[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 4, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E979]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        STATEMENTS REGARDING OVERCROWDING PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION

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                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 4, 1996

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, for the benefit of my colleagues I would 
like to have printed in the Record this statement by Jackie Frazier, 
Kate Greanon, Kay Gerson, Drew McNaughton, Kate McQuillen, Jennifer 
Arner, Lucas D'Amico, and Charley Hart, high school students from 
Vermont, who were speaking at my recent town meeting on issues facing 
young people.

       For the record, my name is Jackie Frazier, this is Kay 
     Gerson, Kate McQuillen, and Drew McNaughton. Our discussion 
     is actually, ``Overcrowding, or Budget [Problems] and 
     Education.''
       (Alternating speakers): We've been asked to directly 
     discuss problems that arise within our school, and our 
     students participating in school for seven years--being in a 
     high school--and the problem that most prominently arises for 
     us was the overcrowding problem in our school. What all of 
     you may not know, is that we have 5 districts that come to 
     our school, and we also have people that are paying tuition 
     to come here. As most schools are having a problem with 
     budget now, unless they live--earlier, someone was discussing 
     how in . . . a resort town, they have more money to put into 
     a school system. We have 5 towns, and this school was 
     actually built at one time to support around 750 students; at 
     this point in time, we have close to 910 people, which is not 
     that much over, but each year we are increasing. Two years 
     ago, we had a class of about 80 students, my class is about 
     130, the upcoming class of 7th grade next year will have 
     around 170; I think it's a substantial increase each year.
       If you were to look at a town in your report, you'll see 
     that each year we are increasing drastically in the number of 
     students, but we don't have the budget to increase either 
     space or more teachers. Sometimes we have to actually hold 
     classes in this auditorium, over on the side here, and in the 
     small media room upstairs, which is normally held for just 
     movies. Each year as the budget stays the same, and the 
     capacity stays the same, the students go up; and what we'd 
     like to discuss, and we have a movie to show you, is that 
     each year when the amount of students do go up, the actual 
     grade of the school goes down in standard: in the way we 
     survive, in the air we breathe, and in the rooms that 
     populate. Sometimes the student ratio is 30 students to one 
     teacher, when ideally it's 20:1. So, each time that we do 
     this, we want to show you how it looks, in reality.
       Can everyone hear me? (narrating as video is shown): Due to 
     the reduced janitorial staff over the past few years, and 
     increased student population we see an overall depreciation 
     of the physical condition of the school. There is no 
     classroom space available; this American History class uses a 
     corner of the auditorium as a makeshift classroom for one 
     period each day. One of our stairwells . . . This was . . . 
     one of the Junior High classrooms, and . . . you can see, 
     there are many classrooms in the school which have a severe 
     overcrowding problem. A high school classroom, with a ratio 
     of about 30:1.
       All right, so that was a video to show visually what's the 
     matter with it. Now, I want to talk about what the funds are 
     directed towards, instead of building maintenance. By 1997, 
     the future budget is planning on increasing itself by 
     $617,000, and $409,940 of which is going to Special Ed. 
     programs. I think if Special Ed. is increasing itself by 85%, 
     and while all of this is going on, U-32 High School is going 
     rapidly down. We already mentioned the American History 
     class, and how it's held over there; but there's also a 
     Spanish class upstairs that has 30 students in it, and the 
     rooms about as big as about a third of this stage. We're all 
     cramped together in it--it decreases individualized . . . 
     one-on-one help with a teacher, so they fall behind, and they 
     can't catch up. The ventilation problem in the school, you've 
     probably already noticed; so when one student gets sick, the 
     whole student body gets sick. So I think on a national scale, 
     U-32 is the representation of the problem, in that . . . 
     we're supposed to be a world power, and I don't think our 
     schools should be run this way. It's a bad way to represent 
     our country.

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