[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 75 (Wednesday, June 4, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H3278]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            ON SCHOOL CHOICE

  (Mr. ARMEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the gentlewoman from the Virgin 
Islands would be willing to let me also join her in wishing a happy 
birthday to her grandmother. And may she have 101 more happy birthdays.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe that every single person alive in the world, 
but especially in this great country, should have as much personal 
freedom and liberty as their acceptance of personal responsibility will 
allow. And I have found that, for most persons, we will find them never 
so willing to accept personal responsibility and the expectations of 
the rewards of the accompanied freedom as they are when it comes to the 
education of their children.
  That is why I am introducing today on behalf of all the parents of 
Washington, DC, who have so thoroughly expressed their desire for more 
freedom of choice in the selection of schools for their children, a 
bill that would enable even the most poor of those parents to select 
the school that they think is best for their children through the use 
of a system of opportunity scholarships for those children.
  Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit Holy Redeemer School, a 
private school where children are educated because their parents have 
found the way to get them included in a better alternative. Mr. 
Speaker, I saw happy, healthy, young people who love their school and 
who love to learn.
  Mr. Speaker, almost without exception, their favorite courses were 
math and science. We could not have academic curriculum too rigorous 
for these children to enjoy when they got to go to the school of their 
choice. We have 800 children in Washington, DC, today who sit idly in a 
waiting line, hoping for that opportunity, that hope encouraged by 
loving parents. We ought to help them. We have the bill to do so.

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