[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 143 (Wednesday, October 22, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H8933-H8934]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            CHARTER SCHOOLS

  (Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, in 1992, there was one charter school in 
the United States of America. Today, there are over 1000. In the next 3 
years, there are expected to begin 3,000 more. What.
  Is a charter school and why do they seem to be growing and seem to be 
so popular? A charter school is a public school. It is publicly funded, 
but unlike most public schools these days that have all their rules and 
regulations dictated by Washington bureaucrats, charter schools have 
their own rules, their own goals and their own set of regulations. That 
is why they are so popular.
  Every day when I speak to a teacher, she or he tells me about the 
paperwork that they must do, 2 to 3 hours' worth each week to send off 
to Washington or to Atlanta to the State Capitol. They tell me about 
going to seminars where they are told not to hug children, not to touch 
children, never to walk into a bathroom alone with a kid because of

[[Page H8934]]

harassment and so forth. I talked to parents who will no longer go to 
PTA meetings because they say it does not matter. We have no control 
anymore.
  Mr. Speaker, charter schools return local control to those parents 
and those teachers and that classroom. That is why charter schools are 
so important and that is why the Republican conference is supporting 
them.

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