[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 7]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 9417-9418]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         FREE MARKET EDUCATION

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOB SCHAFFER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 24, 2000

  Mr. SCHAFFER. Mr. Speaker, good schools are an essential element of 
any thriving community. In Colorado, we are doubly blessed with several 
good schools and many great communities.
  As a father of five, I take the issue of education personally. My 
wife and I have chosen to educate all of our school-aged children in 
the Poudre School District. It's a topic to which the majority of my 
work in the United States Congress has been devoted, and I'm most 
encouraged by the common-sense reforms taking place back home in 
Colorado.
  Governor Bill Owens has elevated the goal of improving public schools 
to statewide priority status. His is a challenging initiative of high 
expectations and structured accountability. The exercise is aimed at 
achieving more effective stewardship of the considerable resources 
Coloradans pour into public education, but even more so to afford 
greater opportunity to all students through real academic success.
  Many innovative approaches to education in northern Colorado have 
become blueprints for academic success across the state. Consequently, 
Mr. Speaker, Colorado is fast becoming a national template for 
education overhauls in other states, and Gov. Owens' quality initiative 
is commanding the attention of governors coast to coast. Colorado's 
higher academic standards, community involvement, and innovative free-
market solutions, have also become the basis for my most successful 
pro-child victories in the Congress.
  Colorado is confirming for the rest of America that empowering states 
and school districts is the key to guaranteeing every student succeeds 
and that no child is left behind. Americans tend to agree, but the 
forces in Washington advocating greater consolidation of education 
authority here and federalizing our schools are nonetheless powerful.
  Colorado is confirming for the rest of America that empowering states 
and school districts is the key to guaranteeing every student succeeds 
and that no child is left behind. Americans tend to agree, but the 
forces in Washington advocating greater consolidation of

[[Page 9418]]

education authority here and federalizing our schools are nonetheless 
powerful.
  ``Before we continue spending more tax money trying to find a 
solution to [America's education] problem, maybe we need to understand 
the problem better,'' said Joey Lopez of Ft. Collins, Colorado recently 
when he testified before Congress. A seventeen-year-old Ft. Collins 
High School senior, Lopez understands what Americans intuitively know: 
It's going to take much more than cold hard cash to improve our 
nation's schools. It's takes the innovation, hard work, and committed 
leadership of parents, teachers, students, and elected officials 
everywhere.
  Mr. Speaker, most Coloradans agree with Lopez. He typifies our 
independent, western spirit which is among the chief reasons our state 
ranks well for its ongoing efforts to improve education. Like other 
top-performing states, including Texas, Michigan, Florida, and North 
Carolina, Colorado excels not just because of the money it spends, but 
because of its dedication to innovative and proven education policies 
producing solid results for children.
  Where schools are concerned, Coloradans have never been content to 
entertain trendy national initiatives. Our history has rather persuaded 
us America's education challenges will not be answered in Washington, 
D.C. by federal agents who do not know the names of Colorado's 
principals and teachers, much less the names of the children. Enduring 
solutions are more likely to be found in diverse communities throughout 
each of America's fifty states, just as the U.S. Constitution suggests.
  That neither words ``education'' nor ``public schools'' are mentioned 
anywhere in the Constitution is a fact that surprises many, Mr. 
Speaker. Responsibility for educating American youngsters was 
deliberately and wisely reserved to the states and to the people--and 
it still is.
  America's Founders understood well the value of a locally controlled 
framework of schools, and the perils of a federally co-opted one. They 
knew it was better to have decisions made independently by the several 
states, each free to innovate and duplicate successful methods rather 
than subsist under one mandate for all.
  Following decades of increasing federal meddling in our local 
schools, Americans have learned all to well how perceptive our Founders 
were. Since 1980, for example, the federal government has funneled over 
$400 billion through the U.S. Department of Education bureaucracy. 
Unfortunately, the percentage of money actually making it back to 
classrooms is far less.
  Coupled with the modest amount of federal funds local schools receive 
each year is a mountain of red tape, regulation, and costly unfunded 
mandates foisted upon each public school administrator. Washington 
provides about seven percent of an average school's budget, yet the 
amount of contingent paperwork and compliance burdens requires an 
estimated 48.6 million hours of paperwork each year.
  A growing number of my colleagues in Congress are of the opinion that 
empowering states and local communities is the surest way to help 
states reestablish for themselves the finest schools in the world--
schools held accountable to the parents who rightly demand real results 
for their children.
  Last October, Mr. Speaker, the House passed important legislation 
providing states and local school districts more control and 
flexibility. Commonly known as ``Straight A's,'' the Academic 
Achievement for All Act gives states the freedom to raise student 
academic achievement through more flexibility in spending federal 
education funds. This bill is a giant step in the right direction. 
Rather than relying on Washington-based programs, Straight A's give 
states and local school districts the freedom to focus resources on 
locally proven efforts and solutions.
  This is the kind of reform Colorado and every state needs and wants. 
In a letter to Congress, Gov. Owens stated,

       Colorado has schools that are blazing a trail of change. 
     More schools and states need greater flexibility in their use 
     of federal dollars. As the father of three children who 
     attend three different public schools, I am proud to put my 
     full support behind Straight A's. This legislation will allow 
     the diverse areas, schools and people of Colorado to decide 
     what they need most for their schools.

  Placing more authority in the hands of local school boards will also 
ensure more dollars end up in classrooms. Meanwhile, officials at the 
U.S. Department of Education have been so busy devising and enforcing 
their various rules, and restrictions that they have failed to account 
for the billions in precious tax dollars entrusted to them to help 
promote education.
  As part of an ongoing effort to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in 
federal government, my colleagues and I on the Education Committee have 
uncovered evidence of widespread financial mismanagement at the 
Department of Education. Eight months behind schedule, the department 
last November released a financial report in which its auditors 
determined the agency's 1998 books were not auditable. In other words, 
the department could not account for how it managed its $120 billion 
budget that year.
  At an investigative hearing on Capitol Hill in March, we also found, 
amount other things, evidence the department violated the Credit Reform 
Act by hoarding $2.7 billion in education funds improperly in an 
internal account. In addition, we're currently monitoring an ongoing 
Justice Department investigation of a computer and electronic equipment 
theft ring operating within the department.
  Mr. Speaker, such widespread and chronic mismanagement is clearly not 
in the best interest of our children. That is why in March the House 
unanimously passed legislation I authored directing the General 
Accounting Office--the federal government's financial investigative 
arm--to conduct a comprehensive fraud audit of the Department of 
Education.
  Students, parents, teachers, and schools all suffer when scarce 
resources are lost in the bureaucracy instead of invested properly in 
education. It is past time for Congress to end such waste and abuse and 
force the Department of Education to place the interests of America's 
schoolchildren first.
  Mr. Speaker, Colorado is doing just that. One of our state's most 
innovative and successful efforts has been the creation and promotion 
of charter schools. Currently benefiting thousands of Colorado students 
(with thousands more on waiting lists), charter schools are public 
schools created through a contract, or charter, with local school 
agencies. They are open to all children. Colorado's 68 charter schools 
are afforded a high level of autonomy and flexibility over curriculum 
and operation in exchange for maintaining high standards for student 
achievement and unique goals laid out in the charter. As founding 
parent of the Liberty Common School, a charter school in Fort Collins, 
I have personally experienced the positive results of a good charter 
school community.
  Dr. Katherine Knox, headmaster of Liberty Common School, recently 
testified before the House Education Committee and underscored the 
importance of local autonomy. According to Knox,

       Though we all want quality in funding, and accountability 
     for results, we don't want strings attached that allow subtle 
     and increasing federal direction and control of local 
     schools. The momentum for charter schools comes locally, and 
     the attitude and culture is positively different in a good 
     charter school because of the local control.

  Ensuring a successful and well-funded education system in each of 
America's fifty states is important in the nation's effort to leave no 
child behind. But this laudable goal will never be attained until we 
first remove the shackles of an intrusive and unaccountable federal 
bureaucracy indifferent to the needs of our children. Local control is 
our best hope for education excellence, Mr. Speaker.
  As a member of the United States Congress, I relish the chance to do 
everything within my elected capacity to ensure every child in America 
has access to the best education possible. My primary guide will 
continue to be the common-sense opinions of Coloradans, our home-spun 
western orientation for quality, and our abundant love for our 
families. These are the important components of a successful free-
market education system established and championed by the great state 
of Colorado.

                          ____________________