[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 147 (Thursday, October 15, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H10922]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        WE MUST HAVE SCHOOL MODERNIZATION AND QUALITY EDUCATION

  (Mr. LAMPSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I did not intend to come here this morning 
and deliver a message, but in following the discussion that we have had 
on education in the last several days, particularly really for a 
lifetime as being a former teacher, I saw the opportunity now that we 
are going to have in improving our classrooms certainly by increasing 
the number of teachers, and it brought a story to mind that happened to 
me in 1970 when I was transferred to one of the high schools in which I 
taught.
  Within the first week, as I tried to raise the blinds of the one of 
the windows, the window shade fell off the wall and cut my face on my 
cheek. I noticed that 2 weeks later when it began to rain the walls 
leaked, the roofs leaked, and water ran down the side of the walls, and 
the children had to be evacuated from some of the classrooms in which 
they were.
  I could not teach. The children were there to learn, but they were so 
distracted by their surroundings that they were not focused.
  We have to give our children an opportunity for a better future, and 
that is going to be through a quality education. We know we are going 
to have more teachers now. That is going to be in this budget. Thank 
goodness for that. Now we need the classrooms to put them in, good, 
quality classrooms to do it.
  Mr. Speaker, we must have school modernization. We must pass that in 
this particular bill in this Congress now. Let us do it before we 
leave.

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