Political Quotes

“You know, in the later days of European colonialism, countries like France allowed some representation from the colonies because the whole notion of voting on the fate of the colonies with nobody there who could also vote seemed even then to be a dilemma they could not live with. And I don't understand how any Member of the House believes she has a right to vote on local education matters or any other local matter affecting any part of the United States, including the District of Columbia. I note, Madam Speaker, that Mr. Polis of the Rules Committee indicated yesterday that there was a county in Colorado that had created its own voucher program. I respect that because they didn't come to the Federal Government to ask that their local voucher program be funded, nor, Madam Speaker, did we. I think every Member of this House ought to ask, since we've had 5 years of a voucher bill, why is there no national bill on the floor? I think the gentleman from Florida has said one of the good reasons, and that is that the Bush Department of Education found that, when compared with the students in comparable schools in DC, there was no increase in test scores in math or reading. So there's a merit reason why there's no national bill. But there's another reason why.…”