[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 22996]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



            REGARDING EDUCATION AND THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESS

  (Ms. VELAZQUEZ asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Mr. Speaker, we are facing a tragedy in this country's 
education system. Now, I am not talking about the fact that children 
are being forced to learn in school buildings that are literally 
falling apart, in classes whose size are literally bursting at the 
seams. I am not talking about the fact that tens of thousands of 
children are being kept out of Head Start or the fact that hundreds of 
thousands of children are losing after-school programs. I am not 
talking about the fact that some areas, like Sunset Park in my 
district, do not even have high schools, making access to education 
difficult, if not impossible.
  No, these facts make us mad; they make us angry. They make parents 
around the country shake their heads and wonder just what exactly we 
are doing in this body. But these are not the tragedies I am talking 
about.
  The tragedy is that we know what we need to do, but, thanks to the 
Republican leadership, we are not doing it. In fact, judging by the 
Labor-HHS bill they are trying to pass, we are moving backwards, while 
another generation of our youth is in danger of being lost, and that is 
the tragedy.

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