Frank Riggs: “the Early Childhood, Youth, and Families Subcommittee urges you to support an important initiative to help children in…”

“the Early Childhood, Youth, and Families Subcommittee urges you to support an important initiative to help children in the District of Columbia. Just yesterday, a District school was ordered closed by the D.C. fire marshal because of roof leaks--the second school violation in 2 days. Education dollars should not have to be diverted away from needed facility repairs or away from the classroom because of outdated Federal laws that inflate the cost of school construction. Local school districts need the flexibility to appropriately spend their educational resources. Valuable funds should not have to go toward inflated construction costs, when they could instead go toward additional repairs and facility improvements, books, computers, and other educational services that actually improve classroom learning and benefit school children. The Appropriations Committee has recognized this and has included a voluntary waiver of Davis-Bacon for school construction in Washington, DC, in the fiscal year 1998 District of Columbia appropriations bill.”