[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2696]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



   FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY IS PREVENTING AMERICA'S CHILDREN FROM LEARNING

  (Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, there is some troubling news about our 
educational system which seems to be heading in the wrong direction.
  A recent survey of college students showed that 45 percent of those 
college students would be denied U.S. citizenship because they could 
not correctly answer at least seven out of ten basic American history 
questions.
  Mr. Speaker, foreigners know more about U.S. history and they know 
that history better than our own children. The poll showed that 56 
percent of students could not place in order of occurrence the U.S. 
invasion of Normandy, the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the 
fall of the Berlin Wall. But 94 percent knew that Leonardo DiCaprio was 
the lead actor in ``Titanic.''
  Mr. Speaker, Federal spending on education is at an all-time high; 
and yet, 40 percent of our Nation's fourth graders fall below the basic 
level of reading achievement. It is obvious that more money on failing 
programs is not the answer.
  We need to enact real educational reform that give parents and 
teachers the resources they need to educate our children.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back all the Federal bureaucracy that is 
preventing our children from learning U.S. history.

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