Patsy T. Mink: “the colloquy that we just heard between the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Armey] and the chairman of the full committee…”

“the colloquy that we just heard between the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Armey] and the chairman of the full committee indicates that the pending amendment is merely to reiterate what already is the law, and that the aspects of redundancy ought to be ignored even though the purported redundancy might create an enormous amount of mischief. And I want to cite why this mischief ought to caution us, despite the phone calls and the faxes that we are receiving, not to vote for this amendment. We have been advised by the parochial schools, by other private schools that this is a very mischievous amendment. It comes to us under a guise of misunderstanding, that there are no Federal regulations whatsoever that control the use of Federal funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It is not true. People have gone to court. This is a very contentious issue, and as a result of the decisions by the courts, there are carefully construed procedures by which private and parochial and other religious schools may expend Federal funds. Some of them are very complicated. They make no sense. For instance. a public school teacher may not go onto a private school premise in order to utilize Federal funds for the benefit of private children. Computers may be put into private schools, but they may not be utilized and the use may not be under the control of the private or parochial teacher. It must be under the control of the public school system.”