[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 55 (Wednesday, May 6, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H2823]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             SCHOOL CHOICE

  (Mr. GUTKNECHT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, we have been having a debate here on the 
floor of the Congress about school choice and particularly here in the 
Washington district.
  Jonathan Rauch writes on this issue in the last November 10 edition 
of the New Republic. He says he has always found it odd that the 
liberals have handed the issue to the Republicans rather than grabbing 
it for themselves. He writes, ``It's hard to get excited about 
improving rich suburban schools. However, for poor children, trapped, 
the case is moral rather than merely educational. These kids attend 
schools which cannot protect them, much less teach them. To require 
poor people to go to dangerous, dysfunctional schools that better-off 
people fled and would never tolerate for their own children, all the 
while intoning pieties about `saving' public education, is worse than 
unsound public policy. It is repugnant public policy.''
  Mr. Speaker, we agree.

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