[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 4059]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        SUPPORT THE ED FLEX BILL

  (Ms. PRYCE of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. PRYCE of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I am sorry to say that the White 
House talks a great game when it comes to education reform, but it 
turns out there is more going on behind the scenes that you will never 
see on the network news. The White House has been working with 
Democrats in the Congress to take the ``flex'' out of ed flex. The 
whole purpose of this program is to give the States their own authority 
to assess their programs instead of Washington telling them what they 
need. Now, 100,000 new teachers is a great slogan but trying to 
handcuff our governors like this is not exactly the kind of flexibility 
that reformers have in mind when they advocate ed flex. This program is 
supposed to allow local schools to spend Federal dollars as they see 
fit. The special interests will have none of that. But the special 
interests are not putting the education needs of our children first. Ed 
flex does. It is a commonsense reform overwhelmingly supported by all 
50 governors across this country. Today we will have the opportunity to 
support it as well.

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