Date: 2000-10-18
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. as I stand here and think about how the economy is booming. we talk about how many jobs that have been created. yet we have record unemployment. and we are passing bills to bring people over under the H1B visas to take the better jobs. Now. I do not have a problem with that. Mr. Speaker. but we have got to educate the people here so that we do not continue to do this forever. It has been said that a school is four walls and a roof with a future inside. If that is true. then we need to start to look at the investments that we make in education. I have heard far too much about the trillion dollar tax break and far too little on the investment in our future. which is with our young people. It is very simple. It is so easy. And this administration has "taken a lead in standing firm and holding the line.. hopefully until we can get some of these issues addressed. All of us know we need additional teachers and afterschool programs. We all know that we need to do something about our buildings. In my State of Texas there are buildings that have more portables than the main building. and some of the portables are a block from the first restroom that kids can go to. I do not believe that we think that all of this ought to be left to the local districts because they simply cannot afford it when the districts are poor. Mr. Speaker. this is a wealthy Nation. This is a Nation that can do about whatever it wants to. and I do not believe that we are thinking soundly when we are willing to leave here without addressing the real needs of our future. which is our students. We have to get rid of these leaky inadequate buildings that have no heat. no running water. and are not even in a condition to be wired properly for todays education. Yet we continue to talk about how much we can give for a tax break. I do not know why it is so difficult to understand that kids simply cannot grasp what they are being taught if they are in a class with too many other children and only one teacher. In my State of Texas. the ratio is one teacher for 22 children. That is really above the national average. but every one of those asks for a waiver each year so that they can have even more students in a class. Just imagine young children coming to school for the first time and finding themselves in a class of 25. 30. and 40 children with one teacher. We wonder why they do not do well on testsand wonder why they drop out or start being absent from school. No child wants to feel that they are being left out. and yet that is what we are getting when we have our classes that are too large because we do not have enough teachers. One of the reasons we do not have enough teachers is because we do not pay them adequately. If we graduate young teachers now from college that are well prepared for todays classrooms. they can get a job making twice as much almost anywhere else. We have got to address the issue of educating our young people. and we have to acknowledge that we have a long ways to go in many of these communities. The answer is not vouchers for a private school. I do not have a thing against private schools. I think whoever wants to send their children to private schools should be able to do that. But I do not think it should be with taxpayers money while we are neglecting the public schools. which is where 90 percent of the children have to go. Imagine kids still going to school in areas that are not safe. where half the teachers are eligible. for retirement. but they simply cannot retire because they do not have anyone to replace them. They go into schools that are not equipped with our technology and computer hardware that we all say we have to have. In spite of all this. Mr. Speaker. the Republican leadership stands in the way of bringing a bill to the floor to just spend a portion of what we call the surplus to address these basic needs. I am hoping that we can remember our ABCs. A. for additional teachers and additional afterschool programs. Without additional -teachers. my own State will lose something like $146.8 million to reduce overcrowded classroom sizes. And B is for building improvements. Current estimates indicate that my State faces $13.7 billion in costs for school modernization. 76 percent of the schools in Texas report a need to upgrade or repair buildings. And C. of course. Mr. Speaker. is reducing classroom size. Hopefully. that is simple enough that all of us can remember that and not go home this session without addressing this.