[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2259-2260]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            INTRODUCTION OF H.R. 2, DOLLARS TO THE CLASSROOM

  (Mr. PETERSON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PETERSON of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, today Republicans in 
Congress will introduce H.R. 2, Dollars to the Classroom, a bill that 
is aimed at improving the quality of our public schools.
  This bill, we admit, is a threat to those who believe fervently that 
Washington knows best, no matter how many times it has demonstrated 
that it does not. This bill will not please those who wish to expand 
the Federal education bureaucracy. This bill will alarm those 
professional administrators who hope to increase Federal involvement 
and intrusion into the decisions made by local school boards, parents 
and teachers.
  Instead, this bill will give local schools the flexibility to spend 
Federal education dollars as they see fit: higher teacher salaries in 
some districts, new libraries or classroom construction in others, 
perhaps a new computer system in another. Those who bear the 
consequences of the decisions will be the ones making those decisions.
  This is an approach which will enrage the liberals, who have done 
things the old way, the bureaucratic way, so many times in the past. 
This bill represents common sense. It puts dollars in our classrooms 
and not more bureaucrats in Washington.

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