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U.S. House Majority Leader Armey Testifies on Importance of School Choice to Low-Income Families WASHINGTON, D.C. - House Majority Leader Richard Armey (R-TX) and parents from across the country Tuesday urged Members of the House Education and the Workforce Committee to build on President Bush’s bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act (H.R. 1) this year by further expanding educational options for low-income parents through school choice.
“School choice can mean a lot of things to a lot of people,” he continued. “But at its heart, school choice is about giving parents control over the future of their children. It’s about putting the needs of children in front of the one-size-fits-all mandates of an education bureaucracy. It is about giving overlooked, low-income families the same options that more fortunate families already have.” Roberta Kitchen, a school choice parent from Cleveland, testified that the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision “means that my daughter can continue to attend a school where the principal knows all the students by name, where the environment is safe and where she learns and is happy. With the court battle now over, I hope that policymakers will give more parents a real voice in the most important decision we’ll ever make for our children--how to educate them.” Education and the Workforce Chairman John Boehner (R-OH) said the recent Supreme Court victory, coupled with K-12 education tax relief approved by state legislatures in Arizona, Minnesota, Iowa, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, has provided “an education choice that can mean the difference between keeping a child trapped in a chronically-underachieving school that refuses to change, or sending a child to a better-achieving school that offers hope.” “We can’t turn our backs on underachieving schools, and we won’t,” he continued. “But we can’t turn our backs on children trapped in endlessly underachieving schools, either. When schools do not teach and do not change--even after repeated efforts to turn them around--there must be a ‘safety valve’ for the students. That is what today’s hearing is about.” Last year, at President Bush’s urging, Congress took significant bipartisan action to expand choices for low-income parents. While offering unprecedented support for public schools and public school teachers, Congress expanded Education Savings Accounts (Coverdell accounts) to help parents pay for K-12 educational expenses in both private and public schools. Congress also gave parents with children in chronically-underachieving public schools the right to choose a private tutor and a better-achieving public or charter school. These reforms were part of the President’s No Child Left Behind plan and are now law. # # # # # |
“School choice works. School choice gives
freedom, opportunity, and hope to thousands of children trapped in
underachieving schools all across America,” Armey said. “Best of all,
school choice is a time-tested and Supreme Court-validated alternative to the
limited education options many families now face.”