[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 4060]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            SUPPORT ED FLEX

  (Mr. HILL of Montana asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HILL of Montana. Mr. Speaker, let us take a clue from successful 
governors across the country who have taken on the special interests in 
making education their top priority. The same scene has been played out 
in State after State. A governor proposes real education reforms, from 
charter schools, to school choice, to tough academic standards, to 
back-to-basics, to ed flex. Then the special interests rise up in 
indignation, they denounce those reforms and a battle forms, a public 
relations battle between the reform-minded governor and the special 
interests that have produced the terrible results in the first place.
  One reform that the special interests particularly do not like is ed 
flex. They do not like it because it gives States and local schools the 
power to decide how to best spend the Federal education dollars. The 
special interests hate this idea because it means that Washington will 
no longer be telling local schools what they need, and they do not like 
it because it means parents and local authorities will have more 
control over education and the special interests will have less.
  Let us give governors the power they need to improve our public 
schools. Let us support ed flex.

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