Vito Fossella: “I just urge those who are curious to read the bill and determine and find out for themselves that this does not take…”

“I just urge those who are curious to read the bill and determine and find out for themselves that this does not take money away from public education. Indeed what it does is serve to improve education. Clearly there has been no stronger fighter in my mind than I am in this Congress, and before this I was elected to the New York City Council and served on the Education Committee and continually fought to improve education for the people of my community in Staten Island and Brooklyn and across this country. In the last couple of weeks, we have seen, I guess, a critical point in terms of discussing the future of education, and, if you will, a line in the sand has been drawn. Our majority leader the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey) introduced a bill to provide, as he stated earlier, to the low-income people of Washington, D.C., 2,000 scholarships. There were parents who prayed that they would actually be able to send their child to a school of their choice. This House passed that legislation. It was quietly vetoed by the President, thereby depriving some of those most vulnerable out there the opportunity to send their kid to a school of their choice.”