Former Congressional representatives Barbara Kennelly, D-Conn., and William Goodling, R-Penn., visited Dartmouth for a town-hall meeting with members of the Upper Valley community and a handful of students on Tuesday afternoon. The event, which was titled "The New Congress: Implications for Public Policy and the 2008 Presidential Election" and was sponsored by the Rockefeller Center and the government department, focused on educational policy and the recent change of the Congressional majority.
Goodling, who served as a representative in Congress from 1974 until his retirement in 2001, centered his initial speech on problems with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which reinstituted a number of federal education programs in an effort to improve primary and secondary school performance. Goodling criticized the legislation for failing to combat illiteracy in low-income families.
"You cannot substitute government for the fact that the parent is the child's first and foremost teacher," Goodling said. "You can say no child left behind, but a child is left behind every time a parent is left behind."
While in Congress, Goodling advocated the Even Start Family Literacy Program, the purpose of which is to improve educational opportunities for low-income families. Goodling served as chairman of the House Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities and as chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
"I hope that my legacy will do something to show that what we are doing will actually reduce the achievement gap and actually reduce the dropout rate," he said.
Kennelly highlighted the problems of the current political climate, focusing on what she views as a failure of the judicial system.
"In the history of the country, I have never seen as much disregard for the Constitution as there is right now," Kennelly said. "I fear there has been some treading on the Constitution - even if you do it a little, the system is in peril."
Both former representatives spoke to the need for a bipartisan effort in Congress, though Goodling pointed out that partisanship is not as prevalent as most people believe.
"There has been terrible rancor in Congress," Kennelly said. "I can tell you that no big questions will be answered unless it is in a bipartisan manner."
Goodling also highlighted the Democratic party's new role as the House majority.
"The Republicans brought their own downfall and the challenge for them will be to come up with new ideas," he said. "For the Democrats, they can no longer criticize, now they've got to produce."
The event was part of the Congress to Campus program, which sends bipartisan pairs of former Congressional representatives to college campuses to hold forums and informal discussions with students over the course of two days. The program was started by the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress in 1996 as part of an effort to enhance civic literacy and political participation among college students.
