[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 20 (Wednesday, March 4, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H762]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   IMPROVING AMERICA'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, last week the Washington Post reported some 
grim news: The scores of Americans high school seniors ranked near the 
bottom in a rigorous new international exam in math and science.
  This is unacceptable. Our schools clearly need help, and this body 
needs to get moving. Democrats are eager to get to work to reduce our 
class sizes, to repair crumbling schools, to put computers in 
classrooms and to provide an atmosphere in which our children can 
learn.
  But my Republican colleagues, what they want to do is they want to 
throw out public education, to end public education as we know it. What 
they want to do is one more time make education the purview of the rich 
and of the wealthy. They also want to have tax cuts, tax cuts for the 
wealthiest Americans, one more time.
  Let us put our kids first, and not last. Education should be our top 
priority, public education, the great equalizer, which has allowed all 
of us to be able to live up to and work to our potential, no matter 
where we are on the socioeconomic scale. Let us get to work on 
education. Let us improve America's public schools.

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