Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from the District of Columbia for yielding. I rise in opposition to H.R. 4901. Contrary to its title and contrary to what you just heard, this voucher program for schoolchildren in the District of Columbia has neither expanded opportunities nor delivered results for those students and their families. It has actually proven to be an unwise and unwelcome use of tax dollars, which ought to be of great concern to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. Yet, rather than call for increased scrutiny, they are forcing the House to once again vote on a bill on which this Chamber has already acted. In successive reports on the effectiveness of this program, the Department of Education has determined that students using these vouchers saw no statistically significant improvement in their overall achievement in math or reading--none. In addition, the Department found that both parents and students from schools in need of improvement, the program's intended beneficiaries, reported that their experience with the voucher program did not--not-- improve their level of satisfaction with the education system or the education they were receiving. I also find it extremely cynical that this reauthorization would weaken the very reporting requirements that have shown this program to be ineffective. When you don't like the findings, I guess we suppress them.…”