[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 155 (Friday, November 7, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H10175]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             SCHOOL CHOICE

  (Mr. GUTKNECHT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, Jonathan Rauch writes on school choice in 
the November 10 edition of the New Republic. He says he has always 
found it odd that liberals have handed the issue to Republicans rather 
than grabbing it for themselves.
  He says, and I quote:
       It is hard to get excited about improving rich suburban 
     schools. However, for poor children trapped, the case is 
     moral rather than merely educational. These kids attend 
     schools which cannot protect them, much less teach them. To 
     require poor people to go to dangerous, dysfunctional schools 
     that better-off people fled and would never tolerate for 
     their own children, all the while intoning pieties about 
     ``saving'' public education, is worse than unsound public 
     policy. It is repugnant public policy.

  Mr. Rauch, we agree.

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