[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23807]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        DOLLARS TO THE CLASSROOM

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, this week the House Committee on Education 
and the Workforce will consider the Dollars to the Classroom resolution 
stating that our schoolchildren and teachers in our public schools 
throughout this country can benefit by directing Federal funding for 
elementary and secondary education directly to classrooms where the 
learning process actually takes place.
  By seeking to get 95 cents of every dollar into the classrooms of our 
public schools, the children and teachers of this Nation would see an 
additional $870 million out of the existing appropriation. That is 
$10,000 per school translating to about $450 for every classroom in 
America.
  By seeing that dollars actually get into the hands of those who 
directly teach our kids their ABCs and their 1, 2, 3s, we will get 
maximum efficiency out of the use of our tax dollars.
  As the House considers the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, 
let us look at how we can empower teachers at the local level. No 
longer do we want our seventh graders saying their books were printed 
when their teachers were in the eighth grade.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the Dollars to the 
Classroom resolution.

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