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




                 THE BEST SOLUTION IS TO BUILD SCHOOLS

  (Mr. MEEKS of New York asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. MEEKS of New York. Mr. Speaker, just 9 months ago I was not a 
Member of this body, but I remember listening to the President's 
statement on education during his State of the Union address, and I 
stand here today as a Member of the Congress probably for one reason: 
education. We can build prisons, or we can build schools. I think that 
all Americans know that the best solution is to build schools. When we 
build schools, we are showing our children that we have confidence in 
them. Oftentimes when they go astray, we say what happened to the 
children of the day? What is going on with the children today?
  Mr. Speaker, I tell colleagues it is not the children, it is us. It 
is us who fail to put our money where our mouths are and put it where 
our most important commodities are, our children. We must, at all 
sacrifices, make sure that we build schools; therefore, we will not 
have to build prisons. Make sure that we make the class sizes smaller 
so that we can understand, these kids can understand, what is going on, 
and the teachers can relate to them.
  This is what this is all about. We must not leave here until we have 
put money in schools as opposed to other things. We must build our 
schools.




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