Congress can honor that commitment by providing the resources to help Oregonians make schools better. However, the needs of each community differ. Beaverton and Hillsboro suffer a crisis of rapid growth, creating classroom overcrowding and exacerbating student discipline problems. Schools there need the resources to expand and maintain school quality. The most modern elementary school in Astoria was built in 1927.
Some classrooms have only one electric plug.
This is simply not an adequate environment to prepare our children for the twenty-first century. First, we can help good teachers do their jobs by reducing class sizes in the first through third grades. Experts say that reducing class size in the early grades - to an average of 18 per classroom will enable students to get the attention they deserve, help teachers attend to students specific needs, and identify problems while they still can be remedied. I support the proposal to reduce class size by hiring 100,000 additional, qualified teachers. Last year, Congress passed the first year of this seven-year plan.