[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 145 (Tuesday, October 13, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H10810]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            LIBERTY AND LEARNING, EACH LEANING ON THE OTHER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Indiana (Ms. Carson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. CARSON. Mr. Speaker, long ago, James Madison spoke of one of our 
most fundamental American propositions. That was liberty and learning, 
each leaning on the other. We cannot have a healthy democracy or any 
democracy without quality public education.
  It is our job to show that education can rely on democracy. Let us 
put 100,000 new teachers in our classrooms.
  This Congress has been one of the least productive in recent memory. 
While urgent, unmet needs confront American families in areas like 
education and health care, this Congress just dithers with 
inconsequential suspension bills and ideological dead letters like tax 
cuts that drain away the budget surplus.
  In the State that I represent, Indiana, Indianapolis specifically, 29 
percent of public schools are in serious need of repairs and 67 percent 
have outdated or inadequate facilities.
  Back in January this year, Congressional Democrats and the 
administration laid out an extensive agenda to improve the quality of 
public education in this country. The Republicans spent the entire year 
blocking that agenda, preferring instead to focus on scandals that 
divert public attention. Now we are asking that as a bare minimum 
Congress begin providing funds to hire new teachers and to fix up our 
crumbling schools. By hiring new teachers, we will be able to reduce 
class sizes.
  Research in Indiana and the State of Tennessee shows that reducing 
class size to 15 students in the early grades improves student 
achievements, particularly among low income and minority students in 
urban areas.
  Public school enrollment in Indiana is expected to grow by almost 6 
percent in the next decade. We desperately need more teachers to handle 
this growth. When I look at the overcrowding in the Indianapolis public 
school system, I can say the students there sure could use more 
teachers.
  The need is overwhelming but this Congress has turned a blind eye to 
that need. Only now, confronted with extraordinary demand by the voters 
for better education, are the Republicans grudgingly coming forward to 
agree to more school funding. Even now, though, they are dragging their 
feet. Rather than funding new teachers, the Republican leaders want to 
spend the money on other things like school administration.
  Mr. Speaker, we need teachers, not administrators; classrooms, not 
office complexes. Even worse, they tried to revive their anti-public 
school agenda. They want to use the District of Columbia as a guinea 
pig for experimenting with school vouchers. The D.C. public schools 
already are in distress but the Republicans want to drain away their 
funding and put it into private schools.
  The proposition about dollars for classrooms was indeed another cruel 
hoax. My State of Indiana, under that proposal, stood to lose $8.3 
million in the process of a so-called block grant back to the State of 
Indiana.
  Instead of spending our taxpayers' money on private schools, we must 
invest it wisely in public schools, where the vast majority of our 
children get their education.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time for this Congress to get back to the business 
of helping to secure greater success for American families.

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