[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17797]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                 TOP ISSUE FOR REPUBLICANS IS EDUCATION

  (Mr. EHLERS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. EHLERS. Mr. Speaker, last evening we had a chance, once again, to 
demonstrate that one of the top issues, if not the top issue, of the 
Republicans is education. We were in this Chamber debating an excellent 
bill proposed by the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Chairman Goodling) of 
the Committee on Education and the Workforce.
  He served for many years as a teacher, then principal, then 
superintendent; and he has put his knowledge to good use in his work 
here as chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce.
  This bill will improve reading training of children, but above all, 
through a stroke of genius, he has also included provisions that 
parents will receive training in reading if they are illiterate.
  Mr. Speaker, in my years of education, I discovered that the single 
greatest factor in the success of the student is an interested and 
involved parent. But if the parent cannot read, how do we expect the 
child to learn how to read?
  The bill of the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling) will 
ensure that both will happen, and it also builds into it accountability 
to make certain that the government's money is not wasted. This bill 
does much more than just that, but I wanted to highlight this issue. I 
encourage all of my colleagues to vote yes on this excellent piece of 
education legislation.

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