Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, this House has a proud bipartisan record of reserving scarce Federal funds for public education. We cannot convincingly make the District of Columbia an exception to that record. The majority of the city council, the majority of the elected members of the school board, and as the member who has represented the city for 13 years, the majority of the residents of the city are just like your districts and overwhelmingly oppose vouchers. Hundreds of them, led by the clergy of our city ministers and rabbis, came to fan out to tell the Congress that just last week. If you are willing to vote to give public money to private schools this year, you better be prepared to answer back home. Of course you can say, well, the District of Columbia is different; you know, the schools are so bad. There are school districts exactly like the District of Columbia in every State of the Union. Those of you from Michigan know about Detroit. If you come from Georgia, you know about Atlanta. If you come from Connecticut, you know about Bridgeport. If you come from Texas, you know about Houston and Dallas. And I do not know all of your rural districts, but I am sure they will match the District in test scores and all the rest of the deprivations that lead to bad schools.”