[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7480]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                               EDUCATION

  (Ms. BERKLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. BERKLEY. Mr. Speaker, yesterday we celebrated National Teachers 
Day and paid tribute to some of our Nation's most important citizens, 
our teachers. Today, I rise to discuss school construction, an issue 
which is very important to the teachers in my district.
  In my hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada, we have the fastest growing 
school age population in the United States. We have to build a school a 
month in order to keep up with the unprecedented growth. We have 1,200 
students for every school in southern Nevada. That is twice the 
national average.
  We have 210,000 people in our school district. Too many of these 
students, as many as 22,000, are being educated in trailers, being 
educated in portables. This is not an appropriate place for our 
students to be educated in. It is not an appropriate environment for 
our teachers to teach in.
  The teachers in my district need school construction so that they can 
teach smaller classes and help their students learn better. I urge my 
colleagues to pass fair, common sense legislation that will help our 
teachers and benefit all of America's students. Let us pass school 
construction.

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