[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 21 (Thursday, March 5, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H855]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       FOCUS ON HELPING CHILDREN

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, one of the most important 
challenges we have as we move toward the 21st century is to make sure 
that the children of America really count. In order to do that, there 
are so many needs that children have. One of them, of course, is the 
rebuilding of our schools and better school infrastructure.
  Almost one-third of our public schools were built prior to the 
beginning of World War II in 1939, and an in-depth study shows that 
one-third of the 80,000 public elementary and secondary schools in the 
United States, about 26,000 have at least one building in need of 
extensive repair. The Democrats' re-building school bill is the right 
direction for our children.
  Children must be in the forefront of our mind, the same way that the 
Congressional Children's Caucus next week will hold an important 
hearing on access to mental health resources for our children. Eleven 
million children have a diagnosable mental, emotional behavioral 
disorder, and 1 in 20 will have severe disorder by age 18.
  This is an important cause, our children are an important cause. I 
hope that our colleagues will focus their attention in the next couple 
of months in helping our children.

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