes that gave even the most obscure lives historical importance. There are
                  great causes waiting our service today. Employing new technology to help educators eliminate a
                  two-tiered society of haves and have nots is a great cause. And I commend all of you for your efforts
                  toward that end. 

                  When I was a young man, I thought glory was the highest ambition, and all glory was self-glory. But
                  no more. For in a difficult moment later in life, I learned how dependent I was on others, but that
                  neither they nor the cause we served made any claims on my identity. On the contrary, they gave me a
                  larger sense of myself. Nothing is more liberating in life than to fight for a cause larger than yourself;
                  something that encompasses you, but is not defined by your existence alone. If we teach are children
                  only that truth, we will have taught them everything they need to know to be happy. 

                  We should use every resource we have to recall them to the faith that has made America the greatest
                  force for good on earth. Let us prove once again that people who are free to act in their own interests
                  will conceive their interests in an enlightened way, and will gratefully accept the obligation of
                  freedom to make of our power and wealth a civilization for the ages - a civilization in which all
                  people share in the promise of freedom. 

                  Thank you.

