[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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