Steven Holt: “we certainly should have the opportunity to debate this and vote on it on the floor. It takes away no local authority.…”

“we certainly should have the opportunity to debate this and vote on it on the floor. It takes away no local authority. The local school authorities will determine what needs to be built and where it needs to be built and when it needs to be built, but I know in my district, many of the towns have difficulty justifying to the taxpayers the large increase in property taxes that would result from the necessary school construction. Now, this is not a free lunch. Of course, what we are doing in effect is deferring Federal revenue, but in the case of the school districts in central New Jersey it would be a shift away from property taxes, which would allow school districts to get on with the school construction that they know, that we all know, that they need to do. I think it is a very attractive concept. I only wish, as my colleague says, that we could get this to the floor to be debated as it should be. The gentleman has been a real leader in advancing this idea and I think this will find favor all across the country. One other thing I would like to comment on is technology education, science education, and the importance of teachers. I think one of the greatest disservices that we do to students and to teachers is sometimes when people will talk about a born teacher, so and so is a born teacher, there are no more teachers born than there are born lawyers, born doctors, born engineers.”