Mr. Speaker, I join my colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. RODRIGUEZ), in urging our colleagues to sign the discharge petition for America's children. This is a school modernization bipartisan legislation that is so very, very important.
We were all very disappointed that the House did not have the opportunity to debate this issue in various tax bills that had come before us. Let us just think about the children for a moment. They are very, very smart. If we tell children that education is important to them, to their own self-fulfillment, to their competitiveness economically, to our international competitiveness, that we have a well-educated workforce, yet we send them to schools that are below par, where they are overcrowded, that are dilapidated, that are leaking, that are not wired for the future, children get a mixed message.
Children see the inconsistency, indeed even the hypocrisy of a message that says education is important, that they should value it; but we do not value it enough to put forth funds in the way that, very wisely, the gentleman from New York (Mr. RANGEL) and the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. JOHNSON) have put in their bill. This bipartisan legislation very wisely commits small resources for a big payoff: for many more classrooms; smaller classrooms for more children.
All the science tells us that children do better in smaller
classrooms. School modernization will make that happen. Let us be consistent
with the children. Please sign the discharge petition.