Frank Riggs

I rise, as I did last night about this time, as the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth, and Families of the Committee on Education to respectfully suggest that if the President of the United States is genuinely…

I just wanted to interject at this point in the debate, colleagues, that as part of my own personal deliberations, in the last 48 hours I have spoken to both former President Ford and Bob Dole

the very first thing I want to do is recognize and salute the members of the Committee on the Judiciary and the staff for the very difficult and courageous work that they have done

I have had several of my Republican colleagues ask me if this is legislation that I intend to support, and the answer to that is an emphatic yes. And if I can just back up for a moment and sort of walk my colleagues through the process, my…

I would be very, very happy and, in fact, eager to work with the gentleman from Nevada [Mr. Ensign] and Nevada State government officials to see if, in fact, again, we cannot encourage the Department of Education to look favorably upon…

I endorse bipartisan efforts in the House to help communities open 3,000 more charter schools in the coming years by giving States incentives to issue more charters. The amendment of the gentleman from Massachusetts would not only remove…

I do want to join with him, Mr. Chairman, in encouraging but not requiring the Department to provide funding for the start-up of charter schools in the State of Rhode Island and other States that have charter school laws on the books today…

I am very pleased that we can be returning to work in the House on bipartisan legislation that I have coauthored and cosponsored with my good friend and colleague, the gentleman from Indiana. This legislation, the community-designed…

I think what the gentleman has prepared is very thoughtful and I think we have reached a good bipartisan compromise, and we are prepared to accept his amendment.

I am happy to clarify the intent behind section 10306 in the bill. Let me say that it is not our intent to create a disparity in funding or eligibility as to Federal categorical education funds, Federal taxpayer aid for public education…

Mr. Chairman, at this point I would like to suggest to my colleagues how we on this side would like and intend to proceed through the remainder of the consideration of the charter school bill and how we propose to dispose of the pending…

I would just explain to my good friend and colleague that the one thing that we do not want to do here is impose even more reporting requirements or regulatory compliance on charter schools. That obviously goes against the whole idea of…

Mr. Chairman, I intend to come down to the well momentarily, but while I stand here at this podium, I want to thank my good friend and vice chairman of the subcommittee for claiming the time and for his eloquent statement in support of…

I yield myself my remaining time simply to point out that I think that the gentleman from Indiana mentioned a charter school here in the District of Columbia. As we mentioned before, they are really sprouting up everywhere around the…

Mr. Chairman, before I proceed with my 5 minutes, let me see if I can just alert the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Ford] that if he happens to be present, I would yield to him, and while we are perhaps looking for him, let me just explain…

I do not believe that Christian bashing ought to take place on this floor. I deplore the use of the race card and race baiting. I really think it is inappropriate. Mr. Speaker, when African-Americans of childbearing age are polled, 86…

Mr. Speaker, I would go back to what the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Lewis] said. We will let Ms. King's words speak for themselves. She is not only a highly respected civil rights advocate, but she is also a former public and private…

it is rather unusual circumstances that bring me to the floor to address my colleagues during special orders, but I really feel compelled to make this statement because of some very, I think, one-sided, misleading reports that have…

I cannot not think of anything more important to the future of our country than ensuring that all of our children, and they are "our" children, receive a high quality education. I was struck by, and I have said this before on the House…

But what this is all about, bottom line, is trying to create bootstrap improvement in the public schools and not lose another generation of D.C. schoolchildren.

I believe it is about challenging public schools to improve as well as giving more opportunity to the families of the District of Columbia.

the Early Childhood, Youth, and Families Subcommittee urges you to support an important initiative to help children in the District of Columbia. Just yesterday, a District school was ordered closed by the D.C. fire marshal because of roof…

I am opposed to the Moran substitute, which would effectively gut the bill of the gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Taylor] and the very important and I think very necessary reforms that he is trying to enact in the District of Columbia…

So this has occurred in the aftermath of Proposition 209. There has not been this chilling effect, at least at the University of California medical schools, that some people have suggested as a result of California voters expressing their…

in fact it has been well documented that the existing admissions policies at the University of California discriminate against the minority group Asian-Americans. So what we are trying to do here is make sure that the Department of…