[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 1072]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             SCHOOL CHOICE

  (Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of 
national school choice because we need to offer our children effective 
education opportunities. And in Michigan, despite spending just shy of 
$10,000 annually to educate each child, we need to look at a couple of 
facts. One, only 31 percent of eighth-graders are actually considered 
proficient in math. The other element that is very disheartening to me 
is the fact that one child drops out of school in America every 26 
seconds. We have an obligation to give parents the tools and resources 
to get their children out of bad educational environments and into 
better ones.
  As a Member of Congress, I support school choice and allowing States 
to even opt out of the No Child Left Behind program and use educational 
resources in a way that will best meet their local needs, not the 
demands of Washington, D.C. It should be up to parents--not 
governments--to choose what's best for their children. Better 
traditional schools, public charter schools, private schools, virtual 
education, and homeschooling. I personally advocated for these 
opportunities when I sat on the board of a public charter school in 
Michigan. I served as the director of development at Zeeland Christian 
Schools, and most importantly, as a parent along with my wife, who 
homeschooled our children. Those of us in Congress must continue to 
encourage and champion school reform.

                          ____________________