William L. Clay: “I would like to once again talk about the imaginary educational program of the Republican Party, this phantom program…”

“I would like to once again talk about the imaginary educational program of the Republican Party, this phantom program that I keep hearing from the chairman of our committee, who just stated once again that they have passed 21 bills dealing with education. And I repeat what I said in my opening remarks. There are only three educational bills that came out of that committee that are the law of the land; one is the IDEA, another is the higher education reauthorization, and the third is the Workforce Investment Act. Now, they did pass some bills; they are not the law. But the skill of legislators is to get legislation into law. One bill, the Help Scholarship Private School Voucher bill, that passed this House, it died here in the House, he takes credit for that. The Dollars to the Classroom Block Grant bill passed this House, but it died in the Senate. The bill terminating bilingual education died in the Senate. The Juvenile Justice bill died in conference. He is listing these bills as accomplishments in the field of education. His own bill, he will not bring to this floor. He has got a bill in education that he is blocking right now that he will not bring to this floor, the Reading Excellence Act.”