[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 25 (Wednesday, March 11, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H1024]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       SCHOOL OPTIONS FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN IN DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

  (Mr. ARMEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

[[Page H1024]]

  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the Committee on Education and the 
Workforce subcommittee under the direction of the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Riggs) is going to hold a special hearing on the 
question of school choice options for the children of D.C.
  As we know, Washington, D.C., has some very, very good schools and 
schools that we can be proud of. But unfortunately, it has some very 
tragic failures of schools. And in these hearings tomorrow, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Riggs) and his committee are going to 
focus on this number, 7,573, one out of every 10 families in the city 
who qualified for low-income scholarships to take their children from a 
school that was failing the children to a school where they would have 
new opportunity, who are left disappointed because we have not yet been 
able to convince the President to sign a simple bill that takes $7 
million of additional money and allocates it to scholarships for these 
children.
  I would like to talk for a moment about just one of these children, 
little David, nine years old, finally got from a school where he was 
frightened, where he was intimidated, where he felt himself to be a 
failure, to a school where the other students respected him, 
appreciated him, the teachers nurtured him.
  He was liked and popular because he got good grades in math and 
science. Because he got good grades in math and science, he was popular 
with the other students, he was popular with the teachers, and he had a 
new self-esteem.
  David's mother unhappily does not do well in her personal life. She 
is not often there for David. His father, unfortunately, is even more 
rarely there for David and uses him as a lookout for illegal 
transactions when he does pay any attention to him.
  But David has found a joy in his life. Because somebody thought 
enough of this child to give him a helping hand, David gets himself up 
every morning, gets himself on the bus, gets himself to school where he 
will make of himself a successful and happy man in his adulthood, 
caring more than he was ever cared, for his own children.
  These are the things we can do if we just care enough to reach out to 
these children, one child at a time.

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