Vito Fossella: “I urge the adoption of this rule and also the underlying legislation. Let me just point out why. While we are all in…”

“I urge the adoption of this rule and also the underlying legislation. Let me just point out why. While we are all in favor of improving education, let us just look to the status and the state of the Washington, D.C. school system. In a report in the Washington Post, they claim that the system is a well-financed failure. Despite spending $9,000 per student, more than half of the tenth-graders test below basic in reading, and fully 89 percent of the tenth-graders test below basic in math. Mr. Speaker, there is the old fairy tale about Peter Pan leading the children into Never Never Land, and I would submit that that is exactly, unfortunately, what has been happening in the Washington, D.C. school system. We have been leading these children into Never Never Land, never having them to become productive members of society. When we think what it would be like back in our hometown, whether it is Staten Island or anywhere across America, to have 89 percent of the tenth-graders test below average in math and to some extent reading, I think we would call for a rapid change. To me, it is not a fairy tale, it has become a Shakespearean tragedy, it is a rotten weed, and we must root it out.”