Steven Holt: “Mr. Speaker, the House-passed budget is really full of irresponsible tax cuts and fuzzy math; and it should be adjusted…”

“Mr. Speaker, the House-passed budget is really full of irresponsible tax cuts and fuzzy math; and it should be adjusted to match closely what has been reached in compromise in the other body. As a teacher, I am particularly disappointed that the budget resolution fails to deal adequately with the many urgent needs for our children in public education. At a time when more is demanded of our schools through higher standards, annual assessments, ``increased accountability'' is the phrase we are using this year, we risk failing too many children by not providing greater resources to turn around low-performing schools. Mr. Speaker, the House-passed mark falls short of providing adequate help for teacher training, recruitment, for school construction and modernization, for meeting Federal obligations to assist local schools in providing excellent education for students with special needs. The average age of public schools in this country is 40 years old. We have to get the students and their facilities into the 21st century. Mr. Speaker, estimates are quite clear that we will need 2.2 million new teachers over the next 10 years to keep up with attrition.”