Frank Pallone: “Democrats strongly oppose spending taxpayer dollars on private and religious schools and have argued for making the…”

“Democrats strongly oppose spending taxpayer dollars on private and religious schools and have argued for making the necessary improvements in public schools instead. This week the Republicans hope to pass a bill that would make Washington, DC the first victim in a grand scheme to undermine public schools through taxpayer funded vouchers for private or religious schools. As much as $45 million in Federal funds would be made available to pay for private education for about 3 percent of the District of Columbia's students. Mr. Speaker, in my opinion it makes no sense to take away $45 million that could be made available to the city of Washington to improve basic skills or to fix deteriorated buildings in the public schools and instead use this money for private schools. With 9 out of 10 children in America attending public schools, Democrats understand that we need to rebuild and reform public schools, not destroy them and waste public funding on private schools. I hope that my Republican colleagues will join us in moving a positive agenda for public education rather than wasting our time on vouchers.”