[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 29, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H3417-H3420]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   CONGRATULATING CHARTER SCHOOLS ACROSS THE UNITED STATES FOR THEIR 
                   ONGOING CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION

  Mr. PORTER. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to 
the resolution (H. Res. 204) congratulating charter schools across the 
United States, and the students, parents, teachers, and administrators 
of such schools, for their ongoing contributions to education, and for 
other purposes.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                              H. Res. 204

       Whereas charter schools across the United States deliver 
     high-quality education and challenge students to reach their 
     potential;
       Whereas charter schools are public schools authorized by a 
     designated public entity to respond to the needs of 
     communities, families, and students and to promote the 
     principles of quality, choice, and innovation;
       Whereas, in exchange for the flexibility and autonomy given 
     to charter schools, they are held accountable by their 
     sponsors for improving student achievement and for their 
     financial and other administrative operations;
       Whereas 39 States, the District of Columbia, and the 
     Commonwealth of Puerto Rico have passed laws authorizing 
     charter schools;
       Whereas almost 2,700 charter schools are now operating in 
     36 States, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of 
     Puerto Rico and serving nearly 700,000 students;
       Whereas the Congress has appropriated nearly $1,000,000,000 
     for the costs of planning, startup, implementation, and 
     information dissemination associated with charter schools 
     since the initial authorization in 1994 of the Federal 
     charter school grant program under the Elementary and 
     Secondary Education Act of 1965;
       Whereas an additional $50,000,000 in Federal appropriations 
     has now been approved to help address the facilities' 
     financing needs of charter schools;
       Whereas charter schools can be vehicles for improving 
     student achievement for students who attend them, for 
     stimulating change and improvement in all public schools, and 
     for benefiting all public school students;
       Whereas charter schools must meet the student achievement 
     accountability requirements included by the No Child Left 
     Behind Act of 2001 in the Elementary and Secondary Education 
     Act of 1965 in the same manner as other public schools, and 
     often set higher and additional individual goals, to ensure 
     that they are of high quality and truly accountable to the 
     public;
       Whereas charter schools give parents new freedom to choose 
     their public school, charter schools routinely measure 
     parental satisfaction levels, and charter schools must prove 
     their ongoing and increasing success to parents, 
     policymakers, and their communities;
       Whereas nearly 70 percent of charter schools report having 
     a waiting list, and the total number of students on all such 
     waiting lists is enough to fill another 1,000 average-sized 
     charter schools;
       Whereas students in charter schools nationwide have 
     demographic characteristics similar to students in all public 
     schools;
       Whereas charter schools in many States serve significant 
     numbers of students from families with lower incomes, 
     minority students, and students with disabilities, and, in a 
     majority of charter schools, almost one-half of the students 
     are considered at-risk or are former dropouts;
       Whereas the fourth annual National Charter Schools Week is 
     being celebrated from April 28, 2003, to May 2, 2003, and is 
     an event sponsored by charter schools and grassroots charter 
     school organizations across the United States to recognize 
     the significant impacts, achievements, and innovations of the 
     Nation's charter schools; and
       Whereas charter schools have enjoyed broad bipartisan 
     support from the Administration, the Congress, State 
     Governors, State legislatures, educators, and parents across 
     the United States: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That__
       (1) the House of Representatives acknowledges and commends 
     the charter school movement, charter schools across the 
     United States, and the students, parents, teachers, and 
     administrators of such schools, for their ongoing 
     contributions to education and to improving and strengthening 
     the public school system of the United States;
       (2) the House of Representatives supports the fourth annual 
     National Charter Schools Week; and
       (3) it is the sense of the House of Representatives that 
     the President should issue

[[Page H3418]]

     a proclamation calling on the people of the United States to 
     conduct appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities to 
     demonstrate support for charter schools during this week-long 
     celebration in communities throughout the United States.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Nevada (Mr. Porter) and the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Davis) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Porter).


                             General Leave

  Mr. PORTER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their 
remarks on H. Res. 204.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Nevada?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. PORTER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I rise today in support of H. Res. 204. This resolution honors the 
Nation's charter schools, their students, parents, teachers, and 
administrators for their outstanding education of our children. This 
week, from April 28 through May 2, charter school organizations are 
honoring the schools for their ongoing contributions to education.

                              {time}  1500

  I am pleased to honor the 13 charter schools in Nevada that serve 
nearly 3,000 students. The legislation I co-authored was passed in the 
State of Nevada in 1997 and was revised in 1999, lending teachers more 
room for creativity and the ability to offer and extend school days as 
well as the school year. This Friday I will have the opportunity to 
showcase one of them: The Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy 
located in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Academy's curriculum focuses on 
technology and college preparation while introducing cultural 
activities and expanded involvement in community affairs. Currently the 
Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy instructs grades 3 through 5 
and will add one grade level per year through to grade 12. I commend 
the school and principal Wayne Tanaka, as well as the other charter 
schools in the State of Nevada for recognizing the immense need for 
improved education and their commitment to improving student 
achievement for students who attend these schools.
  The Nation's charter schools deliver high-quality education and 
challenge students to reach their potential. Thirty-nine States, the 
District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico have passed 
laws authorizing charter schools. Now almost 2,700 charter schools 
serve nearly 700,000 students in 36 States, the District of Columbia, 
and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. In exchange for flexibility and 
autonomy, these public charter schools are held accountable by their 
sponsors for improving student achievement and for their financial and 
other operations. Charter schools respond to the needs of America's 
communities, families and students, while promoting the principles of 
quality, choice, and innovation. Charter schools must meet the same No 
Child Left Behind student achievement accountability requirements as 
other public schools, and often set even higher standards in additional 
individual goals to ensure that they are high quality and truly 
accountable to the public.
  Charter schools can be vehicles for improving student achievement for 
students who attend them, for stimulating change and improvement in all 
public schools, and for benefiting all public school students. These 
schools give parents new freedom to choose their public school. Nearly 
70 percent of charter schools report having a waiting list, and the 
total number of students on all such waiting lists is enough to fill 
another 1,000 average-size charter schools. Students in charter schools 
nationwide have similar demographic characteristics as students in all 
public schools and serve significant numbers of students from families 
with lower income, minority students, and students with disability. In 
the majority of charter schools almost half the students are considered 
at risk or are former dropouts. Charter schools have enjoyed broad 
bipartisan support from the administration, the Congress, State 
governors and legislators, educators, and parents across our Nation.
  Through this resolution, Congress today acknowledges and commends the 
charter school movement and charter schools, students, teachers and 
parents across the Nation for their ongoing contributions to education 
and improving and strengthening the Nation's public school system.
  The fourth annual National Charter School Week is held this week 
April 28 to May 2, 2003. It recognizes the significant impacts, 
achievements and innovations of the Nation's charter schools. I urge my 
colleagues to support this resolution.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. DAVIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  I rise in support of this resolution. I want to thank the gentleman 
from Nevada (Mr. Porter) for introducing House Resolution 204.
  We all know that parent choice is important. It is important within 
the public school systems of our country, and I have long supported, 
and my children attended, magnet schools that resulted as a part from 
the integration decisions of the 1970's. We have many successful 
examples, and from my home district of San Diego, Gompers Secondary 
School of Science and Math, and the School of Creative and Performing 
Arts are examples of standout schools and special interest schools. The 
magnet school movement has led to the charter school movement, and the 
difference that we see, however, is in governance and in meeting 
numerous guidelines.
  In 1992, California was the second State to adopt provisions that 
allowed school districts to authorize charter schools. San Diego 
Unified School District has been a strong supporter of these developing 
schools. Some 14 have been approved with varied missions. Important to 
the success of these charter schools are a number of factors. High 
among them is parent involvement, a clear philosophy of education that 
seeks to meet the State and local standards. A committed core of well-
qualified teachers and above all also community support from a board of 
directors, the expertise of retired educators, health professionals, 
financial experts. All of them have been involved in many of our 
charter schools. What we also find as so important is that those 
charter schools feed back to other schools the most successful 
innovations that they have begun.
  One unique charter school that I would like to share today is that of 
the Preuss School in San Diego. It was established in the fall of 1999 
on the campus of the University of California San Diego. Its mission, 
to provide an intensive college preparatory curriculum to low-income 
student populations and to improve educational practices, grade 6 
through 12. Its goal of which they are meeting and beginning to really 
show very, very strong record, is to graduate students competitively 
eligible to enter the University of California and other selective 
institutions. They will have their first graduating class in 2004 and 
2005, and we look forward to that.
  I wanted to share a little bit about the student body and how the 
students come together for that program. All the students come from 
low-income families. None who enter may have had a parent or guardian 
who graduated from a 4-year college. Race in this school is certainly 
not a factor in admissions. It is true only 13 percent are Caucasian, 
and the Hispanic student population is about 54 percent.
  One of the obstacles often in charter schools is traveling to the 
campus. All the students who go there must find their way there, and 
for some it is a very long distance. The student body president who 
travels from Imperial Beach takes the trolly to San Diego and transfers 
to a school bus; it takes him about an hour and a half to travel each 
way, a route ordinarily that would take about 25 minutes.
  The results are quite astounding. Students rank number one in the 
county for their pass rate on the language arts section of the High 
School Exit Exam in 2001 and 2002. 100 percent of the students at this 
school have passed a language arts exam, and 91 percent are in the math 
portion. The academic performance index of ten out of ten in 2000 and 
2001 ranks the highest possible. Over 112 students passed the

[[Page H3419]]

Golden State exam in Spanish as second-year students. Awards in the 
science fair, robotics, essays, and scholastic competitions abound.
  So how did all this happen? It happened from the dedication of the 
principal and the staff. It happened from a group of extraordinarily 
hard-working students that found that sometimes when they separate from 
their own communities that they find a community of students who care, 
as they do, about receiving a high-quality education. They have 
supportive parents, obviously because these students have worked hard 
to get to the school, who value the education that perhaps they did not 
have; and university support, the support of student mentors and 
professors who assist with courses and projects, and an administration 
that provides the circumstances for success.
  It also has community financial support. University Regent Peter 
Preuss and others enabled a wonderful school that would be built on the 
UCSD campus because they believed that being on a university campus 
such as UCSD would enable all the students who participate and help out 
in that school to have easy access to it. We all know, as I mentioned, 
that transportation is a necessity for all these low-income students, 
and they are working hard to assure that in the future.
  The challenges for most charters are providing appropriate school 
buildings, and we know that that is appropriate to a well-rounded 
education. When they have easier transportation, perhaps the charter 
would be a true choice for many of the families. They work to maintain 
the parent and community support and also to have the support of the 
district administrations because we know that school districts and 
school district boards must nurture these alternatives and help them 
address them when they run into difficulties and even work to disband 
them when they fail. But above all they need to be engaged and they are 
engaged in sharing their successes.
  Mr. Speaker, we, in fact, are a diverse people, and our children 
learn in diverse and different styles. Parents value the opportunity to 
focus the kind of education that will help their child grow. Public 
school charters offer the kind of choice that will enrich our 
children's educational growth, and we may be able to learn a lot from 
them about how children succeed.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. DAVIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may 
consume to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this 
time. I am impressed with what she had to tell us about the school in 
her district. I want to thank the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Porter) 
for introducing this bill. This is an area in which the Congress has 
been working and working very well in the last several years.
  Actually, the first Federal charter school bill was passed for the 
District of Columbia. It was passed on a home rule basis at a time when 
the District was in financial trouble. Speaker Gingrich was here at the 
time. He recognized that the District had strongly opposed vouchers, 
and instead of trying to impose it on us, as he had the power to do, he 
worked with me, with the task force. We called in school board members, 
people from the community, and designed the first charter school bill, 
and I am here to report on how well that bill has done for the District 
of Columbia.
  We have got 40 charter schools. Imagine one city having 40 charter 
schools. Twenty percent of its children are almost in charter schools' 
waiting lists. We are told in the gentleman's bill that 70 percent of 
the charter schools have waiting lists. The District is a large part of 
that, I fear. Actually, too many of our children are in substandard or 
overcrowded facilities because they have rushed to take advantage of 
these charter school facilities so quickly. I am going to a press 
conference on Thursday at the Thurgood Marshall Charter School in our 
poorest ward, Ward 8, located in the Congress Heights United Methodist 
Church. They have added a grade each year. They are just popping out of 
their facilities and need the resources to get into more facilities. 
Actually, I appreciate that this House and the Senate appropriated 20 
million extra dollars for the District as a reward for expanding so 
rapidly because they did not want these children in substandard 
facilities and wanted to make room for the children on the waiting 
list.
  Compare what the District has done to Maryland. Our former colleague, 
now Governor Ehrlich, was able to get one lousy charter school bill out 
and it is very toothless. He is very disappointed with it. In Virginia, 
they have no charter schools.
  But, Mr. Speaker, no good deed goes unpunished. Despite the fact that 
the District of Columbia has set the pace for charter schools in this 
country, a member of this body, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Flake) 
who comes from as far as away from the District of Columbia as one can 
get, elected by nobody in the District of Columbia, has authored a bill 
to impose vouchers on the District of Columbia, although this town as 
long as 20 years ago voted 90 to 10 against vouchers. The gentleman 
from Arizona (Mr. Flake) needs a lesson in federalism and democracy and 
equality. How many charter school districts are there in his Arizona 
School District?

                              {time}  1515

  In the District of Columbia we have a virtual alternative school 
system, and yet we have got at our bus stops now national voucher 
people paying people in the District of Columbia, with bright T-shirts 
and slick literature, to pass out literature for vouchers in the 
District of Columbia. Why here? Why not go to Maryland and Virginia, 
where they do not even have charter schools?
  We are no trophy. We may be a majority black school system, we may be 
the Nation's Capital, but we do not need to be anybody's guinea pig for 
their experiments. The people of the District of Columbia have voted 
with their feet. They have sent their children to our charter schools, 
and I challenge any Member of this body to have anything like the 
number of charter schools per capita that we have.
  The administration, which has said it will not impose vouchers on 
anyone, is trying to give the District some money it already has coming 
to it to entice us to in fact accept vouchers. We cannot do that 
without a majority vote of our council; and I can tell you one thing, 
you are not going to get that.
  Every other district under the President's bill may choose whether or 
not the money goes to private or public schools. This is America, after 
all. That is the way it always has been. But they are trying to impose 
vouchers on the District of Columbia, despite its stellar record in 
producing charter schools.
  Indeed, before the Leave No Child Behind Act was ever a figment in 
anybody's imagination, the District for years and years, and I am a 
native Washingtonian, has allowed people to transfer out of their 
districts in order to get away from bad schools.
  Actually, I have something in common with my Republican voucher 
friends: I believe it is untenable to leave a child in a neighborhood 
school that is not educating that child. But I believe that child must 
be in publicly accountable schools; and that is why the District has 
stepped up to the plate, not simply against vouchers, but with a real 
alternative for our children. And the least efficient way to spend the 
little bit of money in the President's budget, it is $9 million, is to 
give it in $3,000 tranches to a very few kids, as opposed to helping us 
expand our charter schools, helping us get more of our kids out of the 
facilities that are sub-standard, helping us do repairs for the 
facilities in which they find themselves.
  There is one education pot, my friends; and that is why in the States 
that have had voucher referenda, and half of the States in the United 
States have, how come not one has won? Not one has won because 
everybody knows where that money is going to come from, out of that one 
pot; and they want to make sure that their public schools get every 
thin dime that the Federal Government gives, and that is exactly what 
we in the District of Columbia are going to insist upon.
  The Leave No Child Behind bill is hideously underfunded, and the 
testing regime will mean that there are going to be massive dropouts in 
districts like

[[Page H3420]]

my own. Yet we want to give this money away. You might want to do that 
in some other districts, but you are certainly letting those districts 
choose. We are going to insist that we be treated like the first-class 
Americans we are.
  The hypocrisy of it all, of trying to impose vouchers on the 
District, is that the Leave No Child Behind bill in committee had an 
amendment for vouchers for the Nation, defeated in committee. Then they 
tried on the floor, defeated on the floor. We are in the minority, so 
we could not have defeated it. Republicans defeated it, because they 
know that vouchers are not wanted in their districts, and they know it 
because they have not been able to pass a single referendum anywhere in 
the United States of America. So they come to the defenseless District 
of Columbia.
  Mr. Speaker, we are going to fight back, especially since we have got 
an alternative school system that none of the rest of you could even 
stand up beside us on.
  Charter schools are a bipartisan way to approach this matter, and we 
are going to insist that we be a part of the bipartisan consensus. We 
are going to especially insist upon it every time you try to impose 
anything on us, because District residents are in Iraq as I speak, as 
they have been in every war fought in the United States since the 
Revolutionary War; and we just paid our Federal income taxes at the 
rate of second-per-capita in the United States. And I will be darned if 
anybody is going to treat us unequally in the face of our meeting our 
first-class obligations to our country and to the Federal Government.
  We play by the rules. We are not requesting to be treated as second-
class citizens. The rules of the Congress say if you want the money to 
go to charter schools, it will go to charter schools. If you want the 
money to go to private schools, it will go to private schools. If you 
want the money to go to alternative public schools, it will go to 
alternative public schools. There is no way in the world to have that 
as a principal position for every district in the United States and not 
for the 600,000 people who live in the Nation's Capital.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask Members to remember to capture the bipartisan 
spirit of this bill, to remember that the District of Columbia deserves 
your compliments for being ahead of all of the rest of you in producing 
alternative schools for our children, and not the punishment of the 
imposition, undemocratically, of your solution on a district that you 
do not represent and which cannot vote you in or out.
  This bill in one of its paragraphs says: ``Whereas, charter schools 
can be vehicles for improving student achievement for students who 
attend them, for stimulating change and improvement in all public 
schools and for benefiting all public school students.'' That is the 
spirit of the bill, that is the spirit we are trying to meet, and I ask 
Members to support me in the work that my district is doing to meet the 
very spirit encompassed in this bill today.
  Mr. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. DAVIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to just make one or two brief points again. What 
we are talking about here is parent choice, and we know that parent 
choice is critically important within the public school system. I 
applaud my colleague from the District of Columbia, because she knows 
her district well and she knows that the parents have come forward and 
said that we have some good ideas about what will benefit our children 
and we want to work with the experts; we want to work with people from 
our community who are willing to come together and define and build on 
an idea that we have about how children succeed in school.
  I applaud that, and I applaud the fact that there are so many charter 
schools within her district. I hope that my colleagues will have an 
opportunity to visit, and I hope to do that very soon. I know there is 
a charter school today that was celebrating its civic education 
program. They have young people there who are really learning what we 
hope all children throughout this country will learn, their 
responsibility as citizens. They are learning that, and they are 
learning that to a degree that probably is not seen in many of our 
schools throughout the country, and that occurs in a charter school.
  Mr. Speaker, I applaud my colleagues today. I thank them for bringing 
this resolution forward, for congratulating charter schools within our 
public school system.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I also would like to applaud this bipartisan effort in 
recognizing those moms and dads and professionals across this country 
for their efforts in making sure that every child has a great 
education, to commend our staff and all of the Members who have 
cosponsored it, and the majority leader for scheduling this today.
  Mr. CASE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 204, which 
congratulates and encourages the charter school movement throughout our 
country in its continued efforts to educate our children and serve our 
communities.
  Charter schools are a modern-day public education story. This is 
because they foster the key ingredient in successful schools: the 
active participation not only of teachers and students, but of whole 
communities. When the entire community--from parents, to business and 
community organizations, to whole neighborhoods--has a critical role in 
making schools function, the results are amazing.
  In my state of Hawai`i, charter schools have been the most exciting 
development in public education in decades. The 25 charter schools 
currently allowed by state law have succeeded despite institutional 
opposition in bringing into education whole communities, often those 
whose participation has been lacking. They, like their counterparts 
across the nation, deserve our recognition.
  But for these very reasons, they also deserve their fair share of 
resources from federal and state governments. I have a particular 
charter school in my district that illustrates this point perfectly.
  Kanu o ka` Aina New Century Public Charter School (KANU) is located 
in the town of Kamuela on my home Island of Hawai`i. It has 150 
students, 85 percent of which are Native Hawaiian. It is Hawai`i's 
first indigenous K-12 public charter schools. The level of commitment 
to this school from the community is awe-inspiring.
  But it also faces major challenges. The school's director says that 
KANU's biggest challenge is funding equity and school construction 
funds. For the fiscal years 2001-2002 school year, KANU received 
$3,492.87 less per student than other public schools.
  Because KANU has to make due with fewer funds, it cannot save money 
on the side for construction of new buildings to accommodate its 
growing population. KANU needs both federal and state resources for 
construction funding, but it is finding these resources scarce and, 
when found, hard to access.
  KANU and Hawai`i's other charter schools, both existing and future, 
need their federal government to be clear and unequivocal in its 
continued support for the concept of charter schools. They also need 
full parity in funding between traditional public schools and charter 
schools. H. Res. 204 is welcome and needed, but these great words must 
be partnered with action.
  Mr. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Boozman). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Porter) that the House 
suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res. 204.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of 
those present have voted in the affirmative.
  Mr. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.

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