Richard K. Armey: “I feel that way sometimes on this question of scholarships for children. I fight this fight, it seems, every year.…”

“I feel that way sometimes on this question of scholarships for children. I fight this fight, it seems, every year. Sometimes we win. Sometimes we lose. A couple of years ago, we got it through the House, we got it through the Senate, got it to the President. Bless his little old heart, he could not find it in his heart to sign that legislation. It would have given an opportunity to some youngsters here in D.C. I keep asking myself, why do I keep fighting this fight? It is not about children in my district. Certainly it is not my children in my family. It is mostly about children I will probably never see, but it is about some youngsters I have seen working with the Washington Scholarship Fund. I, for several years now, have kept 15 or so little ones on scholarship, managed to get folks to chip in and watch them, watch the brightness in their mamas' eyes when they see the hope, the chance to get a little guy out. I remember one little fellow, Kenny. He came to us. Darryl Green brought him over and introduced him. Poor little guy was scared half to death, over weight, unhappy, shy. We got him a scholarship. He got out of the school where he was frightened. He got into another school. The nuns were a little tough on him I heard, but they loved him and he learned.”