[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 50 (Wednesday, April 29, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H2444-H2445]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          GIVE CHOICE A CHANCE

  (Mr. RIGGS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. RIGGS. Mr. Speaker, I just want to alert my colleagues that 
tomorrow the House will vote on a bill that represents the best chance 
that thousands of District of Columbia parents will have all year to 
see real hope in their lives.
  The bill, which will be offered by majority leader Dick Armey is the 
D.C. Student Opportunity Scholarship Act, which the Senate has already 
passed. This is very modest legislation, but it would give low-income 
parents a scholarship up to $3,200 so that they could select the school 
and the education that is most appropriate and best suited for their 
children. It would give D.C. parents an option of sending their 
children to a school where real learning takes place, where standards 
of discipline are enforced and their kids will be safe.
  But the liberal Democrats who say they care passionately about public 
education are adamantly opposed to this bill and ironic it is that 
these liberals who would not accept for one second having their own 
children in these dangerous, dysfunctional schools stand in the way of 
District of Columbia parents having the choice to send their children 
to a school that performs and is safe.
  This is hypocrisy at its worst, and the Washington, D.C. parents who 
desperately want to give their kids a real

[[Page H2445]]

chance in life know it. It is time to give choice a chance, because 
when parents have the choice, their children have a chance.

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