[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 54 (Tuesday, May 5, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E757]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA STUDENT OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIP ACT OF 1997

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                               speech of

                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 30, 1998

  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, I am opposed to the Republican District of 
Columbia School Vouchers Act. It was brought to the floor on false 
logic and ignores the real problems in public education.
  Let's take the Republican argument at face value for a minute. If 
public schools in the District of Columbia are unable to educate our 
children, as my colleagues claim, is the solution to remove 2,000 of 
them and place them in private schools? What do we do for the 76,000 
students left behind?
  In fact, these 75,000 will have to do with less funds available to 
help their education. It will cost $7 million to educate these 2,000 
students in private schools--but this bill does not allow for 
additional funds to help the remaining children. How else could this $7 
million be spent? The money could pay for after-school programs in each 
and every D.C. public school, 368 new boilers, could rewire 65 schools, 
upgrade plumbing in 102 schools, or buy 460,000 new textbooks.
  The people who live in the District of Columbia do not want this 
bill. The people of the District of Columbia did get the chance to vote 
on vouchers when the issue was placed on the ballot. It was defeated by 
a margin of eight to one.
  The residents of our host city do not deserve to be experiments for 
right-wing think tanks that promote ideas favored by the Christian 
Coalition and the religious right.
  If my colleagues on the other side are truly interested in helping 
students enrolled in public schools, I offer some suggestions for them. 
Why don't we increase the funds available for teacher salaries? How 
about holding teachers to educational standards of their own to make 
sure that those who teach our children are actually qualified to do so? 
What about providing a textbook in every core subject for every school 
child in America?
  What about adopting the President's plan to improve our educational 
infrastructure? We need to make sure that school classrooms are not 
falling apart and students have the resources they need, whether they 
be textbooks or access to the Internet, to be able to succeed in 
today's world.
  My Republican friends could make a strong stand for education by 
adopting these policies. Instead they shower us with rhetoric about 
helping children, when this is really an attack on public education 
across the country.
  The schoolchildren of the District of Columbia deserve our help and 
need our assistance. This is the wrong move, the wrong idea, and the 
wrong time and place. I urge my colleagues to take a real and 
meaningful stand for children and education.

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