[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 120 (Thursday, September 11, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H7206]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               EDUCATION

  (Mr. LaHOOD asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor today to express, in 
part, my agreement with the gentleman from Texas who says that local 
people want to have control over their local school boards. That is why 
we have local elected board members, to run the schools so that they 
can hire the administrators and the teachers to do that.
  Yet, here in Washington, we have people at the White House and other 
agencies wanting bureaucrats to tell local boards what kind of test 
scores they should have, what kind of standards they should have.
  Mr. Speaker, local people do not want to be told what the standards 
should be. They know what the standards should be. They do not want 
bureaucrats in Washington dictating to them what kind of standards 
should be set. That is why they get elected.
  I would encourage those people who are trying to persuade local 
elected officials that people in Washington know more about it is just 
absolute nonsense. We should discourage that and give people back the 
opportunity to run their schools the way they should be run.

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