Shelley Berkley: “Yesterday we celebrated National Teachers Day and paid tribute to some of our Nation's most important citizens, our…”

“Yesterday we celebrated National Teachers Day and paid tribute to some of our Nation's most important citizens, our teachers. Today, I rise to discuss school construction, an issue which is very important to the teachers in my district. In my hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada, we have the fastest growing school age population in the United States. We have to build a school a month in order to keep up with the unprecedented growth. We have 1,200 students for every school in southern Nevada. That is twice the national average. We have 210,000 people in our school district. Too many of these students, as many as 22,000, are being educated in trailers, being educated in portables. This is not an appropriate place for our students to be educated in. It is not an appropriate environment for our teachers to teach in. The teachers in my district need school construction so that they can teach smaller classes and help their students learn better. I urge my colleagues to pass fair, common sense legislation that will help our teachers and benefit all of America's students. Let us pass school construction.”