[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 146 (Wednesday, October 14, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H10885-H10886]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  THE PRESIDENT'S RECORD ON EDUCATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Riggs) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RIGGS. Mr. Speaker, I rise, as I did last night about this time, 
as the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth, 
and Families of the Committee on Education to respectfully suggest that 
if the President of the United States is genuinely concerned about the 
education and well-being of our children, perhaps he ought to examine 
the lessons and the example that his own personal behavior is setting 
for our children.
  Mr. Speaker, I can understand, though, why the President would want 
to perhaps shift the focus of the debate. He has, I guess, a number of 
very good reasons for shifting the focus of the debate, one of which is 
his real record on education.
  In just this Congress over the last 2 years, the President has vetoed 
our legislation to send directly down to the local level, down to local 
school districts and into local school classrooms, $800 million of 
funding in block grants.
  He has vetoed our legislation denying American taxpayers the right to 
invest their own hard-earned money in tax-free savings accounts and 
then make tax-free withdrawals to spend for a variety of educational 
purposes as they deem best suited and most appropriate for their 
children.
  He has vetoed our legislation that puts an emphasis on improving the 
quality of teaching in American classrooms through improving 
traditional teacher education and training at colleges and 
universities, as well as more emphasis on professional development in 
in-service training for teachers, including our provision to give 
really outstanding teachers merit pay.

                              {time}  1615

  We really do believe in the philosophy that the teaching profession 
is a missionary calling and a teacher can never tell where their 
influence might end because they can effect eternity through that 
profound influence they have on the child and then through that child 
to future generations.
  He vetoed our legislation putting an emphasis on helping to make sure 
that all of our children can read and write well in English, the 
official common and commercial language of this country, by the end of 
the third grade, and he vetoed our legislation giving the poorest of 
the poor families, who all too often are found neglected in the middle 
of inner cities, scholarships so that they can send their children to 
the school of their choice. That is particularly important if their 
children are trapped in a failing or unsafe or underperforming school, 
all items, all part of our very impressive Republican record, common 
sense, conservative Republican record on education which the President 
has seen fit to veto.
  But he has not vetoed all of our legislation, which leads me to my 
second chart. On Saturday, the House minority leader, the gentleman 
from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt), the leader of House Democrats said, we 
have not spent one day, one minute, one second on our most important 
challenge, making sure every child is a productive citizen in a global 
economy. You know, because of the chart that I just held up, that that 
comment is pure nonsense. And the very next day the President said, in 
just the last two days, Republicans and Democrats have worked together 
to pass strong charter school and vocational education measures.
  Are you confused yet? I certainly am. I think congressional Democrats 
are as well. I am the author of both of those

[[Page H10886]]

bills, the charter school and vocational education bills that will soon 
become law. I take real exception to this kind of blatant political 
gamesmanship and partisan hypocrisy.
  The gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt) made these comments on the 
very day that he voted for the charter school bill which passed the 
House of Representatives by a vote of 369 to 50. The President made his 
comments the very next day, with the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. 
Gephardt) seated directly at his side at the conclusion of a White 
House meeting on the budget negotiations. So which is it?
  This is blatant hypocrisy. What we are really fighting here is a 
losing philosophical battle, because we Republicans believe that in 
fighting for our children's future and in trying to improve the quality 
of American education, we can only get there by emphasizing local 
control and decisionmaking, by putting greater emphasis on more 
parental involvement and choice in education, shifting the education 
paradigm from the providers of education to the consumers of education, 
raising teacher competency and strengthening accountability. And we can 
only do that by infusing competition and choice into the education 
system. It is called the market system, market principles. That is how 
we will get the reforms and the results that everybody wants in this 
country, certainly every parent, better pupil performance and higher 
student achievement.
  So what you have been hearing in the House of Representatives over 
the last few days is a partisan debate on how we should proceed. And I 
quote, in conclusion, an editorial from a newspaper in the district of 
the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling) that he gave me just 
before leaving:
  ``The argument behind the Democratic approach is that local officials 
don't have the talent, character or motivation to use the money wisely. 
Only the Solomons in Washington have the necessary attributes.''
  Mr. Speaker, our record beats their rhetoric, and that is why we are 
a growing majority in the Congress and in the country.

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