[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 145 (Tuesday, October 13, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H10676-H10677]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           EDUCATION FUNDING

  (Mrs. MINK of Hawaii asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. MINK of Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, I serve as a cochair on the 
Democratic side of the aisle together with the gentleman from Indiana 
(Mr. Roemer) and the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Etheridge) on 
the Task Force on Education. We have served for over a year and a half. 
That agenda was created because we were responding to the needs of the 
people throughout the country. One of the top things they talked about 
was the need for additional teachers, additional qualified teachers and 
to do something about our crumbling classrooms and the inadequate 
infrastructure. This is something that has been on our agenda for over 
a year and a half. This year we did not even see the education budget 
come to the floor so that we could debate it, so that we could ask this 
country to fund this program. Now we are

[[Page H10677]]

awaiting an omnibus bill, we know not what is in it, but I plead with 
the Republican majority to do as they have been saying on the floor 
every day, put those moneys for the teachers right in the classrooms 
and not fund it in any sort of circuitous way where we know not how 
that money is getting to our schools.

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