Bob Etheridge

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call on this Congress to pass bipartisan school construction legislation to help improve our education for our children. This week is the 15th annual Teachers Appreciation Week, and yesterday we celebrated National Teacher Day. As the father of a fourth grade teacher, I commend the House on passing this bipartisan resolution supporting our teachers. But Congress must do more than pass nonbinding resolutions. To make real progress in education, Congress must pass substantive legislation to improve our schools so every child has an opportunity and none are left behind. We must take action to help make sure every neighborhood school in this country works to provide our children with a decent education. We must work in a bipartisan manner to help pass common sense solutions to the challenges facing our schools. The first bill we should pass is the bipartisan Johnson-Rangel school construction bill. This compromise bill contains elements of my own construction bill to help local communities build new schools, relieve overcrowding, reduce class sizes, and help teachers give students the individual attention they need and deserve. I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this common sense bill that will make a difference in our community schools. I urge the House leadership to bring this important bill to the floor immediately so Congress can have an opportunity to do more to improve our schools.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, as the father of an outstanding public school teacher and as a former State superintendent of my State schools, I rise in strong support of this resolution and I am a proud cosponsor of it as well, which really expresses the sense of this House for the support of America's teachers. I also want to thank all of the teachers who have touched my life through the years and made a difference. Mr. Speaker, what a difference a couple of years can make. Not long ago, this Chamber's majority engaged in teacher-bashing with reckless abandon. Rather than praise teachers as this bipartisan resolution rightly does, until recently, politicians in this Congress routinely took potshots at teachers and bad-mouthed our public schools for partisan gain. So today's resolution is a welcome change from the past. Mr. Speaker, talk really is cheap. Although this resolution is a very nice statement, this Congress needs to do more than talk the talk. We must walk the walk. This Congress must pass the many important legislative initiatives that are bottled up in one committee or another. With our schools bursting at the seams and with our children crowded into trailers, this House must act on common sense school construction legislation, and as our teacher shortage is critical in this country and reaching a crisis proportion, we need to pass legislation for 100,000 teachers. As we debate the issues of youth violence and values in our society, this Congress needs to pass character legislation to help our children learn the lessons of respect, responsibility, honesty, integrity, courage, kindness, and those basic values that we look to. Mr. Speaker, today is National Teachers Day, and this week is the 15th annual National Teachers Appreciation Week. But every day should be Teachers Appreciation Day. We need to raise the standards in this country for the profession of educators. Congress must exert the leadership and the moral authority to give every teacher in this country the high regard that he or she richly deserves. This resolution is a good step in that direction, and I commend its bipartisan support. However, we must take action to support our teachers and pass legislation that will improve education for our children.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California for yielding, and I thank her for putting together this Special Order tonight, and for her leadership on this issue in the House. It is an important issue. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to speak about this critical issue of education for our Nation. When we talk about that, we talk about our children. I often wonder, having served at the State level in North Carolina for 8 years where I saw the funds coming, the Federal funds, and let me remind our colleagues and the people who might be listening this evening that when we talk about Federal funds, they only represent about 7 percent of the total money spent in this country on education. Is that insignificant? No. Is that the only amount we can have? Well, let me explain to folks that if we go back to the 1960s, it was about 15 percent. So it is not a magic number, it is just a number that we live with today because the money has been cut over the years. Did that money make a difference? Absolutely, because it was categorical money. Folks tend to forget that in the 1960s, we decided math and science were important in this country after Sputnik. We put the resources in, and did it make a difference? Absolutely, it made a difference. It gave us a lead in science and technology that we are enjoying the benefits of today. Our public schools responded, and so did our universities. Now, why people need to have movement of funds from one category to another in that is very easy. There is not enough money in them. If there is enough money in those categories, they would not need to steal from staff development for teachers and for teacher recruitment and those dollars that are badly needed. It is important that those dollars be there, because I think the Federal commitment, as the gentlewoman has pointed out, is so critical. It says that it is important to this Nation. Here just today we have stood on this floor and talked about how important our teachers are, and now we have a chance to decide that we are going to turn words into actions. Mr. Speaker, I said today, words are cheap, talk is cheap. We ought to walk the walk instead of talk the talk. I happen to have a son who teaches the fourth grade. If we paid teachers the minimum wage, we would be raising the salary of teachers in this country, because they put in an awful lot of hours they are not compensated for. I think a lot of folks think of teachers working from maybe 7:30 or 8 o'clock to whatever time is school is out in the afternoon. What they do not realize is those teachers grade papers in the evenings, they take children on field trips on the weekends, and here we are arguing about a few dollars. It is a lot of money in terms of what schools get, but if we look at it in terms of the whole Federal budget, it is not really a great deal of money. But a few dollars at the classroom level where teachers are makes a big difference. We have colleagues here who want to say well, it is just where the teacher is. No, we need people for staff development. We need people in the principal's office, we need people in the central office, because someone has to coordinate all of this. We need people at the Federal level. I know when I was State superintendent, I depended greatly on the Federal office of education for research and development monies, and yes, for those grant monies. So it does make a difference that we have those monies in those categories. Mr. Speaker, it is amazing to me that we want to talk about taking it away, and that is really what we are talking about. Any way we cut it, we are going to take it away from some of the most needy children in this country, the very children that we want to raise the threshold for and make sure that in the 21st century, they have a chance to make it. We talk about the digital divide, and I will talk about that more in just a moment. But the digital divide is nothing compared to the divide that we are going to have for the children who do not have the opportunity to learn to read, and reading is fundamental; that do not learn to do math early, because many of the children show up at the public schools in this country who have not had the opportunity before they get there for a variety of reasons, the biggest one being poverty. If there is one thing that we can classify, it reaches across ethnic lines, no matter whom they are, a child who shows up from poverty is a child more likely to be behind in school and have a difficult time. If we do not give children a good education, we relegate them and the future generation to poverty. That is what public education is about in this country. America is really the one place in the world that says, no matter where one comes from, we give them an opportunity to step up to this great smorgasbord we call public education, if one is willing to work for it. But if America is going to seize this opportunity of a new economy in the 21st century, Congress must provide national leadership in this vital effort. We cannot capitulate now. The one time we have a chance to make a difference, we ought not to just lay down and play dead. I have often said, there is a big slip between the lip and the hip, and that really comes with a lot of talk and not a lot of resources to get the job done. Across this country, the American people are crying out for a greater investment in education. I have been in probably many schools, maybe more than most people in this body, having been superintendent, and I go back regularly. I have never had a child, the truth is I have never had a teacher to ask me who paid for something in the school, whether it was local, State, or Federal. They just know they do not have enough. There are surveys after surveys that tell us that teachers take money out of their pocket to make sure they have resources in the classroom for their children. Now, I am here to tell my colleagues tonight that is not right. Here we are arguing about a few dollars that we are going to send to help make education better for the poorest of our students, because those are the ones the teachers take money out of their pockets for. They are the ones who are there that we are not paying as well as we ought to. I told someone today, my colleague may have overheard it, when we go through the grocery line in the check-out and pay for our groceries, because the teachers are not paid like they should be, in my opinion, they do not have a check-out that says, if you are a teacher, come through this line, and if you are a millionaire, come through this line. We all go through the same line. We ought to recognize that. If we truly value what our teachers do, and I do, I think we have to do a better job, and I think folks are expecting us to do it. The leadership in this House, the Republican leadership, has to join with us to make it happen. We have to stop arguing about those things like school vouchers. Every year they want to talk about school vouchers. That is not the answer to the problem. Because if that were the answer, we would have all been on board a long time ago. All that is is a way to take money off the top and deny those most-needed students their opportunity. We can talk about all we want in saying, well, competition is what we need in schools. We have 53 million students in school in America this year, and 94 percent, roughly, in this country, and in some States it is higher than that, it is 95, 96 percent, they are in the public schools. So the key is for us to use what resources, to use the kind of influence and support we have to help all of our children do better. I think our schools are doing a far better job today than they have ever done, for all of our children. There is no question about that. No one can tell me that is not true, after looking at the data and look at the data across years. But the challenge we have is what we have done last year or 5 years ago is not good enough. It will not suffice in the high-tech economy we find ourselves in, competing with the world. We cannot drain off resources from our public schools and leave our children behind, condemned to a bleak future of failure. As we work in this Special Order tonight, I hope we can share with the American people that our commitment is to our public schools, it is to make sure that every single child has an opportunity. Mr. Speaker, one of the things we have done in this country is make sure that children, try to make sure that children show up ready to learn. We can tell a difference in a child who comes from a background who has not had those opportunities, if he just had one year of Head Start, good Head Start or preschool. In North Carolina, as my colleagues well know, our governor has worked with the general assembly and they are now putting in a prekindergarten program. They call it Smart Start. We had some when I was superintendent that we used Federal monies for that, and it makes all the difference in the world. It is a public-private partnership, and in some cases, we are working with other groups. But for the children who have not had that enrichment, who show up at school who do not know their colors, who have not been read to when they were little folks, it makes all the difference in the world. It helps the teacher, when we have 26, 28, and in some cases, 30 children. I often remind folks that Fay and I were fortunate. We have 3 children. I would have hated to have had 26 of them, trying to teach them. Some days it was tough with 3. People do not realize what it is in that classroom. Teachers are liable to stay in that classroom. If they want to go to the bathroom, they have to get relief. There are not many jobs like that today. I think we need to honor them and respect them. Mr. Speaker, our job here in Washington ought to be talking about how we can make it better, not create situations that are barriers to those teachers, and the teachers are the ones who really understand the problems the children have. They do not want the money to be taken away from staff development. Education may be the only place I am aware of where we tell teachers that they have to continue to get recertified, and they to pay for it themselves. Most businesses that I know of pay for their employees to go to get continuing training. We are starting to do a better job, but we are not there yet where we are paying for all of them. I think if we honor education and we care for our children and our teachers, we ought to be about doing those things. Our schools can do better, and they will with our help, but only if we are willing to help. We need to foster a greater connection, I think, between students, teachers, parents, and the broader business communities, one of the points we were talking about earlier. If a community gets involved, it is amazing what happens to students. One of the things you talked about earlier that are so important, we have to reduce class sizes. But if we talk about reducing class sizes on the one hand and take away staff development for the teachers and the training opportunities they have, all of a sudden we are working against ourselves because we are saying, well, this worked well but we are going to take that away and put it over here. What we really need is to enrich and help that whole system. We need staff development for teachers and administrators. We need to make sure that when we are looking at roughly 2 million teachers we are going to need in the next few years, we ought to be looking for ways we can energize and put money out there. We did it in the sixties when we wanted to do math and science. We are going to have to do it again if we honor and believe in education. I happen to believe very strongly that I would not be here in the United States Congress if it had not been for public education, and I would say to the bulk of the Members, neither would they. They should not forget from whence they came. I would not be here. If we had been in the process of vouchers and all these other things, I would not have gotten the kind of education I did. I went to the public school, and whatever the most affluent child in my community got, I had the opportunity to get. That is true of most of the people in this body. We should never forget that. We should not deny that opportunity for any child in America, no matter where they come from ethnically nor where they come from economically, because who knows, who knows, one of those youngsters may find the cure for cancer or any other number of diseases. Eventually they may be in this body making some of the same decisions. We have a tremendous challenge. We need a national commitment. We need that commitment to the notion that parents in America have the right to expect that their children will have the best teachers in the world, and we cannot have, attract, nor retain the best teachers if we do not support them. It is one thing to get them there. It is equally as important to keep them there with pay, respect, and support. That means staff development. That means when they need help, we respond; that we honor what they do, rather than criticize what they do. That bothers me greatly when I hear Members in this body do that. I was pleased today that we passed a resolution, but I will repeat one more time, now that we have said the words, we need to walk the walk. We need to have an education bill that bespeaks of how important education is in America for every child. Whether he lives in the richest suburbs or the poorest inner city or the most isolated rural parts of America, he should have the opportunity for an education. I think block grants and vouchers are not the way to go. We would ultimately waste the ability of children in this country. We must make sure that every neighborhood school in America works. I thank the gentlewoman for putting together this special order.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I would also like to acknowledge and congratulate the Quinns. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the more than 53 million children across this country that right now are attending school in our Nation's classrooms. That is more students than at the height of the Baby Boom and there will be more next year. Unfortunately, too many of our children are stuffed into trailers, closets, cramped bathrooms, overcrowded and substandard facilities. Our schools are literally bursting at the seams. For more than 2 years, I tried to pass my school construction bill to provide tax credits to help local communities build quality schools for our children. But the Republican leadership has refused to allow this essential legislation to pass. The same Republican leadership that has tried to eliminate the Department of Education, slash school lunches, refuses to pass this modest bill to build just a few schools for our children. This same leadership has constantly pushed private school vouchers, block grants, and even antipublic school bills that have suffered from time to time. Fortunately, Mr. Speaker, a bipartisan group of Members have come together to support a common sense compromise to school construction legislation. The Johnson-Rangel bill will pay the interest on about $24.8 billion worth of school construction bonds across this country. I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, tonight I rise to pay homage to Evander S. Simpson of Smithfield, North Carolina, who died on April 27 after a long and fruitful life. His passing has removed from North Carolina's Second Congressional District a giant of community service, a leader of humanity, and a man who has left the world immeasurably better than he found it. The death of Evander Simpson leaves a void that will not soon be filled. Mr. Simpson was a member of what Tom Brokaw called ``The Greatest Generation.'' Those were the men and women who went off collectively to save the world when World War II was thrust upon them. And it was they who, when the war was over, joined in joyous and short- lived celebrations, then immediately began the task of rebuilding their lives and the world that they wanted. Brokaw's description certainly fits the life of Evander Simpson. Born in 1914 in Sampson County to a father who served for 35 years as a teacher and principal, his future and career direction was foreordained. Mr. Simpson attended the University of North Carolina, eventually receiving a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, and an advanced certificate for school administration from that institution. By the age of 24, Evander had become principal of Newton Grove High School. World War II intervened; and Mr. Simpson, then serving as Secretary to the Committee on Education in the U.S. House of Representatives, volunteered for the Navy, answering the call, as Tom Brokaw said, ``to help save the world from the two most powerful ruthless and military machines ever assembled, instruments of conquest in the hands of fascist maniacs.'' Mr. Simpson served as a gunnery officer in action in the Arctic and in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. With the end of the war, Mr. Simpson came home to North Carolina, and for the next 3 years worked at North Carolina State University counseling the thousands of Tar Heel veterans who were flooding into our colleges and universities determined to make up for the time that they had lost while they were off fighting the war. A position as a high school principal followed, but in 1951 Mr. Simpson was appointed superintendent of Johnston County schools, a position which he would hold for 29 years and that would define the rest of his life and leave an indelible impression on the people of Johnston County and North Carolina. Evander Simpson and Johnston County's schools were at the heart of the county's progress over those 29 years. Eighteen schools were consolidated into five. Accreditation for all schools in the country from the State Department of Public Instruction and the Southern Association of Schools was obtained. Teacher pay supplements were established, kindergarten programs were established county wide, and Mr. Simpson was deeply involved in the establishment of the Johnston County Community College. Mr. Simpson earned a reputation of being one of the top school superintendents in the nation during those years. An indefatigable man whose devotion to his county was legendary, Evander found time to serve 14 years on the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina, to serve as president of the North Carolina Education Association, to serve for 30 years on the Johnston County Board of Health, and to serve for six years on the board of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Mr. Simpson was a Paul Harris Fellow in Rotary International, a member of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the Chamber of Commerce. That organization awarded him its Distinguished Citizen Award in 1969. He was a deacon, Sunday school superintendent, and Brooks Bible Class teacher for more than 35 years at Smithfield First Baptist Church. No man has ever loved his country and its history more than Evander Simpson. Johnston County residents know that his every speech would include references to the great documents of this Nation. A speech to veterans might include George Washington's prayer on his inauguration as President. A speech to a civic club would include a reference to the Declaration of Independence or Lincoln's Gettysburg address, both of which he could recite to memory. The great speeches of history were fodder for his mill, including the great inaugural speech by President Kennedy, ``Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.'' Generations of Johnston County individuals were influenced by the great good of Evander Simpson. He believed in the innate goodness of men and women, that people of good will could find acceptable answers to any problem, that the spiritual needs of humanity must be served, that planning for the future was preferable to lamenting of the failures of the past. The great sportswriter Grantland Rice could have had Evander Simpson in mind when he wrote the following: ``For when the great scorer comes to mark against your name, he writes not that you won or lost but how you played the game.'' Evander Simpson played the game with dedication to God and his community. We who are left can only thank a kind providence that placed him along beside us on this highway of life. I am also pleased this evening to say to this body that I am also placing with this speech a tribute to Evander Simpson read by Miss Carolyn G. Ennis at Mr. Simpson's funeral on April 30, 2000, and that tribute follows my remarks herewith, Mr. Speaker: A Man Named Simpson (By Carolyn G. Ennis) And God stepped out on space And he looked around and said, I'm lonely, I'll make me an educator. So God made many teachers and principals. And the young children were taught. And the young children learned. And God said, ``That's good.'' And God said, I'm lonely still. I need a dynamic leader A man who knows how to look like a banker, How to act like a gentleman, How to think like a politician, And how to work from sunrise to midnight like a homegrown country farmer. So God made many, many more educators, But he was lonely still. And God said, ``I'll make me an Excellent educator: A man with vision, values, agility and versatility; A professional man and Crusader with a pioneering spirit. One whom the power of office will not spoil nor kill, One who has a conscience and a will, To do the right thing at the right time, the right way. So God sat down by the side of the river In a place called Sampson County. With his head in his hand he thought and thought. Then God said, ``I'll make make me an extra--special educator --A superintendent for schools. A man for consolidation, accreditation, and integration, A man for providing sources and resources to develop The best educational opportunities for all children and For all teachers in Johnston County; A man who will know how to ``command'' from his experience In the military so others will learn how to march in unity To the same drumbeat for excellence in education. So God made this ``Educator of Excellence''. And Johnston County, North Carolina, the United States of America and the entire educational arena of the world Have never been quite the same, since God created Mr. Evander S. Simpson, who was and still is an extra- Special, excellent educator. And God said, ``That's Good,'' And today, we echo again in fond memory of Mr. E. S. Simpson Relections of your life to repeat. That's good

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. Mr. Chairman, I rise this evening to urge my colleagues as we finish these amendments to support this appropriation bill that includes over $350 million for North Carolina's victims from Hurricane Floyd. I thank the gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young), the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), and the members of the committee and the members of the administration, really, who worked together on this bill, to come up with a strong relief package for the victims of this devastating storm. I know there are some Members of this House who are opposed to this bill because of the funds it is spending on various projects overseas. There are tens of thousands of North Carolinians and others along the East Coast who have been devastated economically, physically, and emotionally by this historic storm. I sure would appreciate it if my colleagues would think about them when they cast their vote this evening or tomorrow. Think about the thousands of small businesses who will never open their doors again. Think about the widow or the widower who lost a life partner in the flood waters that ravaged our State. Think about the farmers, and we just heard about them, who are struggling to repair their fields, their barns, their equipment, and who are desperately hanging on hoping that they can get through this spring planting season. Think about the thousands of families who are in cramped travel trailers or who are sharing quarters with relatives and desperately need to have a place that they can call home. Think about children who are traveling on roads every day that need to be repaired. I urge my colleagues to think about these things and ask themselves this question: How would I cast my vote if these were my neighbors? Regardless of what else they may have against what is in this bill. Think about that before they cast their vote. Think about the Americans that we all represent. Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, this evening I want to talk with my colleagues about the future. As I talk about the future, I want to talk about the children of this country, because they truly are our future. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to talk about education, particularly an effort in education called character education. We talk about a lot of things that work and things that do not work; but as my colleagues know, before I came to the people's House to serve in this body, I was the State superintendent of schools in the State of North Carolina. As I have told many of my colleagues from time to time, there are a lot of things in education that a lot of us who work in it, if we are honest with ourselves, do not know a great deal about when we do do some of the things that work and a lot of the things that do not work. I happen to know firsthand that character education can make a difference to teach our children values and make sure that our students are well rounded and prepared to become good citizens. In 1989 when I took over as State superintendent, we did a survey of about 25,000 students across our State, and I was quite alarmed at some of the results we got back. About 37 percent of the students said that they did not respect their fellow students nor their teachers, and it was quite obvious from that data that something needed to be done. We pulled together teachers, administrators, members of the clergy. We pulled together members from the bench and we did an extensive study for about a year and a half, almost 2 years, and came up with what we called ethics education. We put together some principles, and ultimately that evolved into character education. It was later adopted by the State board of education and then the North Carolina general assembly in 1995; and we received a grant in 1995 from the U.S. Department of Education to begin a process in three of our school districts, three of the larger ones, incidentally, Wake County, Cumberland County, and Mecklenberg County to pilot character education. Now, across my congressional district, school leaders have developed character education initiatives that really are making a difference for stronger schools and better communities. Wake County, as I just mentioned, was one of the early leaders. Not only were they a leader by receiving the funds and initiating the project and having community meetings, because this truly is based at the school level and the community level; but they have become a leader through their innovative effort that they call Uniting for Character. In that process, there are a number of principles that they focus on and that they come together on, which are respect, citizenship, justice and fairness, honesty, caring, respect and trustworthiness are the core; and each community must develop those issues that they believe in. What we recommend is that the educators, the parents, the business community, all in the community come together and work together collaboratively to come up with those core issues that they want to use. In Johnston County, another county in the district, they have come together and done theirs. The principal of Selma Elementary School, a school which I visited just a few weeks ago, attributes 59 fewer suspensions during the 1995-1996 school year to their character education program. They also attribute the fact that they have had academic growth, tremendous academic growth over the years and again this year, and I visited that school again to see what kind of progress they were making. They again are showing progress as a result of character education. It is not a program that teachers have to struggle with as another addition to their already crowded school day. It is integrated in the curriculum in the standard course of study that we use in North Carolina, and it is taught along with everything else they do, and I will talk about that more in just a few moments. Mr. Speaker, some of my colleagues and certainly others across the country may have seen the CBS News profile that was done several months ago on one of the successful character education programs in the Nash Rocky Mount school system, Baskerville Elementary School, a school that really was having a difficult time. They were having problems with truancy, they were having problems with discipline, their academics were suffering, and under the leadership of a dynamic principal named Anne Edge, she took this on, she got her staff involved, she got the community involved, and she literally indoctrinated the children in that school, and it is working well. I visited there several weeks ago, and I can tell my colleagues as a result of that program being implemented properly and being supported by the community, supported by the central office staff and the local school board, that is one public school that has turned around and is making a difference and it has become infectious. It is working all across Nash Rocky Mount school system in North Carolina. This morning, Mr. Speaker, I had the opportunity to visit Tramway Elementary School in Lee County, another school in my district where character education really fills the entire community with hope. I went into that school this morning, and I was so pleased to see the number of parents who were there. They were there participating, active in the school. They had other members of the school faculty there, but the impressive part of it was what was happening with the students. The young people in that classroom gave reports, probably half the class got up and read reports and shared with me and with the others present what character education had done, what a difference it had made, and the different character traits that they had picked up as a result of reading such books over the last several months as Charlotte's Web and any other number of books that they had been assigned to read as special reading projects. That is what making good citizens is all about. When we have good citizens in the classroom, we have good citizens in the school; and it flows over into the community, and it goes home with the children. They are reinforcing in Tramway Elementary and Baskerville Elementary and schools all across the second district, and certainly across North Carolina, what parents are teaching at home; and in some cases, children are taking it home and reinforcing it with parents and really helping parents understand. I was in Combs Elementary School in Wake County, one of the first schools I visited talking about this issue of character education and the bill that I introduced on February 16 entitled character education, or Character Counts in the 21st Century. We have in that school children speaking languages from probably about 12 to 14 different countries. It was amazing how they were sharing and helping one another, talking about these issues of character that brings them together, that helps those children be better students academically and better students in terms of sharing within that school environment being good citizens. Mr. Speaker, character education works because it teaches our children to see the world through a moral lens. Children learn that actions do have consequences, and if we deal with it at an early age with early intervention, we will see a difference not only in our classrooms, but in our communities and across this country, and many of the challenges that we are facing together we will not have to face in the future. Yes, we will continue to face the challenges in the adult community for years to come, but we need to get back to those principles that we talked about many years ago, and character education certainly works. It works when teachers work with parents and with children and with the entire community to instill a spirit of a shared responsibility. That is why character education is so important, if we can get it on issues like this that are important to the community. Education is a shared responsibility. I try to remind my colleagues here and in every speech I give back home, education starts in the home; and if there is no education in the home, the challenge of teachers is almost insurmountable. How in the world, if we cannot teach one child or two children at home, do we expect a teacher to take the responsibility of 30? It is a shared responsibility. When we talk about character education and we emphasize those values, as I talked about earlier, of courage, and certainly courage is important in everything we do; good judgment, as we talk to children; integrity in our teaching every day in the various courses, whether it be math, whether it be history; kindness, in the things that children do for one another, and we reward those things. It is one thing to be punished; it is another thing to be rewarded when one does something good. Children learn very quickly in life, if they get rewarded for doing good things, they will do good things again. And if they are not rewarded, and all they see is punishment and the dark side of life, I can tell my colleagues it will be difficult. Early intervention works. Kindness. Perseverance. We can teach it without having it laid on to something else. We can do it in the course of what we are teaching every day. How we respect one another. We respect other's property; we respect the school property, and it carries over into the community where young people work with their brothers and sisters, where they do it on the job. Self-discipline. Self-discipline is an important value. These are principles we can agree on. They are things that the community decides they want to do. It brings the PTAs together with the teachers, with the community interest. It is important. As a father of two public school teachers, my heart aches for the victims of recent school violence. I can assure my colleagues that not only do the parents hurt, but so do all of those folks who work with children, whether it was in their school or not, because it affects them. The scars are there. So rather than engaging in those divisive debates and partisan posturing, I call on my colleagues in this Congress on both sides of the aisle to pass progressive innovations that work, things like character education. It is not one-upsmanship, even though I introduced it on February 16. It is going to take both sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, working together to make a difference. Mr. Speaker, I am happy to yield to my colleague from New York who has really been a leader not only on this issue of character education but in school construction and in the areas of education.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley) for sharing with me his time this afternoon and sharing with my colleagues and the people the critical needs of, not only character education, but this whole issue of education that he cares so much about and has worked so hard on here, and I thank him for it. As we work together with our colleagues to make sure that, not only is character education integrated and a part of our curriculum in the future, but all of these issues of education continue to be at the top of our agenda. Because if we are going to have the kind of future we want to have in the 21st century, and America continues to be strong and a Nation that leads the world, we will do it through one thing. We will do it through education and providing those opportunities to our children and all the children of this country, no matter where they may live, no matter what their economic background might happen to be.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I think it comes back to the issue that the gentleman from New York raised earlier. We have to do it whether it is done at the Federal, State, local, however, jointly get the job done. In my district, well in North Carolina as a State, over the next 10 years, we are projected to be the fifth fastest growing State in the Nation in school population. We cannot build schools fast enough. Yet, I went by a school, visited a school earlier this morning where my children used to go. It is a fairly new school by school standards. They had trailers all over the place. All the inside interior of the building, like the gentleman from New York was saying, the lounge was now a classroom. It was never built for a classroom. It was a small area where one was tutoring students. That is not acceptable. That is not acceptable. They are doing it, but it is not acceptable. One can talk about these principles, and one can teach them, and teachers can reinforce them. But children also understand that somewhere along the line somebody is not being quite honest with them when they say they do not have the resources when they see other nice new buildings going up or they think they are not really caring whether other things are happening when they could provide those resources. Children do not know what they need. They only know what they get.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I could not help but thinking as the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley) was going through it, we talk about children. If one goes in certainly the early classrooms, early years, kindergarten, prekindergarten, first, second grade, their eyes are so bright, they have such visions and opportunity, and they are so trusting. If we can capture that, we can help them there, we can make a difference. One of the leading newspapers in our States said a number of years ago, and they are absolutely correct, and I have used it a number of times since then, they said that children do not know what they need, they only know what they get. It is our responsibility as adults, as policy makers at every level to make sure they get what they need to be good citizens, to be well educated, and make sure the 21st Century is productive for them so that those of us who are now adults are a lot better off. It is like one of my friends said when we had a study commission, and I appointed one to get some things done, he was a corporate head of a large corporation. He came to North Carolina from New York, an outstanding citizen, never finished high school. Never went to college. He made a substantial sum of money. He said, I am a lucky fellow. He said, I may never see anyone else like me. He said, but I am going to make sure every child that comes through these public schools has the best opportunity they can have, because I do not care what they look like or where they come from, I want them to get a good education and make a lot of money because I want to draw my Social Security when I retire. So I have always remembered that. But getting back to this issue of character and really formalizing that in our public schools, I agree with the gentleman from New York. I do think that it is important that every child be exposed to these types of principles, hopefully in every classroom, that is agreed to by the school community and the broader community. I know it will have an impact. It has in North Carolina on discipline, on academics. When children feel good about themselves, they have their own self-respect, their own inner strength, they do so much better. They do so much better.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, what the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley) is really talking about is civic responsibility. It has to start at a young age, and we reinforce it every step along the way with teachers in the classroom, with parents, in the community, where students come in contact with one another. I have seen that over the last several weeks in visiting schools. I would even encourage my colleagues here to go in and talk with students as much as they can. I think they appreciate it. I think the schools appreciate it. The teachers do. Because it makes all the difference in the world. I remember growing up, I never remember seeing an elected official in my school that I remember. I really do not. A Member of the United States Congress I know I did not see. But I think it makes a difference. I agree with the gentleman from New York, teachers are doing it in a number of ways. But I think if we can formalize it in a way, and with this, it would allow the Secretary of Education to provide grants to those communities on a one-time basis to pool these groups together, because one does need some resources to facilitate the community coming together, to at least define these issues or other issues that they think are as important to that community. Ultimately, we start to see the point the gentleman from New York made earlier, the involvement of the community in that public school, because it is about the public, bringing them to that school, getting their involvement. Because children can feel when their parents are concerned about the school. They will ask the questions. Then we start seeing it turns into academics. I know in our State, North Carolina, we have seen, over the last 7 or 8 years, academic scores go up in every category, one of two States in the Nation where it is happening, and our discipline problems have gone down. Now, I think it is part of that is, number one, we have good people in the classroom. That is the beginning point. But, secondly, we do have a lot of character education in a lot of our schools. Thirdly, we have started to put more resources, we need to do more of that. A lot of things that we need to do, I do not know that there is any one thing, but there is one thing about it, if we start with the good core principles of developing strong character, we can build a lot of things around that foundation. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley).

Mr. ETHERIDGE. My older son liked one of the teachers. We had her home for dinner because he just idolized her. All of a sudden, that is why this is so important to be taught and integrated in the curriculum, because teachers do have a significant impact. They can change lives, there is no question. They are changing lives every single day in classrooms across this country, because those young minds are like little sponges, they really are. They can be changed and molded for good. I certainly know teachers made a difference in my life, and in telling me that I could be whatever I wanted to be. I never had the idea of being in the United States Congress, but they at least told me I could go to college. For a lot of children, that is what they need. I think the gentleman is absolutely correct in what he said. Teachers have a great opportunity. I think we have a great challenge of honoring what they do every day.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. I thank the gentleman. The gentleman touched on the accountability piece, because that is part of the accountability piece, responsibility. The point the gentleman made about children in schools and how much they can be impressed by their teachers, that is true. I am sure the gentleman can think of a teacher that made a difference in his life. I certainly can, my fifth grade teacher, who is still living. I visit with her from time to time and call on her, Ms. Barbara. She is a delightful lady. I think of my own children. The gentleman will do this as he goes through with his child, as he goes to school. The first thing is, the child has a good-looking teacher, the teacher becomes their first girlfriend, in some cases.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I agree with the gentleman. When we think about it, I went into two schools today and last week I was in two others talking with children, school administrators, looking, listening, seeing what was going on. Sometimes I am not real sure I am hearing what I hear, but I hear people say, it is not the Federal government's role, it is somebody else's role. We do not need to be doing this or doing that. The gentleman was talking about his child who is 6 months now. I remember when we had one in elementary PTA and one in middle school PTA and one in high school PTA. It has changed our lives. The point I want to make in talking about this whole role of education and who has responsibility, all of us do. There is a Federal, State, and local role. There is a parent's role and there is a community role. I have never, in all the years I have been going into schools, 8 as a State superintendent and years before that as a county commissioner, a State legislator, and now a Congressman, I have never had a child nor an administrator nor a teacher ask me whether the money came from the Federal, State, or local. They just knew they did not have enough. Even in some of the nicer schools we go into, and it is true in my State and I assume it is across the country, as the gentleman talked about earlier, these people are there because they care. They work hard. They take our most precious possessions, our children, and they work hard at educating them. But they have never asked me who provided the money. They do not really care. They just do not have enough. I do not know of any PTA that is not selling something today or maybe having a fund-raising project to buy some resources for the school, because they in many cases are short something, copying paper or whatever it may be. The reason they do it is because they care. They care. And I care, as the gentleman cares. I hope more of our colleagues will care on both sides of the aisle, and make sure that we do not get into partisan rhetoric of whether or not character education is in or whether or not we put money into school buildings or whether we put counselor money in or special education funds. We will never have enough resources to meet all the needs. We recognize that. But as the gentleman pointed out, the commitment of caring and putting the resources we can will send a powerful signal that we will support those people who every day go in, and a lot of folks say at 8 and get off at 3, but it is not so any more. That is not so. Many of them show up at 6 and 7 for bus duty and a lot of other duty. At the end of the day when the children leave, they are still there tutoring or having a lot activities in the evenings, or PTAs. They are long hours for not the kind of pay that we ought to be giving them for the most precious thing we have in this country, and that is our children.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Reclaiming my time just one moment please. The gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley) was talking about these things of school modernization; that is so critically important. I was in a school this morning that I was talking about and that is in Lee County in my district. It is a relatively new school within the last 2 years. You can tell all the difference in the world when you go into the new school. It was a new building. They had moved from an old building into a new building. There was a corridor in the middle of the building that was open, one of the parents as a memorial to his mother, I believe it was, had planted flowers and kept them on a regular basis in planters, just a gorgeous area where children could go during the day, a little respite to get away for a child that goes to that school who may come from a home where there are no flowers, from a home where there is no caring for flowers. Schools need to be safe havens for all children. It is important to teach all of these character traits, but for us as adults, as the gentleman has pointed out, it is very important that we live up to those. Children are a lot smarter than we give them credit. I was listening to those children this morning when they went through talking about the character traits they had learned from each book they had read. They were seated on the floor in a carpeted classroom that was new and fresh. And it was nice. Mr. Speaker, I could not help but think as I walked away what a difference it would make in this country if every child, every child in every community had a nice, spacious classroom, well lighted, well supplied with the resources that the teachers needed. And there was just an outstanding teacher there. It is a lot easier to recruit quality people in a quality facility and that goes to the point the gentleman was making. I would yield.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of myself and Mr. Price of North Carolina to honor a great American and a true friend to farmers, North Carolina Agricultural Commissioner Jim Graham. When Jim announced that he would not be a candidate for re-election to the post he has held since 1964, citizens of the state could be pardoned if they looked to the heavens for a possible misalignment of the planets. After all, this individual has become a North Carolina icon, beloved by the farmers he promised ``to take care of,'' and by individual citizens who appreciated his unfailing good humor and dedication. ``I love my job,'' Jim Graham said at the end of every speech he gave. He meant it, and the people knew. Still, North Carolinians will understand and approve of the Commissioner's decision. He is, after all, now 78 years of age; he has served well and long; and he deserves a respite from the day-to-day turmoil that is characteristic of any public office. His friends--and all of North Carolina is filled with Jim Graham's friends--wish for him peace and joy for the rest of his years. But it will be difficult to conjure up his successor, and he will be missed. It is extremely doubtful that any campaign for Agricultural Commissioner will ever be as colorful as those run by Graham, who could bray like the donkey of the party he represented and was not above making promises that others would never have dared keep. Such as the one Graham made that he would kiss the north end of a mule who was headed south if a particular county would vote Democratic from the top of the ticket to the bottom. And it did, and he did, to the amusement of the whole state's media. Graham came to the job as Commissioner of Agriculture like an eagle returning to its nest--without hesitation. Reared on a farm in Rowan County, he knows from whereof he speaks when he talks about the ``sweat and blood'' farmers must expend in order to make a living. From day one, his love for those who till the soil has been unquestioned. The Commissioner was born on April 7, 1921 to a Rowan County couple, the late James T. and Laura Graham. He attended high school in Rowan County and is a graduate of his beloved North Carolina State University. Graham taught agriculture in Iredell County for three years, then because superintendent of Upper Mountain Research State in Laurel Springs before becoming manager of the Winston-Salem Fair for three years. After a one-year stint as secretary of the North Carolina Hereford Association, he became general manager of the State Farmers Market. Governor Terry Sanford, who never hesitated when the job came open upon the death of L.Y. Ballentine, appointed him Commissioner of Agriculture in 1964. Commissioner Graham's tenure as Agricultural Commissioner coincided with North Carolina's transition from a largely rural agriculture state known chiefly for its tobacco to the growing Sun Belt technology giant it is becoming today. The Research Triangle was in its infancy when Graham took office. Today, it is the heartbeat of North Carolina, propelling the state into an Information Age where the assumed parameters change by the day. Jim Graham prospered in that atmosphere, glorifying farmers wherever he went. He also began promoting new crops North Carolina farmers had not grown before. Within the department, he hired good people, insisted that they run an efficient agency, and he expanded the agency as the state grew. He organized state farmers markets in Asheville, Greensboro, Charlotte, Raleigh, and Lumberton, but he also promoted the use of microelectronics technology for the inspection of meat, poultry and seafood so consumers could be protected. Graham was an early proponent of foreign trade, realizing that North Carolina farmers would be better off if they could sell their products to the rest of the world. Today, the state is one of the leaders in the export of agricultural products. The department ran a boll weevil eradication program that was so successful that cotton is once again a stable crop in the state. The department modernized its soil testing service and promoted it heavily, thereby increasing per acre production for all crops. Commissioner Graham, ever the showman on behalf of agriculture, was in his element as he grew the North Carolina State Fair into an event that today attracts more than 6 million persons annually. The State Fair is now 10 days of the best that North Carolina farmers, dairymen, and craftsmen can produce, surrounded by enough entertainment to make the Fair an October delight for young and old. Presiding over it is always the ``Sod Father'' in his cowboy hat and boots, typically with a crowd following him around the fairgrounds. As Commissioner, Graham has been honored with dozens of awards and distinguished service citations. Catawba College has award him the Honorary doctor of Humanitarian Service, and NC State named him the winner of its alumni Meritorious Service Award. But it is Graham's personality, his inner being, that will be most missed after his retirement. The kind of inner strength that caused him to personally care for his wife, Helen, as they fought the terrible disease of Alzheimer's that ended in her death last year. Commissioner Graham is the soul of agriculture in this state and was proud of it. North Carolinians will miss him in that office. They will miss a public servant who never took himself so seriously that he could not reach out and grab a slice of the humor of life--even if the joke was on him. They will miss a man so genuine that he could tell a newspaper columnist this about his concern for farmers: ``These people are hurting. One fellow wrote me that if we could just pay his light bill, he'd try to get by. That's the situation they're in. I'm worried about 'em.'' Can a society ask more of those who call themselves public servant? Jim Graham has served his state and its people with distinction, with honesty, with hard work, and with honor. He is a gentleman who is also a gentleman. We thank a Kind Providence that it saw fit to place us on the same Highway of Life of James A. Graham, and allowed us to share that life.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5, the Senior Citizens Freedom to Work Act. Currently, eight-hundred thousand seniors lose some or all of their Social Security benefits due to the Social Security earnings limit. Seniors ages 65 to 69 have one dollar of their benefits off-set for every three dollars they earn over the $17,000 income limit. I strongly support eliminating the earnings limit for every working senior receiving Social Security. Eliminating the earnings limit is not only the fair thing to do for working seniors, it would improve the quality and efficiency of Social Security as well. Repealing the earnings test will make Social Security easier and less expensive to administer. Contrary to the arguments of opponents of H.R. 5, repealing the earnings limit will not jeopardize the long-term solvency of Social Security. Under current law, workers who have their benefits reduced due to the earnings limit receive an actuarial adjustment that increases their benefits once they stop working. Mr. Speaker, repealing the earnings limit on working seniors is an area where there is a bipartisan consensus for action. I will continue to work to forge the same bipartisan consensus on more comprehensive action to strengthen Social Security for all of our seniors.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to announce I will vote for this legislation even though I have serious reservations about many of its details. I will vote for this bill because I support providing relief from the burden of taxation on North Carolina's families. Let me be clear that the Democratic substitute to this bill is far superior legislation, and I proudly voted for it. But that alternative has failed and the question falls to passage or defeat of H.R. 6. Despite my concerns about the cost of this bill and the distribution of its benefits, I support passage of H.R. 6 to move the legislative process forward toward a balanced, compromise solution that provides real relief from the marriage penalty for married couples in North Carolina. I reserve the right to vote against the final version of H.R. 6 if it comes back from the Senate with its severe flaws still intact. And I support the right of the president to veto this legislation if it threatens our ability to honor our commitments to Social Security, Medicare and debt reduction and our priorities of education, law enforcement, and agriculture. Mr. Speaker, I call on the Majority Leadership in this House to work in a bipartisan manner to achieve our shared goals of meaningful relief from the marriage tax penalty for our nation's families.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of the grandfather of Bailey Cotton, Seth Cotton, Emma Cotton, Justin Sloan, Matthew Evans and Leslie Evans; the father of Betty Evans, June Sloane and Dwight Cotton and the husband of Iris Lee Cotton. I rise in honor of Mr. Willie J. Cotton, Jr. who passed away on October 27. Mr. Cotton was a native of Harnett County, North Carolina. He was a past county commissioner and served Harnett County in office for 12 years. Mr. Cotton served our country in World War II and was a lifelong member of Kipling United Methodist Church. As North Carolina's former Superintendent of public education, I know what a battle it is to build quality schools for our children. Improving schools for our children is my life's work. Mr. Cotton took this battle on as a county commissioner to build better schools in Harnett County. There aren't many times that a person in public service takes a stand for the good of future generations that can cost them their political career. He knew he could lose but he voted anyway, and children in my home county have been in modern facilities since 1975. My own children and the children of Harnett county owe thanks to a man most of them never knew. That is why, Mr. Speaker, I stand here today: To honor Mr. Cotton and to pay my respects to his family and my debt of gratitude. We have lost a great man, and I am proud to continue his fight for better schools for our children.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call on this House to pass school construction legislation before we adjourn for the year. We should not even consider ending this session until we tend to the needs of our children for new school construction. Across the country at this very moment more than 53 million children are attending classes in our Nation's schools. We now have more children in our schools than we have had at any time in our history even at the height of the baby boom. Our schools are bursting at the seams and we know that the explosion in enrollment growth we are experiencing and will experience over the next 10 years is going to stretch local communities even farther. Today many of our children are in overstuffed classrooms. Too many of our teachers are forced to struggle in cramped trailers instead of a quality facility, and too many parents must watch helplessly as their children are condemned to attend a run-down school because Congress refuses to act. Mr. Speaker, this Congress must not leave town without addressing this crisis. We must not sneak out the back-door without passing commonsense school construction assistance.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of thousands of North Carolinians that were devastated by Hurricane Floyd and the floodwaters that followed. It is simply wrong that the lives of these victims have been caught up in this year-end game being played out over the budget. The lesson here is clear: If they are going to have a disaster, have it early in the appropriations process or risk being thrown around like a hot potato. I am going to support this resolution today because I believe the administration has a responsibility to come forward with recommendations for a relief package, and I have personally written the President and asked him to do so. But I cannot help but wonder if this resolution is just another rhetorical shot in the Republican leadership's war with the White House over the budget. We all know we do not have to wait on the President to begin the process. The governor of North Carolina, working closely with FEMA Director James Lee Witt and other Federal agencies, has provided Congress a strong and critical disaster package. We ought to be using that package to move the process forward. We do not have to wait for the President. We do not work for the President. We work for the people. I have looked into the eyes of people who have lost everything, Mr. Speaker. The wife who lost her husband, the farmer who lost his crop, the thousands of men, women and children who have lost every possession that they own simply do not have the time for the petty politics being played out here in Washington. They do not care whether it is the President, the Congress, or Santa Claus who brings them relief. They just know they need it and they need it now. People who are wearing borrowed clothes, who are living in temporary trailers, who are out of work, who have lost their businesses, their possessions, and in some cases at least 50 of their loved ones, these people do not care who proposes, they do not care who disposes. All they care about is getting help that they need to get back on their feet. I am going to support this resolution. This symbolic gesture is fine and good, but the victims of these disasters need more than symbols. They need money, and they need it now. We need to do more than talk about passing resolutions. We need to act. We need to work together, the President and Congress, to make the future a little brighter for the people of North Carolina and the other States who have lost so much. I, for one, am committed to working with all of my colleagues, Democrats, Republicans and the administration, to craft and pass a disaster relief package that we can all be proud of.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, I associate my remarks with the previous speaker, my friend from North Carolina, and I join him in saying there are some good things, but this bill is a sham. It is a disgrace to our children and families in North Carolina who have lost everything in the flood of Hurricane Floyd. The Republican leadership found $2 billion for emergency relief in this bill, but cut out the $508 million for our folks who badly need it. Mr. Speaker, there is an emergency in our State today. I have looked into the faces of the farmers and the families. I was with a family this weekend who had three children who lost everything they own, everything. I have met with farmers who have lost their crops, the widow who lost her husband, and 15,000 families who lost their homes. The Republican leadership should be ashamed of themselves for playing politics with the lives of these people. In North Carolina, normally the cold winds of winter come from the West. Today they are coming from the North, from Washington. I urge you to do better by our people. This bill is a sham to our seniors, a sham to our children and a sham to thousands of families in North Carolina who have lost everything in the floods from Hurricane Floyd. The Republican leaders found $2 billion in emergency spending for this bill, but cut $508 million in emergency funds the committee had approved unanimously for Hurricane Floyd relief. Folks, we have an emergency in my state. I've seen the suffering and despair first hand. The farmer who has lost his crops, the widow who has lost her husband, and the fifteen thousand families that lost their homes and every possession they ever owned, can't wait any longer for the help they need to survive. The Republican Leadership should be ashamed of themselves for playing politics with the lives of these people. Playing pay raise politics on this bill is an act of cowardice not worthy of the U.S. Congress. Winter is coming. In Northern Carolina, the cold air usually comes in from the West. But today, the cold air is coming from the North, a chill pouring in from Washington brought about by the cold-hearted politics being played with the lives of the people of my state. I urge every member, including my Republican colleagues from North Carolina, to cast a vote of conscience against this bill and not to vote for another spending bill until we take care of our own. We must help the people of eastern North Carolina get back on their feet, and we must help them now.

Mr. ETHERIDGE

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me, and I also thank him for the special order because I think what we have been about this evening is so important, and also let me thank the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson) also for his legislation. The leadership he is bringing to that, there is no question that as he talks about this information highway or the digital divide, not unlike what our colleagues who were here in the 1950s talked about the interstate highway, and he is absolutely correct in talking about that. My friend, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Wu), when he talked about Intel, let me remind you that those business partnerships are important. In North Carolina we actually have students in a number of schools actually getting the motherboard from Intel, putting them in and bringing computers up to modern standards from computers that many businesses will share with them. So, Mr. Speaker, there is tremendous partnerships out there, and we have done it with IBM and a number of our high-tech folks in the research triangle. So there are a lot of great success stories, and I hope we can talk about more of those at a future time, and this evening I appreciate you yielding the last little bit to me so I can talk about some of the schools in North Carolina, specifically in the eastern part of the State, that have been hit so hard by Hurricane Floyd and then followed up by Hurricane Irene that did even greater damage to our agricultural areas. But here is a photograph that some of you have seen earlier of towns in eastern North Carolina flooded. The truth is when we talk about that, folks do not realize how large the geographic area was. It is an area that includes about 2.1 million people, and the geographic area is larger than the State of Maryland. So it is a substantial area. The devastation is substantial. When you look at these for preliminary numbers, it really came out of the local paper early on. They have been refined and are not quite that large, but if you look at the town of Princeville, 100 percent flooded with 2,152 residents. There is Tarboro, 40 percent, 4,300 residents. There is Rocky Mount, 40 percent flooded with a total of 22,900 residents. There is Goldsboro with 24,000, and the number goes on. The point I want to make tonight, that I call on my colleagues in this Congress, before we go home and wrap up this year, we have to appropriate the funds needed to make sure these people can get their lives back together, they can get in homes, farmers can get their crops in the ground and ready for next year. The devastation has been tremendous. This has been the largest natural disaster in the history of my State. It affected Virginia, it affected Maryland, it affected New York and parts of South Carolina. Preliminary numbers I have here: on November 19, over 30,000 individuals just in North Carolina had registered with FEMA. The number of homes that are going to be destroyed or displaced are now approaching 10,000, and there may be as many as another 15 to 20,000, maybe higher than that, going to need help. There are a lot of businesses in trouble. I talked with a businessman in Wilson who lost everything that he had, his whole life's work. He was in his 50s. His business was flooded. He had no flood insurance because he never had any need for it. It was a 500-year flood plain. Last Sunday I was in Rocky Mount at the request of a constituent. He wanted me to come down. I went to visit. I went to the homes of his three daughters. One had been in a home 5 years, another one 7 years, the other one a bit longer. She was on the other side of town. They were nice brick homes. Unfortunately, none of the three had flood insurance, and all three of them lost everything they had, and he said to me: ``Congressman, we don't need any loans. If they get a loan, they can't repay it. They owe loans on the house to have even the furniture that was in it. And if we don't get some help, we will not recover.'' I only tell that story because it can be repeated thousands and thousands of times in eastern North Carolina. We had up here today over 70 members of the North Carolina General Assembly House and Senate saying please help us, help us before you go home; and I call on my colleagues to do the same. We should not go home until we appropriate money to help these people who pay their taxes, who live by the rules, who have been subjected to a disaster today we were not expecting. We need to help them. We help people around the world. It is time to help people at home.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. If the gentleman will yield, he is absolutely right. And tie that together with what the gentleman from Connecticut is trying to do in terms of linking up with technology. My State is one of those fast growing States, not unlike yours where we are just growing by leaps and bounds. Over the next 10 years as we look out, the projections are by the Department of Education, as the gentleman from Connecticut knows, they have projected that the high school population in this Nation will grow substantially, and my State is one of the probably top five fastest growing States. But even with the growth, technology can have a significant impact in helping that, but we need to be able to help not only a facility with technology but also with those teachers in the classroom and staff development. I have been in a lot of classrooms, as all three of my colleagues have, and I have never in the years that I was State superintendent and as a legislator now as a Member of Congress ever had a child or a teacher for that matter to ask me where the money came from, whether it was Federal, State or local, recognizing that at the Federal level we probably only put in about 6 percent, depending on where you are it may be a little bit more or less in States, not much more than 7, but they have never asked that question. The problem we face is tremendous challenges. Children never know what they need. They only know what they get. In many cases, they do not know that what they get is not what they should be getting, that it is woefully short in a lot of cases and in a lot of communities. This digital divide that you are calling attention to tonight is a critical issue. It spans whether you are rural or urban. I commend the gentleman for that, because I think all of us need to be better educated but more importantly once we are educated, we need to act on it.

Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield on that point for just a moment, because I think he is absolutely correct. But the point he made that was made earlier by the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Wu), as we talk about technology in the classroom, it is imperative that we make sure our teachers get the staff development training they need so that, whatever that technology may be, it is not just computers, it is integrated technology, that they have it so they can integrate it in the curriculum. Because it has to be a part of the taught curriculum, not just an add-on to the daily activities. And until it is taught and the teachers have the time, and many are doing it and many States are working at it, but they need every bit of help we can give them to do that so it becomes a part of the active curriculum every day.