Jim Baird: “Mr. Speaker, every day when we address people in this body, we are surrounded by young people who look down on us from…”

“Mr. Speaker, every day when we address people in this body, we are surrounded by young people who look down on us from above and ask what we are going to do for this educational system of this country. I would like for them to look up to us, look up to us because we have done the right thing. We have supported education, not just through our rhetoric but through our actions. We have supported education by building schools that this Nation can be proud of and in which young people can learn and learn with dignity. I have come from an area where we have some of the fastest growing school districts in Washington State. Southwest Washington, home of the Evergreen School District, is experiencing extremely rapid growth. In fact, the growth rate is 4.5 percent a year, which means that in just over 4 years we will have 20 percent growth, up to 26,000 students in that school district. We have over 320 portable classrooms in this district, portable classrooms, classrooms not designed to last for years and years and not designed to house large numbers of students, but that is what we are using, and it is a disgrace. I am an original cosponsor of H.R. 996, the School Construction Act, and I encourage my colleagues to support this important legislation.”