Political Quotes

“Let me thank my colleague for yielding and let me start by also thanking him and the members of the Government Reform Committee for their work on this bill. Also I want to thank our 50 cosponsors and all the Members on both sides of the aisle who are standing with us today. I also appreciate the efforts of our colleagues in the Senate, particularly Senator Joe Lieberman, who are working on similar legislation. Today, the House will have the opportunity to do something special for the future of our country. I think just about every Member would agree that we have got to do everything we can to help our education system. Americans are concerned that their children won't be able to have the same blessings that they have had, and if we want to protect the American Dream, there is no substitute for a quality education. My view has always been that education reform starts with giving children a way out of our most underachieving public schools. Of course, that doesn't mean that we abandon those schools. It means we take some of the pressure off of them while they work to turn themselves around. So we came together here about 7 years ago and said let's try something different. Instead of just throwing money at the problem, let's empower parents from lower-income families to choose the schools that are best for them. We wouldn't deny any school money that they had already been receiving. We would be injecting freedom and competition into a system that is caught up in the status quo.…”