Eleanor Holmes Norton: “The Speaker's voucher bill is sure to pass, and I am sure it is offered with the best of intentions. Therefore, I want…”

“The Speaker's voucher bill is sure to pass, and I am sure it is offered with the best of intentions. Therefore, I want to work with him and with Members and with those in the Senate who support vouchers to provide much-needed oversight for the millions in Federal dollars in this bill. It is in that spirit that I offer a two- part amendment, and both parts are entirely consistent with the underlying bill. The Government Accountability Office, the GAO, said in 2007 and again in 2013 that the voucher program lacks quality control, transparency, and information. In response, the first part of my amendment restores the scientific integrity of the program's evaluation, copied from prior authorizations of this bill, and the second prohibits voucher mills, not our accredited Catholic schools, which are attended by most of our children, but their competition for vouchers--a small, but significant, number of private schools that would not exist but for this Federal funding.…”