Burgess Owens: “all taxes are local. The Federal money came from the local level. We pay our income taxes and send them to Washington.…”

“all taxes are local. The Federal money came from the local level. We pay our income taxes and send them to Washington. We need our money back for education. The States and the cities are not going to be able to take care of the education problems. Let me just tell you about two schools in my district. Public school 208 in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, is one of them. Nearly 70 percent of all the children are from low-income families. Most of them are working poor. The school is overcrowded, filled to 120 percent capacity, with an average class size of 30. About one-third of the students test below what the State considers minimum competency in math and reading. If this bill passes next year, the title I tutoring of 270 of these children will no longer be there. Prospect High School is another school in my district. It is 68 percent of students from low-income families. The building is almost 70 years old, in shocking disrepair. Many of the classrooms do not even have blackboards. There are not even enough chairs in the cafeteria to seat all the students, so some of them must stand up and eat or they eat propped up against the wall. Extracurricular activities are nonexistent. If this bill passes next year, these students will not have title I programs they need, 1,000 students will miss out on title I programs.”