[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10508]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                    SCHOOL MODERNIZATION LEGISLATION

  (Ms. PELOSI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I join my colleague, the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Rodriguez), in urging our colleagues to sign the discharge 
petition for America's children. This is a school modernization 
bipartisan legislation that is so very, very important.
  We were all very disappointed that the House did not have the 
opportunity to debate this issue in various tax bills that had come 
before us. Let us just think about the children for a moment. They are 
very, very smart. If we tell children that education is important to 
them, to their own self-fulfillment, to their competitiveness 
economically, to our international competitiveness, that we have a 
well-educated workforce, yet we send them to schools that are below 
par, where they are overcrowded, that are dilapidated, that are 
leaking, that are not wired for the future, children get a mixed 
message.
  Children see the inconsistency, indeed even the hypocrisy of a 
message that says education is important, that they should value it; 
but we do not value it enough to put forth funds in the way that, very 
wisely, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel) and the gentlewoman 
from Connecticut (Mrs. Johnson) have put in their bill. This bipartisan 
legislation very wisely commits small resources for a big payoff: for 
many more classrooms; smaller classrooms for more children.
  All the science tells us that children do better in smaller 
classrooms. School modernization will make that happen. Let us be 
consistent with the children. Please sign the discharge petition.

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