Christopher Shays: “I rise in strong, strong, strong support of the Armey-DeLay-Watts-Lipinski amendment to H.R. 1. Given the importance of…”

“I rise in strong, strong, strong support of the Armey-DeLay-Watts-Lipinski amendment to H.R. 1. Given the importance of education to our Nation's future prosperity and security, I think it is vital, absolutely vital, to try new, competitive approaches to improving the education of all schools, but particularly public education in this country. If we want to be sure we are leaving no children behind, we must at the very least research the effectiveness of school choice programs. We need to study whether they improve the academic performance of low-income disadvantaged students; or whether they do not. In my judgment, instituting a national school choice pilot program is a modest but important step. This program in no way reduces our current commitment to public education. I believe it enhances it. For years Congress has debated the benefit of school voucher programs, yet there is insufficient evidence on the cost-benefit of these programs. Today we have an opportunity to establish five demonstration programs that allow us to measure the performance of students who receive these choice scholarships. Why would anyone oppose an opportunity to scientifically measure choice benefit programs? Why would we oppose it? Measure it. We may be right; we may be wrong. Measure it. We need this amendment to pass in order to have this opportunity.”