[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 150 (Friday, October 31, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H9803]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              OPPOSE PRESIDENT'S PLAN ON NATIONAL TESTING

  (Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, today is Halloween, so let me begin with 
the first liberal horror story of the day. Our education liberals have 
come up with another expensive solution for our failing public school 
system. That is right. They want to use more of your taxpayer dollars 
to design and implement a national testing plan.
  While all parents, including all of us, want to monitor the progress 
of our children in school, we do not want Washington bureaucrats 
creating more redtape through a national testing plan. Let us tackle 
our national education problems by sending the resources and dollars 
where they will do some good, to the local school districts, down into 
classrooms, where teachers and parents can apply those resources to 
teaching children, not lining the pockets of Washington bureaucrats. It 
is easy as all that.
  I urge my colleagues to oppose the President's plan on national 
testing. This body should concentrate on increasing parental choice and 
involvement, not national testing.

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