[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 30 (Wednesday, March 18, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H1240]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           GROWING COMMUNITIES HELP WITH 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. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to 
pass legislation to assist States and local communities meeting their 
need to build new schools, reduce overcrowding and improve good 
discipline and quality instruction.
  Yesterday, the number crunchers at the Census Bureau confirmed what 
many of us already know, communities across America are growing with 
leaps and bounds. For example, in Wake County, one of my counties in my 
district, it grew by 29.4 percent from 1990 to 1997. That is an 
additional 125,000-plus people. Likewise, another county, Johnston 
County, has grown by more than 25 percent during that same period.
  This tremendous growth places a heavy burden on our communities to 
build schools to teach our children. The result is that we have 
children attending schools in trailers and in dilapidated buildings. 
The Secretary of Education has projected an explosion of growth in the 
school age population in the years to come in every State in this 
country.
  The baby boom echo is now upon us. It is up to Congress to move and 
act. Children do not care who funds buildings. They want them funded.

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