Bob Wise: “if my colleagues want to know why I am voting today against the temporary spending bill, look no further than Rock…”

“if my colleagues want to know why I am voting today against the temporary spending bill, look no further than Rock Branch grade school and over 500 grade schools across West Virginia. This week at Rock Branch I met with parents, teachers, and students to hear firsthand what the cutbacks in education and title I will mean. This is a program that permits 38,000 West Virginia grade school children to have help in upgrading math and reading skills. Parents took time off from work to tell me how their children were not succeeding in school. I wish every Member here could have heard Melissa's mom as she choked back tears talking about how her daughter had moved from failing to passing with honors, or hear Brooke as she showed me how to work a computer, or hear Miss Gibson and Miss Evans, their eyes shining with pride as they talked about the students' progress. On April 1, Mr. Speaker, West Virginia boards of education though will have to lay off hundreds of teachers and aides across the State of West Virginia, possibly deny 6,500 West Virginia grade schoolers this important learning opportunity, cutting almost $11 million from West Virginia's most important education program. Cutting grade school education is not cutting the deficit. There is nothing more expensive than ignorance, both individually and to our society.”