Political Quotes

“this Congress must take action to address the serious need for school construction in this country for our children. Across this country at this very moment more than 52 million school children are attending class. Unfortunately, far too many of these children are not being educated in modern, well-equipped facilities where discipline and order foster academic achievement. Unfortunately for many of our Nation's school children, class is being taught in a trailer, in a closet, in an overstuffed or run-down classroom. Mr. Speaker, the General Accounting Office has identified more than $112 billion in school construction needs in America. As a former State superintendent of our State's schools, I know that North Carolina needs more than $6 billion to build new school facilities for our children. For example, there are as many as 13,000 children in Wake County, North Carolina, alone right now being educated in trailers. Experts at the Department of Education project that my State's high school enrollment will grow by more than 27 percent in the next decade. Mr. Speaker, no student in America should be forced to attend class in substandard facilities. No teacher in America should be required to struggle in overcrowded classrooms, and no child in America should be condemned to school in a trailer. We need to fix it now.”