[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19457]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



   GET OUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT; PROVIDE CHILDREN WITH WELL-EQUIPPED 
                               CLASSROOMS

  (Mr. PRICE of North Carolina asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, today I am proud to be 
among the Members signing a discharge petition to bring school 
modernization tax credits to the House floor. I come from the Triangle 
district of North Carolina, where quality education is valued and where 
a trained work force is a necessity. Yet thousands of our students are 
going to school in hundreds of trailers.
  The school modernization bill of the gentleman from New York (Mr. 
Rangel) would address this need. I am also cosponsoring with 90 other 
Members the School Construction Act introduced by the gentleman from 
North Carolina (Mr. Etheridge), especially targeted to high growth 
areas like the one I represent.
  Our approach is nonintrusive. We are providing tax credits to 
bondholders. We are not telling local authorities when or how to build. 
But we are saying to local communities, as they take on these 
obligations, that the Federal tax code will help them stretch their 
scarce dollars further.
  Let us get our kids out of trailers and into modern, well-equipped 
classrooms, where teachers can teach and students can learn. Let's get 
our priorities straight.

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