[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 145 (Tuesday, October 13, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H10674]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 EDUCATION IS THE SEED CORN OF SOCIETY

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, sometimes the American public may wonder 
why we are focusing on education in the Democratic Party. In the Plains 
Indians in the central part of this country, there is a well-known bit 
of wisdom that says that they can tell a tribe that is going to die 
when they eat the seed corn, when you eat the corn that has to be saved 
for the spring and plant for the new crop.
  Education is the seed corn of this society. Our determination to make 
this session end by an investment in education, both in the classrooms 
in terms of reducing class size and in rebuilding the buildings, is the 
seed corn of this society.
  If we fail to do that, we will come out here, as we do every year, 
and pass a bill for H-1B visas so that we can go worldwide and gather 
the brains that we need to run this economy. That is wrong. That is not 
investing in the seed corn. We need to stay and do education.

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