[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 22 (Thursday, February 6, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E155-E156]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      FAMILY EDUCATION FREEDOM ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. RON PAUL

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 5, 2003

  Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Family Education 
Freedom Act, a bill to empower millions of working and middle-class 
Americans to choose a non-public education for their children, as well 
as making it easier for parents to actively participate in improving 
public schools. The Family Education Freedom Act accomplishes its goals 
by allowing American parents a tax credit of up to $3,000 for the 
expenses incurred in sending their child to private, public, parochial, 
other religious school, or for home schooling their children.
  The Family Education Freedom Act returns the fundamental principal of 
a truly free economy to American's education system: what the great 
economist Ludwig von Mises called ``consumer sovereignty''. Consumer 
sovereignty simply means consumers decide who succeeds or fails in the 
market. Businesses that best satisfy consumer demand will be the most 
successful. Consumer sovereignty is the means by which the free market 
maximizes human happiness.
  Currently, consumers are less than sovereign in the education 
``market.'' Funding decisions are increasingly controlled by the 
federal government. Because ``he who pays the piper calls the tune,'' 
public, and even private schools, are paying greater attention to the 
dictates of federal ``educrats'' while ignoring the wishes of the 
parents to an ever-greater degree. As such, the lack of consumer 
sovereignty in education is destroying parental control of education 
and replacing it with state control. Loss of control is a key reason 
why so many of America's parents express dissatisfaction with the 
educational system.
  According to a study by The Polling Company, over 70 percent of all 
Americans support education tax credits! This is just one of numerous 
studies and public opinion polls showing that Americans want Congress 
to get the federal bureaucracy out of the schoolroom and give parents 
more control over their children's education.
  Today, Congress can fulfill the wishes of the American people for 
greater control over their children's education by simply allowing 
parents to keep more of their hard-earned money to spend on education 
rather than force them to sent it to Washington to support education 
programs reflective only of the values and priorities of Congress and 
the federal bureaucracy.
  The $3,000 tax credit will make a better education affordable for 
millions of parents. Mr. Speaker, many parents who would choose to send 
their children to private, religious, or parochial schools are unable 
to afford the tuition, in large part because of the enormous tax burden 
imposed on the American family by Washington.
  The Family Education Freedom Act also benefits parents who choose to 
send their children to public schools. Parents of children in public 
schools may use this credit to help improve their local schools by 
helping finance the purchase of educational tools such as computers or 
to ensure their local schools can offer enriching 
extracurricular activities such as music programs. Parents of public 
school students may also wish to use the credit to pay for special 
services, such as tutoring, for their children.

  Increasing parental control of education is superior to funneling 
more federal tax dollars, followed by greater federal control, into the 
schools. According to a Manhattan Institute study of the effects of 
state policies promoting parental control over education, a minimal 
increase in parental control boosts students' average SAT verbal score 
by 21 points and students' SAT math score by 22 points! The Manhattan 
Institute study also found that increasing parental control of 
education is the best way to improve student performance on the 
National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) tests.
  Clearly, enactment of the Family Education Freedom Act is the best 
thing this Congress could do to improve public education. Furthermore, 
a greater reliance on parental expenditures rather than government tax 
dollars will help make the public schools into true community schools 
that reflect the wishes of parents and the interests of the students.
  The Family Education Freedom Act will also aid those parents who 
choose to educate their children at home. Home schooling has become an 
increasingly popular, and successful, method of educating children. 
Home schooled children out-perform their public school peers by 30 to 
37 percentile points across all subjects on nationally standardized 
achievement exams. Home schooling parents spend thousands of dollars 
annually, in addition to the wages forgone by the spouse who forgoes 
outside employment, in order to educate their children in the loving 
environment of the home.
  Ultimately, Mr. Speaker, this bill is about freedom. Parental control 
of child rearing, especially education, is one of the bulwarks of 
liberty. No nation can remain free when the state has greater influence 
over the knowledge and values transmitted to children than the family.
  By moving to restore the primacy of parents to education, the Family 
Education Freedom Act will not only improve America's education, it 
will restore a parent's right to choose how best to educate one's own 
child, a fundamental freedom that has been eroded by the increase in 
federal education expenditures and the corresponding decrease in the 
ability of parents to provide for their children's education out of 
their own pockets. I call on all my colleagues to join me in allowing 
parents to devote more of their resources to their children's education 
and less to feed the wasteful Washington bureaucracy by supporting the 
Family Education Freedom Act.

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