[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 25 (Wednesday, March 11, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H1024]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  PASS SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION LEGISLATION

  (Mr. ETHERIDGE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, this Congress must take action to address 
the serious need for school construction in this country for our 
children.
  Across this country at this very moment more than 52 million school 
children are attending class. Unfortunately, far too many of these 
children are not being educated in modern, well-equipped facilities 
where discipline and order foster academic achievement. Unfortunately 
for many of our Nation's school children, class is being taught in a 
trailer, in a closet, in an overstuffed or run-down classroom.
  Mr. Speaker, the General Accounting Office has identified more than 
$112 billion in school construction needs in America. As a former State 
superintendent of our State's schools, I know that North Carolina needs 
more than $6 billion to build new school facilities for our children.
  For example, there are as many as 13,000 children in Wake County, 
North Carolina, alone right now being educated in trailers. Experts at 
the Department of Education project that my State's high school 
enrollment will grow by more than 27 percent in the next decade.
  Mr. Speaker, no student in America should be forced to attend class 
in substandard facilities. No teacher in America should be required to 
struggle in overcrowded classrooms, and no child in America should be 
condemned to school in a trailer. We need to fix it now.

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