Education Key To Rebuilding Economy

Floor Speech

Mr. CARNAHAN. Mr. Speaker, as we continue working to strengthen our economy and put Americans back to work, it is important to note that our economy has stabilized a great deal since the economic collapse a year ago. But there is still much more work to be done.

Because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, an estimated 8,500 teaching jobs have been saved in my home State of Missouri alone. Without the Recovery Act, thousands of teachers would have lost their jobs. Hundreds of thousands of students would be losing out on individual attention vital to their education. It was the right thing to do to provide States with the resources to keep America's teachers teaching and continue investing in our children's education.

This stimulus is putting us on the road to recovery by putting money back in the pockets of middle-class Americans and making critical investments in our future, like education and preparing for today's clean energy jobs.

We must continue our aggressive push to put Americans back to work and make investments in ourselves for this new era of global competition. Rebuilding our economy must continue to be our top priority.

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