[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 127 (Wednesday, August 2, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H8179]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 KEEPING THE EQUAL OPPORTUNITY PROMISE

  (Mr. BAESLER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. BAESLER. Mr. Speaker, in 1994, the Federal Government spent less 
than 2 percent of the Federal budget educating the Nation's children. 
Now some in Congress are saying on the one hand that American children 
need to compete with the children of other nations--in other words that 
education is a national priority. On the other hand they are saying, 
let's spend less. I ask my colleagues, ``Is education a national 
priority or not?''
  The overwhelming majority of Federal education spending goes toward 
evening the odds for disadvantaged children in America. Yet some would 
ask me to support a funding bill that would cut title I funding which 
helps students from disadvantaged backgrounds with the three R's. They 
ask me to support this bill even though it would deny this important 
funding to 19,100 Kentucky students.
  I am not ready to pull the educational rug out from under these kids. 
I firmly believe that the promise of America is equal opportunity, not 
equal outcomes. But I also believe title I is the kind of program that 
provides such equal opportunity and puts the Nation's money where its 
mouth is.


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