[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 53 (Tuesday, April 23, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H3666]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      LET US NOT BE MEAN-SPIRITED

  (Mr. VOLKMER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. VOLKMER. Mr. Speaker, Members of the House, the radical 
Republican majority is still bent on cutting educational funds, 
especially title I funds. It is mean-spirited. Who does it impact on? 
Not the local school districts, but it impacts on children; children, 
preschool children in the first and second grade; children like the two 
that I visited with and many others in my district while I was out 
there. These young children, without these reading skills, will be 
destined to a future that they will not be able to participate in in 
this great society of ours because they will not be able to read.
  The Republicans say that we do not need those funds for title I. I 
say we do. I say that the future of this country is bound by the 
education that our children receive, and it is necessary that they have 
the skills of reading and math, and that is what title I provides.
  I say to the Republicans, let us not be mean-spirited.

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