Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I am very pleased to hear that this amendment will be accepted. It should be. This is one of the most exciting things that is happening in the area of educational reform. I particularly want to give credit to my friend and colleague, the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Roemer], for being in the vanguard of this effort legislatively. I am the ranking subcommittee Democrat on the Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on the District of Columbia. One of the most frustrating things that we have to deal with is the District of Columbia public school system. It may be the worst of any urban area in the country. Even those intimately involved in it will recognize that. But the most exciting thing that is happening within that school system is what is happening in the area of charter schools. We, in the suburbs, have about 50,000 unfilled jobs. There are at least that many people within the District of Columbia who could be filling those jobs who are not employed. Yet, we cannot make that match. One of the ways that we are going to attempt to match those jobs with those people who are willing to work and have the basic skills is through the charter school movement, by putting in vocational education, vocational training, bringing in businesses, making the education relevant to the jobs that are available for the graduates. We had more than 40 good applications for charter schools for the District of Columbia.”