Heidi Alexander: “I ask unanimous consent that a copy of my remarks at the Brookings Institution earlier today be printed in the Record.…”

“I ask unanimous consent that a copy of my remarks at the Brookings Institution earlier today be printed in the Record. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: School Choice I am delighted to be here, but I should warn you: Based on my track record, I'm probably not your most reliable observer on school choice. If I take you back to September 1992, I gave a speech at Ashland University in Ohio, and I predicted that by the year 2000 ``school choice will not be an issue.'' I suggested that an Ashland student writing a thesis in 2000 ought to make the subject parental choice of schools, because by then, I said, ``It will be a matter of history. ``Your colleagues will wonder along with you as you examine this strange era when we granted government monopolies control of the most valuable and important enterprises in town, and so many people fought furiously to keep doors to many of the best schools closed to poor children. ``They will ask, how could this have ever happened in America, at a time when the ideas of freedom, choice and opportunity were sweeping the rest of the world?'' My prediction might not have been right, but not because we didn't try. In 1984, I gave a speech at the University of the South outlining the ``deep ruts'' into which American K-12 education had fallen. One of those was the lack of school choice for parents.…”