[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 146 (Wednesday, October 14, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H10837-H10838]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
  EDUCATION IS TOO IMPORTANT TO LEAVE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OUT OF IT

  (Mr. ALLEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ALLEN. Mr. Speaker, we hear a lot of talk these days about the 
education proposals that the Democrats are fighting for, and those on 
the other side of the aisle say it is a matter of federal control 
versus local control. Democrats, they say, want federal control. They 
made the same arguments when we tried to get 100,000 police on the 
streets of this country, and that is local control. It may be federal 
money, but it is local control, and that is what Democrats are arguing 
for now.
  Education is simply too important in this country to leave it to 
someone else. We all have to participate. We all have to participate in 
fighting crime, and that is what we did when we asked for 100,000 new 
police on the streets, and we got them in every district around this 
country. Now what we are saying is education is too important to leave 
the federal government out of it. The public servants who work for this 
government, for the state government and the local governments have to 
join together.
  Mr. Speaker, we need support for 100,000 new teachers in this 
country. That is what we are fighting for as Democrats right now, and 
we are not going home until we have that as part of this agenda. There 
has been plenty

[[Page H10838]]

of time in this Congress for votes on vouchers, but this issue has not 
come up before.

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