Burgess Owens: “once again the CBC budget makes education the highest priority. We are requesting an increase of $18.5 billion for…”

“once again the CBC budget makes education the highest priority. We are requesting an increase of $18.5 billion for education funding. The CBC understands that at the heart of our efforts to improve homeland security, at the heart of our efforts for leadership in the world, at the heart of our efforts to improve the economy is education. Everybody always seems to forget that. The CBC is the only alternative budget, for example, with funds for school construction. This Congress blindly continues to ignore the need for school construction, school modernization, and school repairs. This administration proposes to spend billions of dollars to build schools in Iraq, while it has placed zero in the budget to build public schools here in America. Nearly every Member of Congress has one outrageous situation in their district, at least, where there is a great obvious need for school repair, school modernization, or school construction; every Member beyond the Congressional Black Caucus members. There is a lot of hypocrisy in the Republican position on school construction. There is an argument that the Federal Government should not be involved in school construction. On the other hand, there is some money in this budget for the construction of charter schools. Charter schools are an exception because, ideologically, this administration agrees with that.”