[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 146 (Wednesday, October 14, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H10836]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             EDUCATION FUNDING FROM DEMOCRATIC PERSPECTIVE

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I listened to my Republican colleague who 
just spoke and I have to say that he essentially is not indicating what 
has happened here in the last 2 years with the Republican effort to 
slash funding for public education, with the suggestion that we abolish 
the Department of Education and with the opposition to the two 
Democratic initiatives that we insist be included in this budget before 
we go home. That is, 100,000 new teachers across the country and money 
to modernize and upgrade our schools.
  Democrats and President Clinton want the local school boards to make 
the decisions about who to hire and how to fix their buildings and how 
to go out to bond, but we also know that those school districts do not 
have the money, they do not have the local property taxes to pay for 
those new initiatives. They cannot hire extra teachers, they cannot 
renovate the school buildings because they do not have the dollars.
  Democrats are pushing this Republican leadership kicking and 
screaming to the point over the next few days where hopefully we will 
have the funding available for those local school districts. Those 
local school districts will decide how the money is spent, but right 
now they do not have the money because this Republican leadership wants 
to slash education funding.

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