[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 120 (Thursday, September 11, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H7203-H7204]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           SCHOOL CHOICE EMPOWERS CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES

  (Mr. BOB SCHAFFER of Colorado asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BOB SCHAFFER of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, while Democrats are busy 
trying to come up with new excuses

[[Page H7204]]

why working families should be denied the same educational 
opportunities that the liberal Washington elite's own children enjoy, 
innovative Governors and mayors throughout the country are moving 
forward with school choice.
  Democrats say they are not really against working families. Of 
course, they simply do not mind keeping families trapped in bad 
schools, for liberals prefer instead promises to reform these bad 
schools through the magic of the Federal Government. Many of these 
politicians have idealistic visions about how working families can cope 
with Government-owned schools in which children do not feel safe, where 
dumbing down trumps excellence, and where burned out teachers rotate in 
and out of classrooms more often than the Yankees try new managers.
  Mr. Speaker, they propose to, get this, pump more money into the very 
same Government schools that have failed them year after year after 
year, with no mention of changes in structure or in methods.
  A generation of illiterates does not deter Washington liberals in 
their misdirected intentions. Everyone at their cocktail parties is in 
agreement that denying school choice for everyone else's children is a 
victory for the Washington bureaucracy. Republicans have a different 
idea: School choice empowers children and their families.

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