[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17222]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                             BACK TO SCHOOL

  (Mr. PASCRELL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, millions of students across this country 
will get onto school buses and bikes to go back to school this week. 
Unfortunately, many of our Nation's students will be returning to 
crowded classrooms, run-down school buildings and outdated textbooks.
  As a former teacher, I am acutely aware of both the excitement and 
the challenges facing our educational system today. We need to improve 
education by establishing tougher standards for our teachers, creating 
a school construction and modernization program, and funding preschool 
for some 3 year-olds and all of 4-year-olds. To that end, Congress must 
make education its top priority.
  I would like to take a moment to wish a classroom in the Eighth 
Congressional District in New Jersey well this school year. Robin 
Holcombe is a kindergarten teacher in the Passaic School Number Six. 
She teaches 23 active, curious, and wonderful 5- and 6-year-olds. I 
want to let Robin know that the Congress is working for her and her 
students and will not rest until we provide her more professional 
training, smaller class sizes and her new kindergarten students with a 
sound and promising educational future.
  Mr. Speaker, before I close, let me just say that many of the schools 
in northern New Jersey were built before the First World War. Congress 
must respond.

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