On the recordOctober 21, 2015
I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. I am pleased to support this rule because of the underlying bill that is there. Normally, the 10th Amendment says that education is delegated to the States. So I would be opposing anything this body does on education, except the Constitution also grants Congress the jurisdiction over the District of Columbia. When there is a program that is a success--and this has been a success--a study by the Department of Education concluded that this D.C. Opportunity Scholarship significantly improves students' chances of graduating from high school. I spent 28 years as a high school teacher. In that time, I saw all sorts of wonder programs being mandated from the Federal level and the State level. The most common expression of all teachers is ``This too shall pass.'' But the one thing that was never mandated to us was the concept of freedom, allowing teachers to teach their specialties, allowing parents the ability of having a choice on where they sent their kids. Choice is a powerful tool. When I was in the State legislature, I had a bill that dealt with compulsory attendance. I had a PTA mother that came up to me once and said, ``I hate you and I hate your bill because, when my 17-year-old doesn't want to go to school in the morning, I want to be able to look at him and say, `You have to go to school. It is the law.' '' And I thought: Thanks a lot.…
