Joe Lieberman: “I am proud to rise today to offer an amendment, along with my good friend and colleague Senator Coats from Indiana…”

“I am proud to rise today to offer an amendment, along with my good friend and colleague Senator Coats from Indiana, which would increase our investment in one of the most promising engines of education reform in America today, which is the charter school movement. This amendment would increase funding for the charter school grant program from the current level of $51 million up to $100 million for fiscal year 1998. Mr. President, we recognize that this is a sizable jump in funding, but let me put it in context and then go on to explain why we believe it is more than warranted. Earlier this week, on Tuesday of this week, my friend and mentor, Bill Bennett, wrote a column on the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal in which he began with some startling numbers. "This morning," that is Tuesday morning, "a record 52 million children will walk into America's classrooms. And this year Americans will spend more than a quarter of a trillion dollars trying to educate them." So when we think, as this amendment would do, Mr. President, of taking the $51 million the Federal Government now invests in charter schools and raising it to $100 million--a sizable jump; just about doubling it--let us put it in the broader context of the quarter of a trillion dollars that is being spent every year in this country to educate our children.”