[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 123 (Tuesday, September 16, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H7287]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
                             SCHOOL CHOICE

  (Mr. WELDON of Florida asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, my question is, Would a plan to 
make it easier for parents to save for their children's college 
education be a good thing or a bad thing? What if their children took 
that money and used it to go to a private university like Harvard? 
Would that be a threat to public universities like the University of 
Michigan or the University of Virginia? Or would that make schools like 
the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia try even 
harder to compete for students that might otherwise go to Harvard?
  If allowing parents to send their kids to Harvard is not a threat to 
public universities, why would making it a little easier for parents to 
send their kids to private schools be a threat to public schools at the 
elementary and secondary level? Could it be that many parents would 
vote with their feet and take their kids out of bad public schools and 
put them in private schools? That would force bad schools to clean up 
their act or shut down, which is exactly the point.

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