Date: 2014-01-28
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. for the past 40 years. my work in this House has been guided by my firm belief that every child. regardless of his or her ZIP code. deserves access to a quality education that will prepare them for future success. and every parent deserves to know that their childs school is helping their son or daughter achieve his or her full potential. That is why. under No Child Left Behind. we demanded the accountability include transparency on school performance. We share the collective responsibility. at all levels of government. to make good on the promise of highquality education for all students. Unfortunately. we all know that not every school is living up to that promise. When any school fails its students. it is our responsibility. not only to give those students a highquality public school option. but to also improve the lowperforming schools. It is simple: no child should be stuck in a failing school. This week is National School Choice Week. Many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and their strategists have embraced the socalled "school choice" as a part of their rebranding effort to appear more caring. Politico reported just last week that the Republican strategists have been counseling the Republicans that talking about helping poor minority children softens the Republican image. Talking about it. not doing something about it. Conservative advocacy groups have declared in planning documents that it is an excellent media opportunity to focus on kids and the future. It is a media opportunity to focus on children. not to do something about it. This new effort even has a warm and fuzzy name. the Growth and Opportunity Project. This is political posturing at its worst. and it does nothing to provide actual choice for our Nations students. The cornerstone of true school choice is the principle that every child has the right to attend a great school. Not only should the students have highquality options. but we need to demand that lowperforming schools improve. and support that improvement. Without quality schools to pick from. families face an empty choice. Yet that is all the Republican majority has offered Americans so far. Neither school choice nor quality of schools was on their agenda when they voted for the Republican rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. That bill abandoned our responsibility to ensure that every child has access to a highquality education. It undercut Federal support for schools. The majority leader pledged that Republicans remain vigilant in protecting and promoting school choice. yet their bill removed the school choice mechanisms that were already in current law. And their bill failed to require that schools in districts improve when they are failing to effectively educate students. With the Republicans Elementary and Secondary Education bill. along with sequestration. the majority turned its back on the Nations most vulnerable students. They took money away from Americas poorest schools. and they took money away from Americas poorest students. The very people that the majoritys school choice media opportunity pretends to support are the same ones that are hurt by the majoritys actual votes in this Chamber. Not a media conversation. not the posturing to appear to soften the image. but the actual votes taken in this Chamber harm the very children that they now say they want to support with this media opportunity to soften their image. It was the Democratic Elementary and Secondary Education bill that held schools accountable for improvement and demanded that children be afforded new education opportunities when stuck in a failing school. School choice should not be an empty promise. It should not be a political tag line that frees my colleagues from taking responsibility for our Nations education system. Mr. Speaker. if you want meaningful school choice. you must demand schools be held accountable for equitably serving all students. and you must provide the support that the schools need to provide that quality education. Without that accountability for school quality. what choices would parents really have when their schools are failing? An option between two lowperforming schools? Not a good option. An option between lowperforming neighborhood schools and figuring out how to get your child across town to a different school. providing the transportation. and still hold down the job. that is not a fair option. What we know. Mr. Speaker. is that if you ask parents all across America. they will tell you that their first choice in school choice is to have a neighborhood school that is highperforming. have a neighborhood school that meets the demands of that family and those children to get a firstclass education. not to drive across town. not to spend time putting their kids in transit or putting their kids in harms way trying to walk to that better school. Fix the neighborhood schools. and if you dont. then provide that child the alternative to go to another school. as we did in current law. not as we do in the media release. I challenge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to go beyond the rhetoric and posturing and sit down with me and others to make real. sustainable improvements in public education for all students. Poor and minority kids are not a media opportunity. These are real children who deserve an equal shot at a bright future.