[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 5 (Tuesday, February 3, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H108]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          SCHOOL OVERCROWDING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Sanchez) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, many of you know that my major legislative 
focus this past year has been to alleviate California's and the 
Nation's overcrowded schools. I have introduced a bill, the Expand & 
Rebuild America's Schools Act, to ensure that schools with high growth 
rates have a Federal incentive to pass local bond initiatives to help 
build new schools and new classrooms.
  To highlight this legislation, I held a forum this past month in my 
hometown of Anaheim, California, a forum on school overcrowding, and it 
was attended by the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt), our 
Democratic leader, and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Juanita 
Millender-McDonald). She herself is a former teacher in California.
  We held it and we had witnesses to talk to us about how they are 
affected by the overcrowding crisis. Students and teachers, 
administrators, education experts from my district, Sacramento and 
Washington, D.C. gave valuable testimony that shed light on what is 
going right, what is wrong, and what has to be done to help our kids.
  And, yes, I did hear a 6th grade student talk about how she no longer 
has playground space because portable classrooms were needed to be 
placed on the school's blacktop; or the teacher's frustration who said 
she was using a coat closet as a workroom; or even the knowledge that I 
have of having returned to my elementary school there in Anaheim and to 
see the janitor's mop room now being used as a classroom for special 
education children. And I know that we need to solve this problem of 
school overcrowding.
  The forum produced many good ideas about what must be done locally 
and in our State to build more schools, but what remains clear is 
through this we still need Federal help. I applaud the President for 
stepping up to the plate and offering two major bond programs to 
encourage renovation of schools and new school construction. His bond 
program could be, in my view, more focused on alleviating the crowding 
of our most impacted schools, and I look forward to working with the 
administration to ensure that some exception or preference can be given 
to schools suffering from both high growth rates and little space. For 
example, the elementary schools in Anaheim were built for 500 students, 
yet each of them has almost 1100 students attending. And, of course, 
they are now on year-round schedule.
  My legislation, which offers a similar bond financing program, is a 
good example of getting local people to take on the responsibility of 
financing their schools with an incentive that if they do this, we will 
help them, not by creating more Federal bureaucracy or a new spending 
program, but by offering interest free rates on bonds because the 
Federal Government will provide a tax credit to the lenders in the 
amount of the interest. Therefore, these local agencies will only have 
to repay the principal. Only schools which are highly impacted by 
overcrowding can qualify for these bonds.
  School overcrowding is not only just a problem in Orange County or in 
California, but States such as Nevada and Arizona, Florida, and 
Pennsylvania are experiencing the same challenges. If my colleagues 
would like additional information about the forum and the information 
we have received there, please contact me. And I hope that we can work 
together to ensure that our children can get all the space that they 
need.

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