[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 26 (Thursday, March 12, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H1143-H1144]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




CONGRESS SHOULD ACT QUICKLY TO HELP TURN AROUND SCHOOLS IN THE DISTRICT 
                              OF COLUMBIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I have just come from a hearing on school 
vouchers, and I appreciate that I was given the opportunity to 
participate in the hearing because the hearing involved only the 
District of Columbia. I am left to wonder why the majority does not 
bring a voucher bill forward for the people of the United States of 
America, but picks only on one jurisdiction, the one that has voted at 
the highest rate--89 percent--against vouchers.
  I want to thank the Catholic Archdiocese as well as others who 
support charter schools for coming. The gentleman from California (Mr. 
Riggs), chairman of the committee, is the major sponsor of the Riggs-
Roemer bill which brought the House together on both sides on the 
notion of school choice involving public charter schools.
  I am very appreciative of the Washington Scholarship Fund. It is a 
private group that has put its money where its mouth is. It has not 
walked up and down the halls of Congress lobbying to get Congress to 
spend money which it knows the Congress is not going to be able to 
spend, but has simply come forward with the money on its own and now 
has raised money for scholarships in the District, for kids who want to 
go.
  I want to thank Arlene Ackerman, who is the new chief academic 
officer. She is a piece of work. She is already doing it, not just 
talking it. Our kids will be reading the equivalent of 25 books each 
next year.
  I asked her what she could do with the $7 million in the so-called 
vouchers bill, and here is what she had to say. She would use that 
money this summer to send 20,000 kids to summer school so that we can 
end social promotion in the District of Columbia. She is going to do it 
one way or the other anyway. She does not have the money to do it now.
  The credibility of those who are pressing vouchers is severely 
strained when, in fact, we can do something that will make a huge 
difference in the District of Columbia this very year with that $7 
million. When that vote comes on the floor of the House, however, it 
comes with the certain knowledge of the leadership that the President 
has already announced that he would veto a voucher bill.
  So why are they bringing it? The bill comes with the certain 
knowledge that such a bill would be met with a lawsuit and an immediate 
injunction, because there have been two or three vouchers passed in the 
States and each and every one of them has been enjoined by the courts. 
So what is the majority trying to do? They come crying crocodile tears 
for my kids. If they mean it, they should give us the $7 million so 
that we can end social promotion in the District of Columbia.
  Instead, they have dangled free money before some poor kids in the 
District of Columbia. They are playing with my constituents because 
they know that this free money will not come out of here. They did the 
same thing with our ministers last year. They got them to sign on for 
some free money for scholarships for the District of Columbia.
  But have they told my constituents there would be a veto and that the 
free money would never come out of the halls of this House? Have they 
told my constituents there will be a lawsuit, and that every such 
voucher bill that has been brought in the United States of America has 
been halted by an injunction?
  Who are they playing with? Who are they fooling? Do they care about 
youngsters in the District of Columbia? They should prove it. They 
should put their money where their mouths are. It is time to stop 
talking about the schools of the District of Columbia. There is 
something they can do about it. Stop raising expectations among poor 
people in the District. The Congress is back again. The bill is fast 
becoming a cruel hoax.
  I asked the two parents who testified before the committee this 
morning, whether they knew that they would not qualify for the vouchers 
if the vouchers were in fact passed by this House, because they are 
already in private schools? And they did not know that, my colleagues.
  Please help me. The children of the District of Columbia are as 
desperately off as my colleagues claim. The schools are indeed as bad 
as the schools in all of the large cities of the United States. My 
colleagues can do something about it. We are not the Congress' burden, 
we are not the Congress' responsibility, but we seek a partnership to 
quickly bring these schools up and to give these kids what they 
deserve. They deserve much more than they have gotten from the 
District.
  My colleagues' critique of the schools is well placed, but it will 
mean nothing unless they also step up and do something. And what my 
colleagues can do this summer is to begin quickly in the short-term to 
turn around a school system that has brought nothing but condemnation 
on this floor and in the District.
  The difference between the District and my colleagues is that the 
Congress controls billions of dollars. With only $7 million, we can get 
a bill that would

[[Page H1144]]

be signed by the President and would send 20,000 children to school and 
help them quickly improve their standards.

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