[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 145 (Tuesday, October 13, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H10812-H10813]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE NEED FOR FURTHER EDUCATION REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Sanchez) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk a little bit about 
school construction, since many of my colleagues are doing that 
tonight, and I would like to say that I think I have the most 
experience in this House with respect to school construction.
  How many of my colleagues can say that they have constructed six 
classrooms for the Solvang Elementary School District and redid the 
bathrooms for the little girls and little boys in that school? Or how 
many of my colleagues can say they found the money to build a $64 
million state-of-the-art tech high school in Antioch, California. Or 
how many of you can say that you have issued COPs or gone before 
Standard & Poors or Moody's to get ratings for any of these school 
districts? Well, I can say that. I can actually say that I have helped 
build probably over 30 schools in the State of California. Therefore, I 
think I understand pretty well what happens with the financing equation 
of school construction.
  Let me tell you that the relationship in the State of California, my 
state, is that of local and state for school construction. In fact, 
what used to happen was initially, in the beginning, local

[[Page H10813]]

schools would be built with local taxes from local areas, and then when 
the local schools were not able to do that, it became a state issue, 
and in fact the state was working on that.
  Of course, now we have the problem that the state and local 
municipalities are not able to build the schools fast enough in 
California, and, yes, it has become a Federal issue.
  In fact, the President's proposal that we have before us that he 
brought to us in January, I am very well aware of, because I have sat 
with him and discussed the bill that I introduced in this House, H.R. 
2695, and many of those initiatives are in his proposal.
  Now, many of my colleagues on the other side have said tonight, what? 
We are not in the school construction business. Well, let me tell you, 
in particular to the gentleman from California (Mr. Riggs), who spoke 
earlier about national security and our defense, it is of utmost 
national security that our children be educated.

                              {time}  2000

  Because of that, the Federal Government must become involved when 
there is a gap and when we need to fix a problem.
  Secondly, we are in the school construction business. In fact, last 
year, in the Tax Relief Act that was signed in August by President 
Clinton we had the CZAB bonds, the academy bonds that we now use to 
renovate schools. So we are in the school construction business.
  Secondly, I have heard some of my colleagues say this is a local 
issue, Loretta. This should not be done. I am reading here in Congress 
Daily from yesterday, ``House Majority Leader Armey says, prohibit the 
President's school construction initiative, because we want the 
decision to be made at the local level.''
  The President's initiative does make that a local level issue. Why? 
Because the local school district needs to stand up and say, we need to 
build a school; because local taxpayers need to stand up and say, yes, 
we will tax ourselves in order to build a new school. What happens with 
this initiative is that we help them to stand up and take 
responsibility.
  Third, people say that this is an administrative nightmare. Let me 
tell the Members, it is not an administrative nightmare. In fact, I had 
five superintendents come in from California just about a month ago, 
talking to me, of course, about school construction, because they know 
I understand that language. In fact, they came in and they talked about 
all the initiatives and all the projects that they are getting done 
under the CZAB bonds.
  Let me tell the Members, one said, Loretta, CZAB is already there. It 
is on the tax forms. We give the tax incentive there on the form. 
Secondly, they said, the approval has been so simple. As long as we 
meet the requirements, we send in one piece of paper to the Board of 
Education and we send one piece of paper to the Education Department 
out here, and we get it approved. They have been working on it.
  Fourth, someone said earlier that only the President's friends will 
get these bonds. That is not true. Of the seven initiatives that are 
already bond issues going on with the CZAB program in California, let 
me tell the Members, San Diego Unified School District, building John 
Adams Elementary School, reconstructing it, that is in the district of 
the gentleman from California (Mr. Bilbray). He is a Republican. 
Glendale Unified School District, Hoover High School. That is in the 
District of the gentleman from California (Mr. Rogan). Clovis Unified 
School District, the district of the gentleman from Fresno, California 
(Mr. Radanovich).
  This is for those places where we need to build more schools. I hope 
the people will really take a look at the President's initiative.

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