Political Quotes

“my amendment seeks to assure school boards that if they seek in good faith to adopt constitutional policies relative to prayer in school that they are not going to find their Federal funds cut off. Last week the Senate adopted an amendment of Senator Helms which threatens to cut off Federal education funds to local school districts if they make a mistake, even, presumably, in good faith, relative to the efforts of students seeking to pray in school. It put a club to heads of local school boards to protect the rights of only one group of students: the group wishing to have organized prayer in school. There were a number of options following the adoption of the Helms amendment. One was to offer an amendment threatening the same funds cutoff if local school boards violate the constitutional rights of persons who do not want to be faced with organized prayer in school, thereby putting another club to the heads of local school boards. A second option was to try to remove some of the threat in the Helms amendment by assuring school boards that if they adopt a constitutional policy toward prayer, whether facilitating it or the opposite, their good faith decision would not lead to a funding cutoff. My amendment follows the second route because the first approach is a slippery slope for local school boards which already face complex decisions relative to constitutional rights as relate to prayer in school.”