[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 121 (Friday, September 5, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11150-S11151]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               DC SCHOOLS

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, yesterday the Senate Appropriations 
Committee passed legislation that has real promise, and that promise 
goes to the heart of offering the schoolchildren of this city, the 
District of Columbia, a genuine, a real opportunity to achieve an 
education. Specifically, I am talking about the DC Choice Program, a 
program my colleague from New Hampshire, Senator Judd Gregg, has worked 
so very hard on over the past several months; an issue that other 
colleagues, especially Mike DeWine, the Senator from Ohio, has been so 
committed to; an issue that colleagues from the other side of the 
aisle, Senator Feinstein and Senator Byrd, are both committed to. 
Indeed, both showed, I believe, bold and courageous action on behalf of 
the Capital City's schoolchildren.
  The District of Columbia appropriations bill provides $40 million for 
public schools here in the Capital City. That money will be divided 
between public charter schools and a new private school tuition program 
that would offer up to $7,500 per student for about 2,000 additional 
students.
  Regrettably, some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle 
supported doing nothing, supported the status quo. They refuse to allow 
2,000 of the District's schoolchildren who are from hard-working, low-
income families to have that opportunity of earning a better education. 
They would rather trap these children in failing schools. They would 
rather tolerate failure than take a chance at success.
  The record of the District's public schools is shocking. Despite 
unprecedented Federal and local spending in the District totaling about 
$12,000 per student, the District's scores are the lowest in the 
Nation. Only 10 percent of the District's fourth graders are proficient 
at reading. Fewer than 12 percent of District fourth graders can write 
at grade level. Only 6 percent of District fourth graders can do math 
at a proficient level.
  This is a disgrace. DC's public schools are graduating children who 
cannot read, who cannot write, who cannot add, and who cannot subtract. 
Would any of us in this Chamber allow our children to be illiterate and 
unable to do simple fourth grade math problems? The answer is obvious.
  In fact, many of those who oppose Choice for the Capital's 
schoolchildren send their own children to private schools where their 
children are able to read great literature, learn calculus, learn 
physics, and dream about careers in anthropology, or careers in 
aeronautics, and, indeed, go on to competitive colleges and 
universities.
  Unlike some of my colleagues here on the Hill, the locally elected 
officials from the District itself want the very same for the 
District's school age kids. They are determined that the District 
schoolchildren will learn to read and to write and thereby share in 
that American dream. The city's Mayor, Anthony Williams, understands 
that. The DC Board of Education president, Peggy Cooper Cafritz, and 
city council member Kevin P. Chavous are all courageously advancing the 
cause of universal education for kids here in the District of Columbia. 
They understand it. Most importantly, the people who understand it and 
who are leading the fight are the parents of the kids here in the 
District.
  Across the city, parents are lining up in order to obtain better 
options and better alternatives for their children. The need is so 
intense that the District Public School Choice Programs are now way 
oversubscribed. Each year, more than 1,000 schoolchildren are ``wait-
listed'' for the city's magnet programs. Charter schools educate right 
around 15 percent of DC kids, with nearly 11,500 children in attendance 
and another 1,000 on waiting lists to get into these charter schools.
  When John Walton and Ted Forstmann invested $2 million in the 
Children's Scholarship Fund here in the District, more than 10,000 
families applied for about 1,000 seats.
  Virginia Walden-Ford, the executive director of DC Parents for School 
Choice and a mother of three, knows first hand how desperately parents 
want a better education for their children. She tells me that each week 
she receives in her organization hundreds of calls just about this 
issue of having a better choice, a better alternative. She knows first 
hand the desperation of these parents.
  Virginia had to take matters into her own hands when her son was 
having trouble in school. He was skipping school. He was having run-ins 
with the law. He felt like no one cared. He also felt peer pressure to 
not work hard, to not achieve, to not aspire. Virginia, as a parent, 
was terrified. We all would feel this way. She was terrified of what 
would happen if her son stayed in that environment--if he stayed or was 
trapped along this path that would lead to nowhere. So she decided as a 
parent to make a difference and to make a change. She sent him to a 
private school. And within 2 weeks she tells me her son, who she was so 
worried about being trapped in this environment in which there was no 
escape whatsoever and no opportunity to achieve that American dream, 
was transformed--no more getting into trouble, no more skipping school, 
no more getting into trouble with the police, no more skipped homework 
assignments. Virginia asked him why. What made that difference? What 
led to that transformation?
  Her son told her very directly that the teachers for the first time 
cared

[[Page S11151]]

about whether he learned. At the new school, skipping class and not 
showing up the next day was a major infraction. For the first time, 
Virginia was told by her son that he actually felt safe walking through 
the school's hallways. Not only did Virginia's young son graduate, but 
unlike many of his friends at the old school who had dropped out before 
graduation, he graduated with a 3.8 grade average. And, indeed, today 
he proudly serves in the Marine Corps. Virginia believes that going to 
private school literally saved her son's life.

  That is one story. There are thousands of stories like that in terms 
of better opportunities. But there are thousands more parents who want 
the same for their kids, who want that opportunity, who simply don't 
have that opportunity but who will now have that opportunity if the 
bill that was passed yesterday in the Appropriations Committee 
ultimately becomes law.
  It is nonsensical to withhold from these parents the opportunity to 
have their kids be able to go to a school where they will thrive, where 
they will have those new opportunities.
  Yesterday, as I looked at the vote and who voted which way, it is 
clear that a majority of Senators in the Appropriations Committee--and 
I believe a majority of Senators on the floor of this Senate--are 
parents like Virginia who will demand better options for their 
children, and thus the Senate will support giving them those options.
  I, for one, support each child's right to learn to read and write and 
add and subtract. Basic education for our schoolchildren simply cannot 
wait. It is incumbent upon us to act.
  Cardinal McCarrick, who is the Archbishop of Washington, DC, 
understands how crucial choice is to the future of this city's kids. I 
had the opportunity to discuss with Cardinal McCarrick this very issue. 
He stressed to me the importance of this piece of legislation to open 
up that opportunity to families and to kids all across the District. He 
wrote me a letter earlier this summer, which I ask unanimous consent to 
be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                    Archdiocese of Washington,

                                     Washington, DC, July 21 2003.
     Hon. Senator Bill Frist,
     Dirksen Senate Office Building,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Senator Frist: As the U.S. Senate committees review 
     legislative proposals for appropriations to fund the DC 
     School Initiative, I would like to restate in the strongest 
     terms my support for this initiative and all that it 
     represents.
       Our Catholic Schools in the District of Columbia have 
     served the children and families of Washington for over 100 
     years, and we are determined to continue to provide for these 
     families in the future. We are committed to the City and to 
     all its families and children. In fact, the majority of our 
     students in the District are not Catholic. As stewards of 
     education we recognize the need for every student to have 
     equal access to educational opportunities that will best 
     serve the needs of both the family and the child. It is 
     because of this commitment that we wanted to work in 
     partnership with Mayor Williams and our colleagues on the 
     City Council, on the School Board, in the Superintendent's 
     office, and in the private sector. Working together, putting 
     politics aside, we realized the need for a three-sector 
     initiative. It is a simple collaborative model, and yet it 
     continues to remain a controversial concept to some.
       This three-sector concept has formed the basis for the DC 
     School Funding Initiative. This approach provides the 
     opportunity for all in leadership to support the strongest 
     strategy to date for improving and increasing educational 
     options for low-income families. Just as a triangular 
     structure is the sturdiest of structures, because each side 
     reinforces the other, the three-sector approach allows the 
     whole of DC education to be greater than the sum of its 
     parts.
       The Archdiocese of Washington is committed to this solid 
     approach and strongly supports legislation that provides 45 
     to 50 million dollars over five years for:
       a. DC public schools to bolster the Transformation schools, 
     to recruit principals and teachers, and to provide for 
     professional development programming,
       b. DC charter schools to support building renovations; and
       c. Non-public scholarships for the neediest families in the 
     District to be used to pay for the cost of education at the 
     school of choice.
       Let me just say a further word about the third part of this 
     triangle, the help for parents who want to exercise their 
     right to choose a non-public school for the education of 
     their children. If they are poor--as so many of our families 
     here in the District are--they have the right in theory, but 
     they cannot exercise it in fact because they cannot pay the 
     cost of their education. Some are working three and four jobs 
     just to make their choice possible and your heart breaks to 
     see this sacrifice made year after year. This three-sector 
     program will help them as it will help the youngsters in the 
     public system as well.
       It is our sincere belief that this partnership model is 
     significant and worthy of legislative support, funding, and 
     assessment. This unique model of cooperation and strength 
     affords all three sectors opportunities to engage in shared 
     research, planning, and the continued development of services 
     to support all children.
       Hoping these legislative initiatives will be successful, 
     the Catholic Schools of Washington, DC are prepared to accept 
     1,200 to 2,000 students. Many of these students may attend 
     schools that already serve low-income neighborhoods. In fact 
     eleven of our Center City Consortium schools currently serve 
     a population that is 99% non-white, with 65% non-Catholic, 
     50% living below the poverty level, and 70% of the students 
     living in single-parent households. More important, these 
     schools are successful--with 100% of the graduating students 
     accepted at Catholic High Schools, where 99% of the graduates 
     go on to college. The average cost of educating our children 
     is approximately $7,000 per child compared to the $12,000 
     cost for the District of Columbia. This ground-breaking 
     initiative to participate as partners in education is an 
     opportunity each of our District of Columbia Schools 
     welcomes.
       This is a unified and comprehensive strategy to level the 
     playing field for under-resourced communities by ensuring 
     economically disadvantaged families a chance to pursue all 
     options, giving all children access to quality educational 
     choices.
       The Archdiocese remains committed to the three-sector 
     initiative. Together with the Mayor, the City Government, the 
     School Board, and our colleagues in all charter and non-
     public schools, we share this dream of giving the children 
     and the families of our nation's Capital one of the finest 
     educational opportunities in the land. All three sectors need 
     to be supported for this partnership strategy to succeed. 
     Each sector gains strength and stability from the other 
     sectors. This is a partnership representing a long-term 
     commitment of cooperation for the good of our children.
       Thank you for the opportunity to share our commitment to 
     this vision.
       With every good wish, I am
           Faithfully yours,
                                      Theodore Cardinal McCarrick,
                                         Archbishop of Washington.

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in that letter, he tells me that he 
regularly in the course of his counseling and in the course of his work 
sees parents who work ``three and four jobs just to make their choice 
possible.''
  He goes on to write that ``your heart breaks to see this sacrifice 
made year after year.''
  My fellow colleagues, parents are breaking their backs in this 
District to send their kids to schools that work, schools that really 
teach, schools that really provide an environment in which learning can 
take place. When you learn that only 10 percent--only 1 out of 10--of 
the District's fourth graders are proficient readers, your heart breaks 
all over again. These children almost certainly will never be able to 
catch up.
  I would like to close these brief remarks with a statement from the 
editorial page of the Washington Post. Although I don't quote the 
editorial pages of the Washington Post often, on this issue the Post is 
absolutely correct. The editorial reads:

       It is inexcusable for a group of Senators, many from 
     distant States, to turn this into a partisan issue of their 
     own. Instead, they should fight to make the District of 
     Columbia school system work better for more children, in 
     public, private and charter schools across the city.

  ``They should fight to make the DC school system work better for more 
children.''
  Mr. President, we should--and we must--fight to do just that. The 
District schoolchildren should not be trapped in the shadows of our 
shining city on the hill. They deserve, and their families deserve, our 
best efforts to make their classrooms models of success. They deserve, 
just as much as any other child--as much as a child of a U.S. Senator--
to achieve the American dream. We can give them that opportunity.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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