Carolyn McCarthy

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of WIC's 25th Anniversary and to commend WIC for their years of sterling health and nutrition service to the nation's low-income women, infants and children. In the last 25 years, WIC has dramatically improved the nutrition and health of millions of Americans. WIC provides quality education and services to over 7.4 million pregnant women, new mothers, infants and preschool children through 10,000 clinics nationwide. It serves as a short-term intervention program designed to influence lifetime nutrition and health behaviors in a targeted, high-risk population. WIC provides quality education and services to over 7.4 million pregnant women, new mothers, infants and preschool children through 10,000 clinics nationwide. As a nurse, I understand the importance of preventative care. Whether we are talking about health care, education or crime, services that focus on preventative care save money in the long run. That is why the WIC program is so important--it just makes sense. Studies have shown that pregnant women who participate in WIC have longer pregnancies leading to fewer premature births, have fewer low and very low birth weight babies, experience fewer fetal and infant deaths, and seek prenatal care earlier in pregnancy. WIC helps to assure normal childhood growth, reduces early childhood anemia, increases immunization rates, improves access to pediatric health care, and readies children to learn. Every dollar spent on pregnant women in WIC produces $1.92 to $4.21 in Medicaid savings for newborns and their mothers. Consider the following: it costs $22,000 per pound to raise a low (less than 5.5 pounds) or very law (less than 3.25 pounds) birth weight infant to normal weight. It costs $40 per pound to provide WIC prenatal benefits. Furthermore, Medicaid costs were reduced on average $12,000 to $15,000 per infant for every very low birth weight birth prevented. These statistics illustrate that WIC works. By providing short-term preventative services, WIC improves the health and quality of life for millions of low-income women and children while at the same time saving the federal government money. We need to ensure that WIC continues to provide these important services--I know that I will continue to fight for funding for this important program. Again, I want to congratulate WIC on their 25th anniversary and I urge them to keep up the good work.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time. Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of the House resolution paying tribute to our Nation's teachers. Since I have come to this House 2\1/2\ years ago, I spend so much time in my schools and have gotten to know my teachers, gotten to know how much they care about our students and how hard they are trying to make our students better prepared to go into the world, that makes this a better country. Education is our number one priority for this country, and it should be. But we are seeing a teacher shortage and it is making our teachers' jobs harder. We are seeing that we are bringing young people out of college to become teachers; that they are failing mainly because they do not feel that they are well-prepared. I think that is something that we can work on, especially in the special education that we are going to be doing in the next several months. Our teachers have to be well-prepared so they can do a great job in our classes, especially in early education. And I think that it is something that our teachers want, because they want to be the best they can. We have to do everything in the world to prepare our young people to become teachers so that we again will have the amount of teachers that we are going to need. We are seeing too many of our teachers drop out, and that is not good for any of us, mainly because they felt that they were not prepared. We dealt with it last year on the Higher Education Act on having teachers better prepared, and I think it is something that we can do on early education. I plan on introducing a bill to have a mentoring program on early education, and I hope I will have the support of my committee. When we talk about the teachers in the classroom today versus the teachers that certainly taught us years ago, it was an easier time back then. We had so much more cooperation between the parents and the teachers, and we have to encourage that more and more. Our teachers are supposed to be there, to be teaching. They need the support of the parents, and I think that is important. We are seeing our teachers today taking in our young people and trying to be parents to them when they can. That is not their job. Their job is there to teach our children. But if we do not encourage our parents to become more involved in our schools, we are making our jobs harder for our teachers. Look at some of the schools that do so well. It is not that the kids are brighter. It is because their parents are so involved in those particular schools. They are giving the encouragement for the teachers to go that extra yard. We have to make all our schools like that. That is how we are going to turn around education in this country. Our children are bright, our teachers are good, but we have to work together to make sure that we are the best, better than anywhere else in this country. I think we are on the right track. We still have some work to do, but certainly the love of teaching, someone that I had in sixth grade, Mrs. Englman, she taught me the love of history. I think if she ever saw me here today, she would be so proud of me because she talked about the Constitution, she talked about our government, and here I am being very proud of being a graduate of her class but also living what she taught me. Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of the House Resolution paying tribute to our nation's teachers. This resolution expresses a sense of the House, thanking and paying tribute to our nation's teachers. Education is my number one priority. Providing our children with a good education and a bright future is one of our most effective tools for ending gun violence, drug abuse, and poverty in our country. I spend every Monday and Friday in my schools on Long Island, talking with students, teachers, principals, superintendents, and parents about how we can make the education system work better. In visiting these schools, I see teachers and students who are committed to education. And I have learned that our teachers are the cornerstone of our education system. Brand new classrooms, reduced class size and improved access to technology are empty promises without a dedicated, well-qualified teacher in front of the class. Unfortunatley, we are facing a shortage of teachers. Our nation will need to hire 2 million new teachers in the next decade to handle a growing student population and to replace retiring teachers. However, fewer young people are going into teaching, and when they do, many do not receive the learning they need to succeed in the classroom. Many children are warehoused in bigger classes, often with unprepared instructors, because there simply are not enough teachers to go around. Last year, Congress passed my teacher training bill as part of the Higher Education Act. My legislation will better prepare teachers for teaching our children. I worked with local school administrators and educators to draft a bill that will (1) recruit new teachers; (2) prepare future teachers for the rigors of the classroom; and (3) mentor new teachers in their first year on the job. Today, I am proud to introduce legislation that will expand Teacher Mentoring programs in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This legislation will complement the mentoring programs I sponsored in the Higher Education Act, ensuring that mentoring becomes a continuous, comprehensive program, addressing the needs of experienced teachers as well as new teachers. Mentoring programs help all teachers--they benefit new teachers by easing the transition into teaching, increasing retention rates and improving the quality of teaching. Mentoring also helps experienced teachers by exposing them to new ideas and current trends in teaching. The key to improving the quality of education is our teachers. Reducing class size is not going to be effective unless you have a qualified teacher in that class. We must do everything we can to make sure our teachers are well-trained before they enter the classroom. And that they continue to improve their skills once they are in the classroom. I will be working hard to pass my mentoring bill which will give teachers the tools they need to be the best possible educators they can. Our children, and our teachers, are worth it--and deserve it.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise to celebrate a momentous occasion, the 150th Anniversary of the Free Sons of Israel, the oldest Jewish Fraternal Benefit Society in the United States. The society was established in 1849 and officially marked 150 years on January 7, 1999. This is an impressive achievement and I am proud to call many of the members of the Free Sons of Israel my good friends. The Free Sons of Israel are a national order, formed to promote the ideals of their motto: Friendship, Love and Truth. They protect the rights of Jews and fight all forms of persecution on behalf of their members. During the years, their scope has broadened to include all people worldwide, regardless of race, religion or color. This special organization is the first of its kind to donate a substantial amount of money to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. Furthermore, their charitable arm has raised millions of dollars for worthwhile causes on a non-sectarian basis, including thousands of toys that they donate during the holidays to needy children in hospitals and care centers. The Free Sons of Israel has a scholarship Fund that grants awards to its members and children. it also has a bloodbank, credit union and insurance fund. The Free Sons of Israel make this a better place for people throughout Long Island, New York and the entire world. They are a model of community service and action. I thank my friends for all their work and I commend them on this important anniversary.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, the only thing further that I would like to say is that the majority of our schools are safe, and we have to keep them that way. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo).

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 3 minutes. (Mrs. McCarthy of New York asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Udall).

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I think that is something that we have learned. Because when we talk about how to handle, hopefully, the violence that we are seeing in our schools, I think we have learned an awful lot on our committee. There are a number of factors, whether it is mental health and being able to pick up the signs at an early grade, which we have found a number of times in all the school shootings there were warning signs there; certainly to work with our young children and our teenaged children also, to say if they hear something that is going on, it is all right to go to an adult, it is all right to go to your friends or your parents, let someone know.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, first I want to thank the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Tancredo) for bringing this important resolution to the floor. My thoughts and my prayers go out to all the victims and their families, and certainly my admiration goes out to all the heroic men and women who offered their support and assistance during this time of crisis. As we mourn the victims of the tragic school shooting in Littleton, Colorado, I think we all come to realize that gun violence and violence in our schools can happen everywhere. It affects all of us on a daily basis. From Pearl, Springfield, Jonesboro, Littleton, Paducah kids are using guns to harm their classmates. Each and every day throughout our towns and our communities we lose 13 young children a day. That is an entire classroom every 2 days. Mr. Speaker, over the last several years, I have had to stand here and talk about all the shootings, and it starts to wear one down because we realize the pain that all these families are going through, we realize all the pain that the whole community will start to go through, and yet we are seeing constantly more and more and more. We here in Congress will be doing this resolution because every single Member of this body feels the pain, but I do believe that we also have a moral obligation to try and save other families from going through what they have in Colorado. We do not have all the solutions. They are all complex. But I do believe that we should start to think about what we can do. I hope that I can look forward to working with all of my colleagues here today to solve the problems of our young people. I know families across the Nation will join together to demand that politics be taken out of this debate. We must do what we can do to deal with children and guns. Too many children, too many parents and too many families have already suffered. Enough is enough. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette).

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Capps).

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, and certainly to my colleague who sits on the Committee on Education and the Workforce, in the past year we have been able fortunately to have so many different committee meetings to talk about the things that have been going on in our schools, and school violence as a whole. I personally found it very educational. There is no one answer, there is not, but I did learn a lot, as a nurse, and certainly my colleague, the gentlewoman from New Jersey (Mrs. Roukema), who talks about mental health.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 6 minutes for the purpose of engaging in a colloquy with the gentlewoman from New Jersey (Mrs. Roukema).

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Yes, as a former teacher, if the gentlewoman would talk to us about mental health.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. I think we do have the knowledge here in Congress. We do have a very knowledgeable body. I think the information that has come to us over the years because of the violence we are seeing in the schools is something that we can address. I think one thing that came back and forth, also on our committee hearings, in dealing with something like this is that the whole community has to become involved. It is the church, it is the school, it is definitely the parents. The parents have to learn how to be parents. They should stand up and say, I am going to be a parent. I see today so many young people that want to be friends and not parents, and I think that is something they have to learn. So parenting skills are needed, also. There are a lot of things that we can do, and I think we can do it.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. I rise today to join my colleagues in paying homage to the countless number of Armenians who were deprived of their freedom and senselessly killed because of their religious or political beliefs. The Armenian Genocide that occurred between 1915- 1923 represents a disgraceful period in world history that should not be ignored or distorted. Armenians have endured many hardships and unwarranted treatment by foreign countries throughout their history. This was most prevalent during the late 19th and early 20th century when Armenians were persecuted by Ottoman and Russian leaders for attempting to reform their political system. The Ottoman government, in particular, was responsible for causing the death of more than 1 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923. As disgraceful as these acts were, the Armenian people persevered and eventually seceded from the USSR to become an independent state. In 1992 they became a member of the United Nations and in 1995 held their first open legislative elections as an independent country. Although Armenia has made great strides to become an independent state, the scars of their past remain. The senseless acts of violence inflicted upon their ancestors deserve historical recognition. It is important to ensure that future generations are made aware of the countless number of Armenians who were killed because of their religious and political affiliation. With similar acts of human rights violations occurring in the Balkans and elsewhere, the world should never forget the atrocities that occurred in Armenia.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I was absent for rollcall vote No. 94. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on the Conference Report to H.R. 800--the Education Flexibility Act.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of House Concurrent Resolution 54. We are here today in for a very important reason--to recognize the importance of the first anniversary of the Good Friday Peace Agreement. House Concurrent Resolution 54 honors all those who played an instrumental role in bringing peace to northern Ireland--from the Irish and English political leaders, to Senator Mitchell, to the people of northern Ireland. These people deserve our deepest respect--for their leadership, dedication and courage. They are the true heroes of the Irish Peace Process. The resolution also reaffirms the bonds of friendship and cooperation that exists between our countries and that we will continue to work together towards peace in northern Ireland. Because now is a crucial time in the peace process. It would be easy for us to say we have the peace accord and then put it on the back burner. But we can't do that. If we are going to ensure the long-term success of the peace accords and really achieve peace in Ireland, we must remain involved. It is only through our continued commitment and the commitment of the people involved that we will see a true and lasting peace in Ireland.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of House Resolution 128, a resolution which condemns the brutal murder of Northern Ireland human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson and calls for an independent inquiry into her death. Ms. Nelson's murder was truly a tragedy--a cowardly act by those who are enemies of peace and justice in Northern Ireland. Rosemary Nelson spent her life trying to help others. She was a champion of human rights worked tirelessly to protect ensure these basic rights for her fellow countrymen. Ultimately, she was killed because of her work. We must not allow her death to be in vain--we must not allow the enemies of peace to win. We have all worked too long and hard to achieve peace and the people of Ireland deserve no less. Today, I join with my colleagues and call for an independent investigation into the death of Rosemary and all human rights attorneys in Northern Ireland who have lost their lives in the pursuit of helping others. We owe it to the memory of these courageous individuals--and we owe it to the cause of peace and justice, both in Ireland and throughout the world.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the enormous contribution women have made to the economy. As a Member of the Small Business Committee and life-long Long Islander, the issue of small business is an important one to me. As we approach the new millennium, an increasing number of women are starting their own businesses. According to the National Foundation of Women's Business Owners, as of 1997 there were 8.5 million women-owned businesses in the United States employing over 23 million people and generating close to 3.1 trillion in sales as of 1997. Between 1987 and 1997, the number of women-owned firms increased by 89% nationwide, and as of 1996 women-owned businesses accounted for 36% of all firms in the United States. Knowing how important small businesses are to our economy, I hope we will continue supporting the collection of data on women owned businesses as a regular part of the economic census of business. The knowledge such data provides is truly priceless, and I want to ensure it remains fully funded every year. Thousands of remarkable women have made significant advances for our economy, and they deserve nothing less than our full support.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, education is my number one priority since I came to Congress. Providing our children with a good education and a bright future is one of our most effective tools for ending gun violence, drug abuse and poverty in our country. I spend so much time in my schools back on Long Island talking with students, teachers, our principals, superintendents and our parents about how we can make the education system work better. In visiting these schools I see students and teachers who are committed to education, and these are visits that have shown show me what there is in grade schools in my district. But these visits have also shown me what our schools and where they need help. Many of the buildings in which our students learn are inadequate, overcrowded and certainly in poor condition. As my colleagues have pointed out, building new improved schools must be a top priority. That is why I am delighted the administration has made school construction a top priority. But hand in hand with building more schools is reducing class size. I was delighted with the administration's initiative to hire a hundred thousand new teachers over the next 7 years to reduce class size in Grades 1 through 3 to a national level of 18 students. I actually would take this down one step further. I happen to believe that we should only have 15 students in every classroom through 1 through 3. We have seen the research that shows 15 in a classroom is where our young students make the most progress. This is simply common sense. It states that what most parents and teachers already know from experience--smaller class size promotes effective teaching and learning. Smaller class size allows for a smaller manageable work load for the teachers and enable children to receive individual attention. This type of one-on-one attention can solve a lot of the problems before they start. I am on the the Committee on Education and the Workforce and will be spending most of this year addressing problems like these: teacher training, school construction, reducing class sizes. We reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. With all of this, it is so important to make sure our teachers that are in the classroom now also have continuing education so they can come up to the time that we are talking about as far as being able to use computers so they can teach on the Internet. So, I strongly support continuing education for our teachers. The act which I refer to is ERISA. It deals with all aspects of K through 12 education. We all know what it will take to improve our educational system: well-prepared teachers, new buildings, less crowded classrooms. It is time that we show our young people that we are committed to their education and to their future. I am one of those believers that believes education can help our whole country as a whole. The more we educate our young people, certainly the better job opportunities they will have in the future. The better job opportunities they have in the future will help our businesses across this country, and that certainly will keep our economy strong. We have to look at this as a whole picture. All we have to do is ask anyone, whether it is from Long Island or New York, whether it is California, whether it is New Mexico, what is the number one issue as far as you are concerned? It is education. It is the key to the future of this country.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Clay motion to instruct conferees. I am on the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and I certainly have been working with both sides of the aisle to make sure that we had a good Ed-Flex bill go out. It troubles me greatly that now we are adding something else on that was not there in the beginning. No more than an hour ago, I met with 25 students from New York Tech. These were students that certainly did very well because of IDEA. IDEA is something that helped my son get through high school and now college. So I can say that I am certainly a supporter of IDEA. I am certainly a supporter of bringing the funding up to 40 percent. What scares me is that we are pitting this bill against another bill, IDEA and Ed-Flex. We should be working on all levels to give our children the best education that we can. We should not be fighting about this. Our children are at stake. I do believe that we should be dealing with IDEA on a separate issue. We should be dealing with our teachers on a separate issue. Let IDEA go. Let it go forward to the schools and to the States with the intention of what Congress passed and also what the Senate passed. Mr. Speaker, all of us on our committee care very much about the children. All of us on the Committee on Education and the Workforce want to do the right thing. Let us not start fighting about this, because the ones that are going to get hurt in the end are going to be our children. Let us not let politics get in the way of this. We just came back from Hershey, hopefully to get along with each other, and this is not the right way to start it. I support Ed-Flex as it is. I certainly will support IDEA for full funding, and I support 100,000 new teachers. Most of us here will do that. Let us not tear it apart. I ask my colleagues to support the Clay motion, and let us deal with all the other issues on a separate basis.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to offer my support for the Women's Business Center Amendments Act of 1999. This important piece of legislation will continue to help women business owners obtain the necessary tools needed to succeed in the competitive business environment. Women business owners have historically been under-served, or even excluded, from past legislation aimed at assisting small businesses. This is unfortunate because women are starting businesses at twice the rate of all businesses. They employ over 23 million people within the United States and contribute well over $3 trillion to the economy. Yet they still encounter obstacles when trying to foster their growth. The Women's Business Center Amendments Act of 1999 directly addresses this concern by providing the technical assistance, and training needed to gain access to credit and capital needed to launch a new business. Since 1988 these centers have proven their usefulness by tailoring their services to the particular needs of the community. Even today, they continue to find more effective ways to serve aspiring women entrepreneurs, from inner cities to rural areas across the country. Given the proven success of this program, and the positive impact it has on surrounding communities, I fully support the need to increase funding for this program, along with changing the fifth year matching requirement for federal support. The SBA has stated that it is their goal to have a Women's Business Center in every state. Voting in support of this legislation will greatly enhance the chances of this becoming a reality.

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, during rollcall vote No. 51 on H.R. 774, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yes.''

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York

Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, in the last 2 years, I have spent an awful lot of time in my schools in my district. After the first month, I decided to do a survey just to look at all my schools that needed help and repair. I come from a middle-income suburban area, and I have to say that I was totally shocked at what I found. What hurt even more is when the survey came in, all of my schools needed some sort of help as far as repair. They have put it off constantly over the years. I have one school in Hempstead that to this day, I went back just a week ago to look at it again, because I could not believe my eyes every time I go into there. They have a boiler from 1908. They cannot find anyone to repair it anymore, and yet they do not have the money to do this. They have open classrooms. This school was built way before World War II, and here we have our children in open classrooms. Kids with learning disabilities in the hallways. Children with hearing problems not having the right facilities. As someone who grew up with learning disabilities, I certainly know how important it is to have a secluded quiet area. Technology has to come into the school. We are nowhere near it. So what we can do? Certainly, I agree with the President's initiatives to bring our schools up to where they should be today. What concerns me the most is we know we need school construction to give a safe environment for our children. But also more importantly, we need to send a message to our children that we care about them. Also sending a message to our teachers. Mr. Speaker, going back, I have met so many teachers over the last 2 years. These are teachers that care very much. But when we have the classrooms so large and we have kids coming in in an environment which I consider not safe, not sound, we have to do all we can. I came to Congress to reduce gun violence in this country, and as soon as I got here, education became my number one issue. If we start working with these young people, have smaller classes, give them hope, give them a good education, we are not going to see drugs in the school, we are not going to see violence in the school. Is that not the goal of all of us here? I certainly support the initiative that we have to do with the President, and hopefully we will see it pass before we go home. Mr. Speaker, I believe that if we expand educational opportunities to all Americans, especially young people, we can reduce crime, drug use and gun violence in our society. I do not believe that education is a partisan issue. But I am very concerned that partisanship in these last days of the session may prevent us from improving the education system. We have a golden opportunity to help young people reach their fullest potential. And we cannot let it slip away. Because education is so important to my constituents and to me, I sought and received an assignment on the Education and Workforce Committee when I arrived in Congress. And I spend every Monday and Friday in the schools on Long Island, talking with students, teachers, principals, superintendents, and parents about how we can make the education system work better. One of the things I hear time and again is the importance of a well- prepared teacher in every classroom. Sadly, some people like to blame teachers for all the problems in education. But that is not the answer. The reason I know this, is because I have seen many great teachers in action. Last year, our Committee invited a number of young teachers who had graduated two to three years earlier to testify. And they told us, ``We love our jobs. We love to teach. We do our best.'' But they also told us that once they graduated, they weren't ready to deal with all the pressures in the classroom. They said they needed more support, more mentoring. So last year, I introduced the America's Teacher Preparation Improvement Act. This bill will strengthen the federal government's commitment to teacher preparation. It focuses on three critical areas-- recruiting new teachers, making sure they are well-prepared while in school, and then supporting them in their first years on the job. It also encourages colleges to set up partnerships with school districts so that teachers can move from the lecture hall to the classroom. I am pleased to say that in a bipartisan vote, Congress approve the provisions of my bill as a part of the Higher Education Act reauthorization, and the President signed it into law last week. But there is more to do. The number of kids enrolled in school is growing, and many current teachers are getting ready to retire. We will need 2 million new teachers in the next decade alone just to handle the load. But fewer people are entering the profession, and grade schools in many parts of the country are facing severe teacher shortages. Improving how we prepare our teachers won't help students if there aren't new teachers to prepare. That is why it is so important that we approve the President's plan to fund 100,000 new teachers. If we are serious about education, then we must ensure that we have a dedicated corps of new teachers ready to enter the classroom. Just as our students need well-prepared teachers, they deserve school buildings that are conducive to learning. I have seen first-hand that many schools are overcrowded or in poor condition. When I visited one school in my district, the Washington Rose School in Roosevelt, I was shocked to see kids learning in hallways, surrounded by crumbling roofs and windows. Even worse was its library, which had makeshift shelves, few seats, and poor ventilation. What kind of message do we send kids about reading when we make them read in a room like that? And what message do we send to teachers when we ask them to educate children in overcrowded, run-down classrooms? These problems surprised me, because suburban areas like mine are not supposed to have overcrowded and run-down schools. But they do. Last Fall, I conducted a survey of the schools in my District, asking them about the physical condition of their schools. I learned that our schools do need financial support to repair and rebuild their buildings. That is why the President's initiative to provide tax incentives to fix school buildings is so important. And that is why I support the plan to reduce class sizes in the first through third grades. Again, if we are serious about education, then we should pass these initiatives. We all know what it will take to improve our education system: Well- prepared teachers. New buildings. Less crowded classrooms. It's time that we show our young people that we are committed to their education, and to their future.