[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 75 (Thursday, June 11, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H4483]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      PARENTAL CHOICE IN EDUCATION

  (Mr. ROGAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ROGAN. Mr. Speaker, even the hard-core liberals generally do not 
think people are better served by monopolies when it comes to making 
computers, televisions, or automobiles. Yet they prefer a government 
monopoly over parental choice when it comes to education in the public 
schools.
  No floor speech will convince them that parental choice is morally 
superior to the education monopoly, even when children suffer, and when 
the so-called reforms that bureaucrats embark on year after year are 
proven to be utter failures.
  No, Mr. Speaker, neither a speech nor the anguished cries of parents 
desperate to give their kids a real chance in life will change their 
minds--because the liberal mind-set does not admit the failures of 
government monopolies on this subject.
  But to those Democrats on the other side of the aisle who stand with 
the Republican majority in trying to give kids a chance in the poorest 
schools, I salute their courage and I urge them to stand fast, because 
what we will accomplish in a bipartisan fashion is greater than any 
loyalty to a party. It is giving children in the poorest neighborhoods 
a chance for a world-class education. That is our supreme obligation as 
Members of this body.

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