[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 198 (Wednesday, December 13, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S18568-S18570]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO JULIE McGREGOR

 Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, frequent staff turnover is a fact 
of life in the Senate. In this regard, I have always considered myself 
exceedingly lucky. I have had many key staff members who stayed with me 
far beyond the average tenure and I, and the people of Oregon, have 
greatly benefited from their institutional knowledge and experience. 
But, inevitably, the day arrives when even those diehard staffers feel 
it is time to move on. For Julie McGregor, that day has arrived.
  And so I rise to bid farewell to a longtime and valued staff member. 
I find it difficult to take so many years of loyalty, dedication, and 
friendship and wrap it into a neat one page package. Words alone simply 
seem inadequate to express what Julie has meant to me, to my family, 
and to my office.
  Julie came to my office 13 years ago as an eager, bright, and 
intelligent intern. She departs today a wise and competent sage. In 
that time, Julie's role evolved from that of student to mentor. No 
matter how busy, she always took the time to encourage and guide less 
experienced colleagues. Members of the Appropriations Committee staff 
as well as my personal staff have relied on Julie's counsel and valued 
her perspective as much as I did.
  One of Julie's greatest assets is her intuitive ability to cut to the 
heart of the matter. She thoughtfully and fairly examines all sides of 
an issue, but remains unerringly firm in her convictions. Even in the 
most emotional discussions or difficult issues, Julie is a calm voice 
of rationality and reason. In fact, those who don't know her well might 
be deceived by Julie's quiet manner or seemingly shy nature. They 
shouldn't be. She is extraordinarily tenacious. If you are staking a 
position or fighting a battle, you definitely want Julie on your side.
  Julie grew up in small southern Oregon community, and those roots 
have served her well here. While adapting well to the rough and tumble 
political world in Washington, she has always kept clearly in mind the 
individual human beings whom we serve. She is both politically astute 
and compassionate, a combination of qualities that is so rare it is 
almost an oxymoron. Aware of the realities and limitations of the 
political process, Julie is unwavering in her belief that the 
Government can and should use its powers to improve the human 
condition. This is a belief that we share and one that has guided many 
of our legislative efforts.
  While Julie, at one time or another, handled nearly every legislative 
issue in my office, her true calling was one that is closest to my own 
heart. First as a legislative assistant and later as my director of 
International Policy, she became an advocate for peace and a champion 
for humanitarian concerns. Julie's work on arms control, human rights, 
and nuclear proliferation issues, among others, leaves a lasting legacy 
in the Senate and has had an impact on us all.
  Julie played a key role in one of the legislative accomplishments of 
which I am most proud. In 1992, we were successful in enacting 
legislation establishing a moratorium on nuclear testing by the United 
States. This nuclear test ban continues today and the United States' 
leadership on this issue has prompted much of the rest of the world to 
follow suit.
  Julie has spent her entire professional career in public service, in 
service to the State of Oregon and to the U.S. Senate. I know that the 
people of Oregon, and my colleagues in the Senate, join me in 
expressing our gratitude for many years of exemplary work.
  While we are sad to see Julie leave us, we are also excited for her 
as she begins a new phase in her life. This weekend she leaves 
Washington to join her finance, Michael Britti, in New Mexico. There 
will be many wonderful opportunities and adventures as Julie moves on 
with her career, and as she and Mike begin to build a life together.
  Julie is, and always will be, a member of the Hatfield family. 
Antoinette and I send her off with our love and our best wishes for a 
future full of happiness and success.

[[Page S18569]]


  SCHOOL FACILITIES AND THE NEW GAO REPORT SCHOOL FACILITIES: STATES' 
                 FINANCIAL AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT VARIES

 Ms. MOSELEY-BRAUN. Mr. President, I would like to announce the 
results of a study conducted by the General Accounting Office on 
States' efforts to improve the condition of our public school 
facilities.
  Infrastructure needs are not cosmetic--they go directly to the 
safety, the suitability, and environment for learning that directly 
affects American students' performance in the classroom.
  The GAO found that many States are doing little to address the 
deterioration of our schools--and what is being done varies widely from 
State to State. Only thirteen States take a comprehensive approach to 
their school infrastructure needs--by providing ongoing funding for 
school improvement projects, offering technical assistance to local 
officials, and maintaining up-to-date information on the condition of 
their facilities.
  The GAO has documented that our schools are falling apart.
  They are not ready for the Information Age because of inadequate 
infrastructure. More than 60 percent lack sufficient phone lines. 
Thirty-five percent don't even have enough electrical power to operate 
computers.
  Last week, the Washington Post ran an article that described the 
condition of the bathrooms in some of the District's schools. The Post 
reported that many of the restrooms are in violently foul condition--
unhealthy and unusable.
  One parent said she could not believe the bathroom in her children's 
school was in the United States. I have that article and would like to 
submit it for the Record.
  We have seen these problems in school buildings all over the 
country--in Chicago, Baltimore, New York, and Los Angeles--in rural 
communities, as well as in urban centers.
  America cannot compete if our students cannot learn, and our students 
cannot learn if our schools are falling down.
  Earlier this year, the GAO released a report--entitled School 
Facilities: The Condition of America's Schools--that looked at the 
facilities that millions of our children walk into every morning. In 
that report, the GAO documented that 13 million students attend schools 
that need to be extensively repaired or replaced.
  The GAO estimates that it will cost $112 billion to upgrade our 
school facilities to a good, overall condition. This cost is growing. 
The longer infrastructure needs are ignored or deferred, the greater 
the cost will be. The situation is like that facing the owner of a 
home. If the roof leaks, and you find the leak early, you can patch the 
roof. But if you wait a few years, you find you'll need to tear out the 
walls or rebuild the foundation. The message couldn't be clearer--delay 
equals additional cost.
  In the report released by the GAO today, we find out that many States 
are not even bothering to assess the damage or call in the building 
inspector.
  The GAO says State support is limited and varied. In fiscal year 
1994, States provided a total of $3.5 billion in grants and loans for 
school facilities construction--only 3.1 percent of the total funding 
needed.
  The sum of $3.5 billion may sound like a lot, and indeed, if your 
child goes to school in Alaska, it is. The State of Alaska spent almost 
$275 million--$2,254 per pupil--in fiscal year 1994 on school 
construction projects. On the other end of the spectrum is my home 
State of Illinois. Illinois, along with 10 other States, provides no 
ongoing support for school facilities construction or improvement.
  Today's report documents an alarming lack of knowledge about the 
conditions of our schools. More than half of the States have no recent 
information on the condition of school buildings in their States.
  I mentioned a newspaper report on decaying children's bathrooms. 
Gerald Sigal, a major construction contractor, also read that article. 
He was so upset that he is forming a coalition of business leaders to 
fix the problem. Mr. Sigal responded to the public school bathroom 
crisis because he found out about it.
  But most schools seldom have a major newspaper to do their reporting 
for them, and the only people that may know about the brown tap water 
and broken plumbing are the children.
  Last year, Congress took a monumental step toward fixing our school 
facilities problem when it enacted and funded the Education 
Infrastructure Act. This year, however, Congress took away the money.
  Mr. President, if our children do not have computers, or if they 
cannot see the blackboard because it has fallen off the wall, or if 
they cannot go to the bathroom because it stinks of sewage, or if they 
cannot keep warm because the heaters are broken, they cannot 
concentrate, and they cannot learn.
  This new GAO report is essentially a report card that measures State 
support for education infrastructure. Very few States get a passing 
mark. But the schools are still falling apart. The time has come for us 
to step in and heal our Nation's schools.
  The problem goes beyond what many local communities can handle. Many 
Districts cannot find more revenue because they have already been 
stretched to their local limits in bonding and other ways to raise 
money for education.
  The GAO looked at whether technical assistance is available from the 
States to local school officials--whether local officials can count on 
States for help in advice and planning. Again, great disparities exist.
  Florida has the equivalent of 72 people who provide guidance on 
planning, construction, and maintenance. New York gives workshops and 
publishes articles on facilities planning. But 34 States have less than 
6 full time people available for this kind of assistance.
  Repairing our schools is in the national interest. We must provide 
assistance to strapped local school districts in a way that directly 
benefits children. Federal support for education infrastructure allows 
us to help local school districts create a suitable environment for 
learning, without violating the tenet of local control over public 
education.
  I urge all of my colleagues to take a close look at this new GAO 
study, and decide how much longer they want to leave the problem of our 
crumbling public school facilities to someone else.
  The article follows:

                [From the Washington Post, Dec. 8, 1995]

  In D.C. Schools, It's Tough Going--Students Find Themselves Without 
                     Soap, Toilet Paper or Privacy

                           (By Sari Horwitz)

       Children in public schools across the District often use 
     dirty bathrooms that lack private stalls, soap, paper towels 
     and even toilet paper.
       The restrooms in even some of the city's most highly 
     regarded public schools are in such poor shape that parents 
     fear they are unhealthy for children, and educators say they 
     are interfering with learning.
       One of those schools is Horace Mann Elementary in well-to-
     do upper Northwest Washington, a school that has won awards 
     from the U.S. Department of Education. Many days, second-
     grader Peter Joyce and his schoolmate Joe Takesuye won't use 
     the boys' bathroom because of the filth and overpowering 
     stench of urine. They hold it until they get home.
       ``The bathrooms really smell,'' said Peter, 7. ``They are 
     dirty. There's paper towels all over the floor, spitballs on 
     the walls and the water from the sink is like, brown. It 
     looks gross.''
       Horace Mann Principal Sheila Ford said she doesn't have the 
     money to improve the 64-year-old building's plumbing. But 
     she's looking for resources because the bathroom problem is 
     spilling into her classrooms as the odors creep into her 
     halls.
       ``When I need to use the lavatory and I'm away from one, my 
     concentration is eliminated.'' Ford said. ``It is the same 
     for children.''
       Dirty, dilapidated school bathrooms are a problem in urban 
     schools across the nation and are worsening as buildings age 
     and resources for maintenance diminish, according to 
     officials. Almost one-third of the nation's school buildings 
     were built before World War II.
       In a world where educational dollars are getting stretched 
     ridiculously thin, bathrooms stand at the end of the line,'' 
     said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of 
     Great City Schools, which represents the nations largest 
     school districts. ``They've really fallen off the radar 
     screen in terms of priority.''
       The bathroom problem, however, does not appear to be as 
     serious in other school systems in the Washington area as it 
     is in the District, according to parent activists in Fairfax, 
     Montgomery and Prince George's countries.
       Open the door to the only bathroom for 140 little boys in 
     127-year-old Stevens Elementary in downtown Washington, and 
     the 

[[Page S18570]]
     stench of urine is overwhelming. The dank bathroom with rusting, 
     corroded pipes is in the basement, and the windows remain 
     shut for security reasons.
       ``It kind of holds the odors in,'' said the school's new 
     principal, Gloria Henderson, who has been trying 
     unsuccessfully to have a hole cut in the wall and an exhaust 
     fan installed.
       The bathroom problem in D.C. schools is not all old age.
       Parents and educators said that in many schools, clean , 
     fully stocked and functioning bathrooms are simply not a 
     priority in a school system saddled with other problems and 
     budget woes. Hundreds of D.C. students still do not even have 
     textbooks.
       This fall, parents at Watkins Elementary School, on Capitol 
     Hill, were stunned to discover there were no working sinks in 
     the girls' or boys' bathrooms on the first, second and third 
     floors, in some cases since last January, according to parent 
     Samuel Brylawski.
       ``Here you have a school full of kids who don't wash their 
     hands after they go to the bathroom,'' Brylawski said. ``It 
     took parents nine months to be informed. Fundamental sanitary 
     practices were not a high priority.''
       Some repairs were made after Brylawski wrote a letter to 
     the superintendent and the public health commission, he said.
       Mary Levy, counsel to Parents United, a parents advocacy 
     group, said the low priority for maintaining bathrooms 
     reflects officials' lack of concern of children. ``Every door 
     should be taken off the stalls of the buildings with elected 
     officials until they fix the doors for children,'' she said.
       Bathroom water is the issue at Langdon Elementary School, 
     in Northeast Washington. PTA president Vivian Whitaker said 
     only cold water comes out of the bathroom sinks, and it's 
     dirty brown.
       ``I wouldn't recommend the children wash their hands,'' 
     Whitaker said.
       School officials said it's hard to maintain heavily used 
     bathrooms, especially when students dirty them or break 
     equipment. Parents said students are less likely to violate 
     clean, working restrooms.
       At schools where bathroom repairs have been made, such as 
     Wilson High School and J.F. Cook Elementary, it has made all 
     the difference, they said.
       Three years ago, D.C. public schools hired a consulting 
     firm to study its buildings. The firm found serious problems 
     in bathroom piping and toilets, including old sewage pipes 
     rusted beyond repair, poor lighting and missing or defective 
     toilet stalls and urinals.
       In seven schools, the plumbing was called ``hazardous.'' 
     The plumbing system at Francis Junior High, with ``extensive 
     leaking and clogged pipes'' was called ``unacceptable.'' At 
     Browne Junior High, the report called for ``immediate 
     replacement'' of all the plumbing. As of July, 75 D.C. 
     schools needed repairs, including new or fixed sinks, 
     according to a school document. An additional 13 schools 
     needed toilet partitions so students could use them with 
     privacy.
       At one on that list, Duke Ellington School of the Arts in 
     Georgetown, student Zavi Ball, 16, described the bathrooms 
     last week as ``disgusting, horrible.''
       ``There's never any paper towels or soap,'' she said. 
     ``There's no warm water to wash your hands. There's hardly 
     ever toilet paper. There's dirty feminine products on the 
     floor and roaches. Whenever guests come, they clean the 
     bathrooms up. But when it's just us, they don't care. When I 
     come to school at 8 in the morning, the bathroom is already 
     dirty.''
       Facilities and Management Director William McAfee did not 
     return phone calls. But school spokeswoman Beverly Lofton 
     said building repair funds were very tight.
       With a more than half-billion-dollar budget, the District 
     spends $7,673 a year for each of its students, one of the 
     highest per-pupil operating costs in the country. But most of 
     the capital funds for building upkeep and repairs have been 
     used for repairing fire hazards, Lofton said.
       ``We don't want our kids going to schools that don't have 
     functioning bathrooms,'' Lofton said. ``We want them to have 
     the best of everything, including partitions and sinks that 
     work. But there is a lack of capital money to repair 
     everything that breaks when it happens.
       ``We do recognize we have problems with bathrooms in the 
     school systems'' she said. ``Bathrooms are a priority for the 
     coming year.''
       Principal Rosalie Huff of Anthony Bowen Elementary School, 
     in Southwest, tired of waiting. When the school system hadn't 
     replaced her broken toilets and missing partitions in 12 
     bathrooms by the beginning of this school year, she bought 
     five new toilets and partitions herself.
       ``I had a situation that was really awful,'' Huff said. 
     ``It didn't allow any type of basic human dignity for the 
     girls. You were just sitting out if you had to use the 
     toilets.''
       Consumer advocate Ralph Nader wants the Appleseed 
     Foundation, a public interest law center he helped create, to 
     work to improve the District's school bathrooms. He got fired 
     up about dirty, dysfunctional restrooms after listening to 
     complaints from students at Alice Deal Junior High. ``They 
     said their bathrooms were filthy,'' Nader said. ``There was 
     no soap, no privacy and no toilet paper. And they said they 
     held it. But the faculty restrooms were immaculate. It's so 
     disgraceful.''
       A visit to Deal last week revealed boys' and girls' 
     bathrooms missing doors on the stalls and partitions between 
     toilets, sinks that don't work properly and boys' restrooms 
     filled with an overwhelming stench. A school worker said the 
     odor came from toilets that leak and sewage that sits in 
     rusty, corroded pipes.
       At Horace Mann, PTA president Jane Joyce said she was so 
     fed up with the bathrooms that she raised the issue at the 
     first parents meeting in September. About 30 parents 
     volunteered to come in on a Saturday and scrub the floors, 
     bring in toilet paper and make repairs.
       That helped for a while. A few weeks ago, parent Joan 
     Murray ventured into one of the school bathrooms to see if it 
     really was as bad as her two children described.
       ``I wouldn't use it,'' Murray said. ``It was more than 
     horrendous. It was disgusting. There were paper towels 
     everywhere, no flushed toilets and no soap. The water didn't 
     come out of the spigots. And it smelled. I couldn't believe 
     it was in the United States.'' 

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