[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17789]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         PUTTING CHILDREN FIRST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge this body to stop 
over-spending on defense and start spending on the needs of our 
children. We need to put children first.
  Our military spending is still at Cold War levels. Each year, we 
allocate more than half of federal discretionary spending to military 
efforts. In contrast, for education, that figure is less than 9 
percent. As a nation, we rank 1st in military spending but only 10th 
globally in spending for education. It should then come as no surprise, 
that in a recent international study of 21 industrialized nations the 
students of the United States ranked 19th in math and science 
performance.
  This Congress voted to increase the Pentagon's budget by 112 billion 
dollars over the next six years. Incredibly, that is nearly the same 
amount of money needed to repair the nation's schools according to a 
report by the General Accounting Office.
  Our schools are in dire need of assistance. many are crumbling, 
cracking, and splitting at the seams. That same GAO report informed us 
that 14 million pupils nationwide are being educated in unsatisfactory 
environments. These children are attending school in facilities that 
either need extensive structural repair or the replacement of one or 
more buildings. In my home state of Michigan, for example, more than 1 
in 5 schools have at least one building in need of serious repair, and 
more than half of Michigan's schools have at least one serious 
environmental health problem.
  We all accept the fact that learning environment affects the quality 
of the education our children receive. I ask you: ``How do we expect 
our children to learn, when we do not give them the clean and safe 
places to do so?'' We need to get the asbestos out of the classrooms. 
We need to get children out of trailers and portable classrooms. We 
need to fix leaking roofs, repair plumbing facilities and ensure each 
student is studying under adequate light.
  Ms. Lenora Starks, a constituent of mine, recently wrote to me. She 
was concerned that we weren't doing enough to help our public schools. 
``We must ensure,'' she wrote, ``that our students have a proper 
learning environment. In too many schools, efforts to improve student 
achievement are hampered by inadequate and deteriorating facilities.''
  Ms. Starks can see our priorities. She sees that this Congress has 
not been putting children first and is worried about what that means 
for our nation's future.
  We need to put children first by increasing spending on Head Start. 
Rather than giving an excess of 17 billion unrequested dollars to the 
bloated Pentagon budget, we could fully fund Head Start for the next 
five years. And this funding is critical. Because of inadequate federal 
funding, Head Start is only able to serve 30 percent of eligible 
children. Lack of federal fund also causes most children to wait until 
the age of four to enter the program, when evidence supports earlier 
intervention is more effective.
  Children are also adversely affected by a lack of financial 
commitment to low-income families and to impoverished neighborhoods. 
One example is the malignant neglect of the childcare crisis in this 
country. The 105th Congress only provided 182 million dollars this year 
to improve the quality of children care in this country. This fell far 
short of the estimated 7.5 billion dollars needed to provide safe and 
affordable child care for working families. Full-day child care costs 
up to 10,000 per year, yet half of America's families with young 
children earn less than 35,000 per year. Child care in low-income 
communities must be a priority if parents are going to be able to seize 
opportunities to provide for their children.
  Regarding neighborhoods, support for Community Development Block 
Grants, which have a long history of providing economic aid to 
underserved areas, is declining. In the city of Detroit, CDBG funding 
has declined from 130.1 million to 51.3 million over the past 19 years. 
For fiscal year 2000, current proposals by this Congress would continue 
the downward trend. With one in five American children living in 
poverty, cuts to CDBGs undoubtedly affect their futures. Studies show 
that poor children are less likely to finish school, are at heightened 
risk of stunted growth and other health problems and contribute less to 
our economy as adults. We must restore the CDBGs to their original 
vitality and reverse the years of cutbacks if we really want to help 
the youngest victims of poverty.
  Congress also misdirects spending by failing to support youth 
employment initiatives. While increasing the Pentagon's budget over the 
past two years, Congress has concurrently cut youth job training by 80 
percent and federal support for summer jobs for young people. Young 
people must have avenues to pursue their dreams.
  We need to reprioritize our allocation of funds in this nation. We 
need to put children first. This is not a choice, this is a must.

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