[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 194 (Thursday, December 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H14208]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     FOCUSING ON A POSITIVE FUTURE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Foley] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I wanted to thank the President 
of the United States. We had the great fortune of going to the White 
House the other evening for the Congressional Ball, and my mother, 
Frances Foley, was in town. I was able to take her to that great honor, 
and it was an evening of celebration, it was an evening of sharing the 
great bounty of this Nation in the people's home, the White House, and, 
yes, as a Republican, it was a great honor to be in the company of 
President Clinton and his wife.
  The spirit that was alive in the house, the White House, that 
evening, was one that should be evident on this floor, one that should 
be evident in the debate about our budget for the Nation's future. He 
signed the veto message the other day, and the pen failed to write, and 
while many are making a joke about it, it does symbolize one thing: Our 
well is dry here in the Nation's Treasury. We are running on empty 
financially. It is time to step up to the plate and face the very 
important responsibility of Congress with the help of the President in 
balancing the budget with legitimate numbers, with legitimate dialog, 
with legitimate protections for our Nation's resources, but doing it in 
an honest and honorable and peaceful fashion, so that all Americans, 
regardless of party, can be proud of the actions of this Congress, that 
they have, in fact, done the people's work and they have done it 
professionally and respectfully.
  I want to discuss another issue because from time to time Members of 
the House talk about public education as if it is a disaster, and they 
make unkind statements to public education. The teaching profession, 
teaching our children, is one of the most noble professions in our 
Nation.
  There are problems in schools. There are problems on campuses. But 
they are not all related to schools and public education. They are 
related to a lot of external factors in our Nation.
  I think about one of my counties, Palm Beach County, and I think of 
all the great things our school systems are doing. My father is a 
principal of an alternative school, a school of last resort for 
children with behavioral problems, drug addictions, truancy problems. 
He tells us often about the successful graduations of children that 
were otherwise thought of as not having a potential for passing 
anything, never mind high school, but they graduate; stories about 
young girls who become naval officers, who are the top of the naval 
class, who a few years earlier were counted out as derelicts, druggies, 
incompetent youth. The School of the Arts in Palm Beach County, 
allowing kids to express God-given talents in arts, and music, and 
dance, and theater, things that are not traditional, but they are 
learning something that they have a skill and an expertise in. Junior 
ROTC programs teaching children military leadership. They are enrolling 
dozens of people in my school community, and they are succeeding in 
educating our young people. The science, the math, the police academies 
that spring up around our communities that are successfully graduating 
children with an educational opportunity that allows them to go out, 
and get a job and become meaningful, taxpaying, productive citizens.
  Palm Beach Garden High School; I visited the film school. We did 
interviews. They had tremendous technological equipment, learning to be 
little broadcasters. Someday they may be on the evening news.
  These are things that are working in our school system that we need 
to magnify, talk about in a positive way, show that public education is 
working, show that teachers who are sacrificing in a job dealing with 
difficult students are doing so because they love this country, they 
love children, and they want to see the future of those children 
succeed.
  Future Farmers of America programs, 4-H Clubs, all things that are 
working in public education that we all too often in Congress just say 
things are bad in public education, but it is time to stand up for the 
programs that work. It is time to talk about the one thing that we can 
make certain when we talk about the future direction of America is that 
children have a positive education, that they learn, that they are 
inspired, that they are told different things, learn to work on 
computers, learn to talk about children who may not go to college, but 
in fact may work at McDonald's, may in fact become a store manager and 
a store owner, may work at Publix as a bag boy and rise to be a manager 
of that store; that it is within each of us that we can excel, that we 
can excel and be supportive of this great country of ours.
  We have got to focus in this Congress about the very good things in 
our Nation and not always be talking about negativity, and disastrous 
consequences and evil, mean-spirited politics, because this Nation is 
the greatest Nation on Earth. God's gift to us has been one of being 
able to enunciate those positive things on this floor.
  So let us respect teachers, let us respect public education, let us 
respect private schools, but education is everybody's future, it is our 
Nation's salvation, it is the elimination in the future of crime and 
dependency in our Nation.
  So, I urge my colleagues to focus in the next year ahead, as we enter 
1996, on positive education, positive future for our Nation, positive 
leadership for our children.

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