[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 15 (Wednesday, February 25, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H582-H583]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION

  (Mr. ETHERIDGE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Madam Speaker, I rise today to call on my colleagues 
in Congress to pass the legislation to help States and localities meet 
the school infrastructure needs of this country.
  In community after community in my district, we desperately need new 
and improved schools. The General Accounting Office has documented that 
America's unmet school construction needs total more than $100 billion. 
And

[[Page H583]]

we know that, from the Education Department's projected growth study, 
the problem is going to get radically worse in the next decade.
  Madam Speaker, our schools are bursting at the seams. School children 
are being forced to attend classes in trailers. And educators struggle 
to teach in appalling overcrowded conditions and unsafe classrooms.
  This Congress must act and act now to address this urgent problem. As 
a former school superintendent of my State's public schools, I know 
firsthand that the quality of a child's physical surroundings does make 
a difference in his or her ability to learn. Modernizing our school 
infrastructure will improve academic performance.
  North Carolina citizens approved recently a $1.8 billion investment 
in our education infrastructure. Congress must do the same. And I call 
on this Congress to do its part.
  Madam Speaker, we must pass school construction legislation and do it 
now.

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