Frank Pallone: “I yield now to the gentlewoman from Connecticut [Ms. DeLauro] who, again, has been stressing and formulating a lot of…”

“I yield now to the gentlewoman from Connecticut [Ms. DeLauro] who, again, has been stressing and formulating a lot of the Democratic policy agenda on education. {time} 2200 Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey. I am pleased to join with him tonight and my colleague, the gentlewoman from New York [Mrs. Lowey] for her leadership on this school construction issue. It is remarkable. It is a small amount of money that can help to leverage a lot of money in terms of the ability to use this so that municipalities can pay interest on their loans in order to get those bonds and to get those loans in order to rebuild crumbling schools in struggling urban areas. I am so pleased, I understand our colleague from North Carolina is going to join with us as well this evening, to rise, to stand up for America's middle-class families. These are families who work hard. They play by the rules. They want what every other family wants in this country, a shot at the American dream, the chance to make their kids' lives a little bit better than their own. We all know that in America it is education that can make the dream a reality. Education has truly been the key opportunity in our society. It is now more true than I think in any other time in terms of a new global economy, which we are faced with, and this kind of an economy requires up-to-date skills and lifelong learning. Our public school system desperately needs our help.…”