John Williams: “The language of the gentleman from the other side would strike language I put in this bill, which is an effort to help…”

“The language of the gentleman from the other side would strike language I put in this bill, which is an effort to help inner city schools and rural schools. Let me talk to the rural schools' need here. Sixty percent of the school districts in this country are rural. Let me tell the Members a few facts about those rural areas and those rural schools. They enroll a disproportionately larger share of our country's poor and at-risk youth than do any other schools. Approximately one out of four of America's rural children live below the level of poverty. Rural preschoolers have less access to early childhood education than do any other children across this country. There is an enormous need, so my language, in which I was joined by a number of my colleagues who also want to speak this evening, offers small incentives and initiatives to help those schools: in-service training for rural school teachers; long-distance learning; computer technology development; innovative pilot projects, school consortia activities, where a number of schools can come together in activities. It also establishes a National Commission on Rural Education to conduct a study on the condition of rural education in America, and come back to this Congress and make recommendations regarding how we might further help the children that go to rural schools.”