[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 130 (Saturday, August 5, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1647]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


  DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND 
               RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1996

                                 ______


                               speech of

                         HON. NICK J. RAHALL II

                            of west virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, August 2, 1995

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2127) making 
     appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human 
     Services, and Education, and related agencies, for the fiscal 
     year ending September 30, 1996, and for other purposes:

  Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Chairman, I am deeply concerned over the impact of 
funding cuts in title I compensatory education programs contained in 
this bill.
  In West Virginia, in my district alone, title I children will lose 
more than $5 million in the coming year--and much more over 7 years.
  Let me tell you about Kimball Elementary School, in Welch, WV, 
McDowell County. At this school, there are 350 children dependent upon 
title I remedial education services so that they will learn to read and 
to do math at their appropriate age and grade levels.
  Of the 19 schools in McDowell County, and of the 6,900 children in 
those schools, 4,700 of those children are eligible for title I 
services based on the low income of their families, and based on the 
breadth and scope of distress in the county--which still has double-
digit unemployment rates, and most families live well below the poverty 
level.
  McDowell County children will lose $565,700, over $\1/2\ million, of 
their title I funds in fiscal year 1996.
  Kimball Elementary School spends a mere $94,000 a year on children--
not just elementary-age children in need of services, but on dropouts 
who are brought back to school and guided to graduation.
  Teen mothers are brought back to school to complete their high school 
degrees. I am told by the title I director at Kimball Elementary School 
that five of those teen mothers are now in college, and one of them is 
on the dean's list.
  How's that for a success story for title I program services to 
children at risk of growing up and leaving school unable to read or 
compute, or write?
  Mr. Chairman, don't vote for this bill that cuts 1.2 billion out of 
title I--affecting 1.1 million children nationwide. Just think of the 
350 kids at Kimball Elementary School who need only a mere $94,000 a 
year.
  Think of how it will affect 4,700 children in McDowell County West 
Virginia, who may grow up illiterate, without high school degrees, 
without these extraordinary remedial education services.
  Vote ``no'' on H.R. 2127.
  

                          ____________________