[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 4061]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            SUPPORT ED FLEX

  (Mr. WALDEN of Oregon asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, as the parent of a third grader in 
public schools in Oregon, I am absolutely committed to smaller class 
sizes. But the best way to do that is to fund the special education 
mandate, not to create more federal mandates and programs.
  Coming from Oregon, which is one of the ed flex pilot States, I can 
tell my colleagues that our local parents, teachers and school boards 
can make the best decisions for our children, but it is time Washington 
kept its word and funded its mandates. I think unfunded federal 
mandates have done quite enough harm already to our public schools. It 
is time to expand ed flex all Americans. It is time to allow local 
schools to make their own decision about how best to spend Federal 
education dollars. That only makes sense.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the ed flex legislation 
that will be on the House floor later today.

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