Trent Franks: “There are two ways the Federal Government can return money to the States. They can appropriate money with all of these…”

“There are two ways the Federal Government can return money to the States. They can appropriate money with all of these bureaucratic mandates; or they can simply say to the States, here is an idea, if you do it yourself, you will have to send less money to the Federal Government in the first place. That is what the Children's Hope Act is predicated upon. It creates an incentive for States to take care of their own efforts by empowering parents and sending less money to the Federal Government. I am convinced that this solves a lot of the problems across the board. Mr. Speaker, I am convinced we can accomplish so much if the Children's Hope Act is passed. It puts the scholarship tax credit on the radar of the States in general. It looks at what is happening in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Florida. If we can empower parents and create a new movement toward competitive education, towards competition, towards competitive excellence in education, I think we can do more for this coming generation than anything else. And I would suggest to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Hoekstra) that the implications are pretty significant. Abraham Lincoln said the philosophy of today's classroom is the philosophy of tomorrow's government, and how our children grow up and the days that exist now will certainly dictate the kinds of philosophies that fill these seats across this room.”