[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 35 (Thursday, March 14, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H2309]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            STOP PLAYING POLITICS WITH OUR NATION'S SCHOOLS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hobson). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Woolsey] is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, today the House averted another Gingrich 
Government shutdown by voting to fund the Government for 1 week. That 
is right, 1 week. In typical inside-the-Beltway lingo the Republican 
leadership called it a 1-week continuing resolution. But if you ask me, 
it amounts to nothing more than 1 more week of continuing madness, 
madness on Capitol Hill, and, more seriously, 1 more week of continuing 
uncertainty for our Nation's schools.
  Let us talk about the continuing madness around here. I have been a 
member of the House Committee on the Budget since coming to Congress in 
1993. Two years in a row we did our work, passed the necessary spending 
guidelines and met our deadlines. On top of that, we managed to cut the 
deficit in half in the process. We cut it by 50 percent. The new 
majority, however, wasted the beginning of 1995 trying to pass their 
Contract With America. As a result, we are halfway into the fiscal 
year, and the 1996 budget for most domestic programs has still, still 
not been set by this do-nothing majority. Instead, critical 
environmental protection, health care, and education programs have been 
funded on a month-to-month basis at a greatly reduced level. When you 
change that from a month-to-month to a week-to-week program, as the 
House did today, the new majority's piecemeal approach to governing 
means nothing more than continuing uncertainty for our Nation's 
schools.
  In fact, today's continuing resolution leaves our schools and 
teachers with two main ingredients for disaster, too little time and 
too little money. Right now elementary schools, high schools, and 
colleges are beginning to plan for the 1996-97 school year, which in 
case my friends on the other side of the aisle do not understand, 
begins in September. Schools cannot wait until the new fiscal year to 
hire teachers, to buy books, and to plan for computers and to repair 
damaged buildings. They need to start planning now, and they simply 
cannot do it when the Gingrich Republicans, unlike their Republican 
colleagues in the other body, refuse to provide a fixed level of 
adequate education funding for the rest of the year. By leaving our 
schools in limbo and facing the prospect of receiving 13 percent less 
in education funds, less than they would normally expect from the 
Federal Government, elementary and secondary education--elementary 
schools will not know how many teachers they can afford to hire for the 
coming school year. Thus, students returning to school next fall could 
face larger class sizes and fewer teachers.
  Schools are also faced with the respect of losing funds for crucial 
education programs because of the deep cuts that are contained in the 
majority's continuing resolution. For instance, schools in my home 
State of California would lose over $42 million in Goals 2000 funds. 
These are funds which help schools train teachers, increase parental 
involvement and meet higher standards. California schools will also 
lose $122 million in title I funds, funds for programs for students who 
need extra help in reading, writing, and math. Finally, programs aimed 
at protecting our children from crime and drugs and alcohol will be 
hurt because the Gingrich Republicans have voted to deny California 
schools $26.5 million in safe and drug-free school funding.
  My friends, that is not how we should be treating our Nation's 
schools, that is not how we should be treating our Nation's students. 
Rather I believe, as the Democrats in the House believe, as the 
President believes and as a majority of the other body believes, that 
education must be our Nation's No. 1 priority.
  Mr. Speaker, we can balance the budget, but it does not have to be on 
the backs of our children and their education.

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