[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 120 (Thursday, September 11, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H7205]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     COMMUNISM AND PUBLIC EDUCATION

  (Mr. EDWARDS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. Speaker, there are few issues more important to the 
future of our Nation than public education. That is why I was amazed 
and deeply disappointed that yesterday a Republican House Member 
actually on the floor of this House compared America's public schools 
to the Communist legacy. To mention our public schools in the same 
breath with the idea of communism is extremism at its worst. It is the 
kind of extreme statement I am sure that would make Joseph McCarthy 
proud.
  In my opinion, this Republican statement ranks right up there with 
the John Birch Society calling former President Eisenhower a Communist. 
I would suggest this is the type of extremist belief that has caused 
great problems for the modern day Republican Party.
  I am proud that the Democratic Party, based on the values of Thomas 
Jefferson, not Carl Marx, believes public education is a vital American 
institution, not something related to the Communist legacy.

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