[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 144 (Thursday, October 23, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H9044]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      CHARTER SCHOOL AMENDMENT ACT

  (Mr. GREEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GREEN. Madam Speaker, I would like to join my colleague and say 
that we do need to reform the Tax Code and reform the IRS. Let us do it 
this year. Let us do it before we leave here in November. Let us take 
care of it now so the folks next year, when they pay their taxes, will 
be able to deal with it.
  I am going to talk about a bill that is on the calendar today. H.R. 
2646 is a bill we will vote on today that will allow for IRA's for 
education expenses for elementary, secondary students. Public education 
has always been important to the United States. H.R. 2646 allows a 
parent to set up a tax-free IRA of $2,500 a year per child and that 
money could be used for subsidizing investment accounts for either 
public or private school extra expenses. However, the bill takes scarce 
Federal dollars and leaves out 90 percent of the students who attend 
public schools. This will cost the taxpayers $5 billion a year.
  Why should taxpayer money be redirected to a small few? Sixty-four 
percent of families with children under the age of 18 will not be able 
to participate in this bill. They have to buy uniforms and computers, 
too. Let us help most of the people, not a select few.

                          ____________________