[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 146 (Wednesday, October 14, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H10837]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        REPUBLICANS DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR EDUCATION DOLLARS

  (Mr. BALLENGER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BALLENGER. Mr. Speaker, the President, as the gentleman said, 
wants 100,000 new teachers. I am opposed to giving the Federal 
Government any more power over local schools. But I am willing to 
compromise. So I would like to say something that might surprise my 
Democrat colleagues. I am willing to accept the President's proposal to 
hire 100,000 new teachers but the President must then agree to test 
them for competence and he must also agree to discharge them for 
incompetence.
  Uh-oh, I am just guessing, but suddenly the President may not be so 
enthusiastic about his idea for 100,000 new teachers. The special 
interests who currently protect incompetent teachers at all costs would 
go ballistic and find a way to block the proposal. Suddenly the talk 
about education and the children would end because a proposal with more 
Federal dollars that demanded accountability for those dollars would be 
automatically unacceptable.
  So how many on the other side would be willing to take up my 
proposal?

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