[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 45 (Wednesday, April 22, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H2212]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 EDUCATION IN AMERICA IS FACING CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  (Mr. PAUL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, education in this country is facing a crisis. 
If we look at our schools carefully, we find out that there are a lot 
of drugs in our schools, actually murders occur in our schools, rape 
occurs in our schools, it is infested with teenage pregnancies. There 
is total disrespect for authority in many of our schools, and there is 
no good record to show that the academic progress is being made that is 
necessary.
  The President happens to believe that if we have national testing, 
this will solve all our problems. And now he is addressing these very, 
very serious problems that we have in our schools with saying that if 
we can only get these kids not to smoke a cigarette, maybe we are going 
to solve these educational problems.
  I would say that he is going in the wrong directions. These are 
serious problems and we must do something, but pretending that we are 
going to crack down on kids testing a cigarette, as bad as it is, is 
not going to solve our problems.
  I have a couple suggestions to make on what we can do to improve the 
educational system. I have a bill that I introduced recently. It is 
H.R. 3626. It is called the Agriculture Education Freedom Act. This is 
a bill I think everybody in this body could support.
  What it does, it takes away taxation on any youngster who makes some 
money at one of these 4-H or Future Farmers of America fairs. When they 
sell their livestock, believe it or not, we go and tax them. Just think 
of this. The kids are out there trying to do something for themselves, 
earn some money, save some money and go to school; and what do we do as 
a Congress, we pick on the kids, we go and we tax these kids.
  I talked to a youngster just this past weekend in the farm community 
in my district, and he told me he just sold an animal for $1,200 and he 
has to give $340 to the U.S. Government. Now, what are we doing, trying 
to destroy the incentive for these youngsters assuming some 
responsibility for themselves? Instead, what do we do? We say the only 
way a youngster could ever go to college is if we give them a grant, if 
we give them a scholarship, if we give them a student loan. And what is 
the record on payment on student loans? Not very good. A lot of them 
walk away.
  There is also the principle of it. Why should the Federal Government 
be involved in this educational process? And besides, the other 
question is, if we give scholarships and low-interest loans to people 
who go to college, what we are doing is making the people who do not 
get to go to college pay for that education, which to me does not seem 
fair. It seems like that the advantage goes to the individual who gets 
to go to college, and the people who do not get to go to college should 
not have to subsidize them.
  I think it is unfair it pick on these kids. I think it is time that 
we quit taxing any youngster who makes some money at a 4-H fair or 
Future Farmers of America fair where they are selling their livestock 
and trying to earn money to go to college.

                              {time}  1815

  I think it is proper to say that they should have no taxation without 
representation. They are not even old enough to vote, and here we are 
taxing them. I mean that is not fair.
  So I am hoping that I get a lot of cosponsors for this bill, because 
there sure are a lot of youngsters around the country trying to assume 
responsibility for themselves.
  I do not believe for 1 minute the President's approach that we are 
going to assume that every kid is going to grow up to be a smoke fiend, 
and if we do not do something quickly, we are going to have them 
developing all these bad habits; at the same time, we see the 
deterioration of the public educational system.
  Also, I would like to mention very briefly another piece of 
legislation that would deal with this educational crisis. The Federal 
Government has been involved in our public schools for several decades. 
There is no evidence to show that, as we increase the funding and 
increase the bureaucracy, that there has been any improvement in 
education. Quite to the contrary, the exact opposite has happened.
  So I would say there is a very good practical case. I know the 
constitutional argument does not mean much. But the practical case is 
there is no evidence that what we have done so far has been helpful.
  I have another piece of legislation that would give $3,000 tax credit 
to every family for every child that they want to educate by 
themselves. So if they would spend any money on their child, whether 
they are in school or out of school, in private school, at home 
schooling, they would get this $3,000 credit. I hope my colleagues will 
take a look at these two pieces of legislation.

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