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Joe
Pitts Votes Against Public Education, the Economy and the
Environment Again
 The House passed 21st
Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act (H.R.
3021) on June 4, of this year. The bill make grants and low-interest
loans to local educational agencies for the construction,
modernization, or repair of public kindergarten, elementary, and
secondary educational facilities. The measure passed the U.S. House
of Representatives by a vote of 250 to 164. Joe Pitts voted NO.
Bruce Slater, candidate
for the 16th Congressional district seat now held by Joe Pitts said:
"This is one of the
most common sense bills to be passed by the House of Representatives
in the last two years. It provides aid to states and local
government by providing funding that has been eliminated by the Bush
and Pitts record budget deficits. Joe Pitts has voted for the
largest deficits in U.S. history.
"His advocacy for
tax breaks for the very wealthy have led to the decline of our
economy, the mortgage crisis, the weakening dollar and a deepening
recession. Now he refuses to vote for a bill that would offer a real
stimulus package by creating high-paying, sustainable jobs for
American families and improve our schools at the same time.
"More and more,
this is a typical vote by Joe Pitts, refusing to vote for any
legislation that benefits our children, even though he has voted to
over 111 times to support George Bush’s costly war in Iraq."
According to recent
estimates, America’s schools are hundreds of billions of dollars
short of the funding needed to ensure that every child attends a
high-quality facility. Research shows a correlation between school
facility quality and student achievement and teacher retention.
Since 2001 the federal
government has provided almost no direct aid to help states and
schools pay for school construction and repair.
Modernizing school
buildings would create jobs in the construction industry, one of the
industries hit hardest by the recent economic downturn - having lost
457,000 jobs since September 2006.
By helping local school
districts create schools that are energy efficient and more reliant
on renewable sources of energy, emissions that contribute to global
warming can be reduced.
H.R. 3021, authorizes
$6.4 billion for fiscal year 2009, and ensures that school districts
will quickly receive these funds for school modernization,
renovation, and repair projects that improve the teaching and
learning climate, student and teacher health and safety, and energy
efficiency.
The bill encourages
energy efficiency and the use of renewable resources in schools.
School districts must use funds to meet one of three widely
recognized green building standards or equivalent state or local
standards.
The legislation also
provides additional aid to Gulf Coast schools still recovering from
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita by authorizing separate funds – half a
billion dollars over five years – for public schools that were
damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
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