Victor Fazio: “this piece of legislation is the confluence of two bad Republican ideas, one of which provides tax breaks for our…”

“this piece of legislation is the confluence of two bad Republican ideas, one of which provides tax breaks for our wealthiest people and not for those in the middle class who truly need it, and the other is to emphasize private schools under the guise of reforming public education. Mr. Speaker, this bill is flawed for a number of reasons. I think we will hear more about the ability, for example, to buy a car under this proposal in order to transport students to school. But it is also flawed because it puts in the hands of people making over $93,000, 70 percent of all the benefits. In other words, it could be called the Prep School Promotion Act of 1997, more than a public school reform bill. Mr. Speaker, we ought to be putting resources into reducing class sizes, we ought to be putting resources into wiring our public schools, training our teachers. We have an understanding of what it takes to improve the infrastructure of our public school system, but we are going to take $4 billion over the next 10 years and divert it to people who would like to perhaps start or perhaps be subsidized in their attendance already in private institutions. We do not really help the average American with this bill. We hold out a carrot to an industry or to some few individuals, many of whom have the capacity to already engage in educating their children privately. It is a God-given American right to do so.”