Richard K. Armey: “Tomorrow the Committee on Education and the Workforce subcommittee under the direction of the gentleman from California…”

“Tomorrow the Committee on Education and the Workforce subcommittee under the direction of the gentleman from California (Mr. Riggs) is going to hold a special hearing on the question of school choice options for the children of D.C. As we know, Washington, D.C., has some very, very good schools and schools that we can be proud of. But unfortunately, it has some very tragic failures of schools. And in these hearings tomorrow, the gentleman from California (Mr. Riggs) and his committee are going to focus on this number, 7,573, one out of every 10 families in the city who qualified for low-income scholarships to take their children from a school that was failing the children to a school where they would have new opportunity, who are left disappointed because we have not yet been able to convince the President to sign a simple bill that takes $7 million of additional money and allocates it to scholarships for these children. I would like to talk for a moment about just one of these children, little David, nine years old, finally got from a school where he was frightened, where he was intimidated, where he felt himself to be a failure, to a school where the other students respected him, appreciated him, the teachers nurtured him. He was liked and popular because he got good grades in math and science. Because he got good grades in math and science, he was popular with the other students, he was popular with the teachers, and he had a new self-esteem.”