On the recordFebruary 15, 1992
Father, let me say this: I believe in school choice. We have an excellent education program. It is called America 2000. It is not Republican. It's not Democrat. It's not conservative. It's not liberal. It works to implement the six national education goals that were passed by the Governors, Democrat and Republican alike. One of the provisions of our America 2000 program is choice. When I got out of college, I was a recipient of the GI bill. I fought for my country, and one of the things that veterans got way back then was a GI bill. And they didn't say what kind of school you could go to. They simply said, ``Take your choice.'' I believe that choice is one of the best ways to increase the quality of education from all schools, and I'm going to continue to fight for it. And that, I think, gets to your question. That is the fundamental part of America 2000. It is a fundamental part of how we improve education. And you do it through vouchers, but different private schools ought not to be denied. One of the allegations is, well, people will leave a bad school to go to a good school. Where that's happened, the bad schools have improved. Take a look at Rochester, New York, as a good example. So, the answer to the question you're raising is choice. And back it up so that the parents will have the main say. I had the mayors, I mentioned this in the State of the Union, I had the mayors from the National League of Cities in. And they were Mayor Bradley of Los Angeles, great big, complex metropolitan area, a Democrat; a tiny town in North Carolina with a Republican mayor, 3,000. And they said, ``The one thing that concerns us is that the fundamental cause of a lot of these problems is the demise of the family.'' And what we're trying to do there is strengthen the family. And choice, I think, is one of the best ways to go about it. Way in the back. Yes, ma'am. We can hear you. Go ahead. Energy Policy
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