[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 116 (Friday, September 5, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H6924]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    REJECT THE LIBERAL SOLUTION FOR OUR FAILING PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

  (Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, the more things change, the more they seem 
to stay the same.
  Our liberal colleagues, we just heard, have come up with a solution 
for a failing public school system. Well, they are going to pass a law 
that tells students what they must learn. It is that easy.
  From Washington, DC, the liberals want to set the academic agenda for 
every school in the Nation. They believe that if Congress and not our 
schools or teachers tell our students what they must learn, the problem 
will disappear. The same one-size-fits-all, Washington knows best 
approach that did not work for welfare is the liberal savior for our 
public school system. And should this system fail, they have a back-up 
plan. They will spend billions of taxpayer dollars to create yet 
another bloated bureaucracy to find yet another way to tell us the 
system is not working.
  I urge my colleagues to reject the liberal solution and to end this 
nonsense and support the Goodling amendment. Let us send the money to 
the school and the teachers and students where it will do some good and 
not to the Washington bureaucrats.

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