Building schools in growing communities
Our schools are bursting at the seams. Communities throughout North Carolina are growing at record-setting rates, and schools are struggling to keep pace. Four out of nine counties in our district have grown by over 20 percent in the last 10 years, and all but one have grown by over ten percent.
I introduced the Etheridge School Construction Act to create $7.2 billion in school-construction bonds targeted to areas of the country experiencing the fastest rate of growth. North Carolina would receive $650 million, which we desperately need to prepare our state for the 27.1 percent rate of growth in student enrollment we'll see over the next 10 years – the second highest in the nation.
No North Carolina teacher should be required to struggle in an unsafe, undisciplined environment, and no parent should be forced to witness children condemned to school in a trailer. It is time for Congress to get to work to help our communities build the schools we need to educate the next generation of our country's leaders.
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