[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 11 (Thursday, February 12, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E165-E166]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOB SCHAFFER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 12, 1998

  Mr. BOB SCHAFFER of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in 
recognition of the

[[Page E166]]

greatest gift we can give to our children--the gift of a strong and 
viable education.
  Both my parents being educators, I grew up surrounded by reminders of 
how important public education is in America. As a parent myself of 
three school-aged children attending public schools in Fort Collins, I 
understand the value of liberal access to community schools and 
academic professionals.
  Indeed, the reason I have devoted nine years in the Colorado State 
Senate and my first year in the United States Congress to improving the 
quality of local public schools is because I am convinced my parents 
were right. The future strength of the Republic lies in the hands of a 
well-educated citizenry.
  Clearly, parents bear the primary responsibility for educating their 
children. Public school districts were established by states to assist, 
and it is at the state level, and under state constitutions that public 
school systems are properly organized. In Colorado, the management of 
public schools is entrusted to 176 locally-elected boards.
  As a member of the House Committee on Education and the Workplace, I 
face routinely those who would dismantle America's traditions of local 
control and parental authority with respect to educating kids. Their 
preference always seems to entail centralizing education authority in 
Washington, D.C. as a way to address any shortcomings of America's 
schools.
  The White House, for example, is working to abandon independent 
standardized testing in favor of a government-owned national test. The 
administration has already engaged the early stages of developing a 
national curriculum.
  The Federal government actually has no Constitutional authority to 
manage public schools, but it gets around that barrier by handing out 
lots of cash. With every federal dollar comes strings. Of course, no 
school is forced to take the money, but few can resist.
  Deploying such strategies, the federal government has found ways to 
influence almost every aspect of public schooling from the design of 
new school buildings, to the qualifications of teachers, to students' 
diets. Rarely do these tactics improve the quality of education, but 
more often only suppress the ability of local schools and teachers to 
do the jobs for which they are best trained.
  My strenuous objections to various schemes to centralize education 
authority in Washington have at times been misinterpreted by my 
political foes to suggest I am somehow ``anti-education.'' Quite the 
opposite is true.
  My firm resistance to federalizing public schools is based entirely 
on my belief that public schools should be decentralized, local, 
parent-drive, student-centered, efficient institutions which offer 
competitive services enabling students to be the world's best.
  We would all do well to remember that the most valuable gift we can 
give to any child is a quality education. As both a father, and a 
member of Congress, ensuring an effective public school system will 
continue to be among my chief objectives.

                          ____________________