[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 27, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S18-S19]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         OUR CRUMBLING SCHOOLS

  Ms. MOSELEY-BRAUN. Mr. President, tonight the President of the United 
States will address the country in the State of the Union Address and 
much of the focus of that speech, we have been told, will be on the 
subject of education, something that I know the Presiding Officer has 
worked on over the years, and certainly I have worked on as my No. 1 
priority since I came to the U.S. Senate. I am really pleased, however, 
that among the items in the area of education that the President will 
touch on is a particular item that I have labored long and hard on 
since I came to the Senate, and that is the issue of our crumbling 
schools.
  The President will tonight propose an initiative to rebuild our 
crumbling schools by making available support for local efforts to deal 
with the facilities and the infrastructure of their schools in the 
respective parts of the country.
  The centerpiece of the proposal that will be announced tonight is a 
plan to provide tax credits to help stimulate local school construction 
and modernization. The plan will help States and school districts 
address the enormous backlog of deferred maintenance to upgrade their 
schools to incorporate and accommodate modern technologies and to build 
new classrooms to accommodate soaring enrollment where appropriate.
  The plan--and I would like to talk specifically about it --will 
propose the creation of a new class of zero-interest bonds which can be 
used exclusively for school facilities and infrastructure development. 
Instead of receiving interest payments on these bonds, purchasers of 
the bonds will instead receive Federal income tax credits.
  This innovative plan will stimulate at least $22 billion--$22 
billion--worth of school improvements over the next several years. 
Frankly, it is exactly the kind of new thinking and the kind of new 
partnership and innovative and creative financing that we will need to 
address the issue of our crumbling school infrastructure.
  I would like to take a moment to revisit how this issue came about. 
Coming out of State and local government, I was very concerned that we 
maintain, on the one hand, the values of local control of education, 
but at the same time find some way to relieve the pressure on the local 
property taxes that elementary and secondary education so often 
requires.
  Among the issues that seemed to me to be the most pressing and the 
most difficult for local districts to address was the question of 
school facilities. The buildings in which many of our children go to 
school are literally falling down around them. Most of these buildings 
have been built a generation ago when I was in school or the Presiding 
Officer was in school. Frankly, over time, these things just wear down. 
So you can see all over, certainly all over my State of Illinois and, 
indeed, all over the country, that our school facilities are crumbling 
right in front of us. Students talk about the fact that the windows are 
broken or the roof leaks or the lights--it even got to the point where 
Charles Schulz with the Peanuts cartoon did a series where Peppermint 
Patty is sitting in the classroom and raindrops are falling on her 
head.

  The point is, we can do better. So I commissioned a study by the 
General Accounting Office to look at the issue of crumbling schools. 
They went around and did a really exhaustive and highly acclaimed 
survey in which they documented $112 billion worth of deferred needs in 
terms of our school infrastructure; $112 billion required to rebuild 
the schools, to fix the plants, to provide our children with an 
environment that is suitable for learning.
  In addition to the aesthetics of it, that we want our kids to go to 
classrooms that are comfortable, consider for a moment that you cannot 
use a computer unless you plug it into the wall. If the electrical 
system is not there, then we will be denying our youngsters the 
opportunity to get trained, denying our work force the opportunity to 
be trained to compete in this global economy. It seems to me this is 
something of national importance and import and that it makes sense for 
the Federal Government to weigh in to help local districts meet the 
needs, the $112 billion worth of needs, all over the country.
  I started down this trail attempting to get a modest appropriation. I 
went in and got $600 million authorized and $100 million appropriated 
to this end. Then in the Congress of 1994, the $100 million that I had 
gotten appropriated for rebuilding the crumbling schools was taken back 
in the rescission package. So there was no money for it.
  We started the ball up the hill again, and the second time around, we 
were able to get the support of the White House and the Department of 
Education, and they proposed a $5 billion tax credit program to do 
this. That went up through committee and then eventually fell because 
of the lack of support last year.
  We have continued with this. Frankly, at every step of the way, even 
though we failed to actually get the full appropriation that we wanted, 
the public support built and built and built to the point that in the 
last session of the Congress, when we passed the Tax Relief Act, we 
were able in that bill to get some support for local districts going 
into the capital markets to borrow money. We changed the arbitrage 
rules a little bit. We raised the bond cap. So we were able to get some 
financial support but certainly not the $5 billion that we had hoped to 
get.
  Now the issue has gotten to the top of the pop charts, and polling 
data tells us again that 79 percent of the American people think there 
is an appropriate Federal role in rebuilding educational facilities.
  This proposal that the President will announce tonight will allow us 
to access about $22 billion--now, that is not the whole $112 billion--
but $22 billion will help local districts repair their crumbling 
schools without having to increase property taxes. It seems to me that 
that is an absolutely appropriate role for us to take, given the 
national security interests, given the future of our work force, given 
the national stakes in all of this. If we can begin to have Federal 
support of elementary and secondary education in ways that preserve 
local control of education but allow us to contribute national 
resources to the enormous task that is before us, then we would have 
done our duty, frankly, by this next generation.
  So I am very pleased that the creative financing proposal that will 
be mentioned tonight represents a new direction, a new partnership. I 
believe firmly that the days when we can point fingers and say, ``Well, 
it's the local taxpayers' fault that the schools are falling down,'' 
or, ``It's the State government's fault the schools are falling down,'' 
or somebody else's fault, the days of fingerpointing are over. In fact, 
my mother used to say, when you point a finger, you always have three 
of them pointing back at yourself.
  If we can begin to have a new kind of partnership where States and 
local governments and the National Government work together to provide 
our children with the education that they need and the work force 
development that our country deserves, we will have discharged our 
responsibility to them and to the future of this Nation.
  We certainly have every opportunity with this proposal to go forward 
and pass this legislation. I am hopeful that we will do better this 
time around in achieving bipartisan support for the approach that says 
this is a new partnership; this new partnership will maintain local 
control and will give, if anything, local governments some financial 
support with regard to the challenge they face in rebuilding their 
crumbling schools.
  I am very excited about it, but having had two previous successes 
that were undone, I am not going to get

[[Page S19]]

overly excited until such time as the President actually signs the 
bill. But I am very encouraged, Mr. President, that the force of this 
idea has continued to support it and the force of this concept means, I 
think, that it is an idea whose time has come. That being the case, I 
feel very confident that, if not now, we will eventually pass 
legislation to rebuild our crumbling schools so that America's 
schoolchildren are given suitable environments in which they can learn.
  With that, I thank the Chair and I yield the floor. Mr. President, I 
suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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