Mr. GOODLING. Madam Chairman, I
yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. PAUL), another member of
our committee.
(Mr. PAUL asked and was given permission
to revise and extend his remarks.)
1999 Ron Paul 107:1 Mr. PAUL.
Madam Chairman, I
thank the gentleman for yielding me
this time.
1999 Ron Paul 107:2 Madam Chairman, I rise in opposition
to this legislation. I know that the
goal of everyone here is to have quality
education for everyone in this country.
I do not like the approach. The approach
has been going on for 30 years
with us here in the Congress at the national
level controlling and financing
education. But the evidence is pretty
clear there has been no success. It is
really a total failure. Yet the money
goes up continuously. This year it is an
8 percent increase for Title I over last
year.
1999 Ron Paul 107:3 In 1963, the Federal Government
spent less than $900,000 on education
programs. This year, if we add up all
the programs, it is over $60 billion.
Where is the evidence? The scores keep
going down. The violence keeps going
up. We cannot keep drugs out of the
schools. There is no evidence that our
approach to education is working.
1999 Ron Paul 107:4 I just ask my colleagues to think
about whether or not we should continue
on this same course. I know the
chairman of the committee has made a
concerted effort in trying to get more
local control over the schools, and I
think this is commendable. I think
there should be more local control. But
I am also convinced that once the
money comes from Washington, you
really never can deliver the control
back to the local authorities. So that
we should give it serious thought on
whether or not this approach is correct.
1999 Ron Paul 107:5 Now, I know it is not a very powerful
argument, but I might just point out
that if Members read carefully the doctrine
of enumerated powers, we find
that it does not mention that we have
the authority, but I concede that we
have gotten around that for more than
35 years so we are not likely to reconsider
that today. But as far as the practicality
goes, we should rethink it.
1999 Ron Paul 107:6 If we had a tremendous success with
our educational system, if everybody
was being taken care of, if these $60 billion
were really doing the job, if we
were not having the violence and the
drugs in the school, maybe you could
say, well, let us change the Constitution
or let me reassess my position.
But I think we are on weak grounds if
we think we can continue to do this.
1999 Ron Paul 107:7 There are more mandates in this bill.
Even though we like to talk about
local control, there are more mandates,
and this bill will authorize not only the
$8 billion and an 8 percent increase this
year, but over the next 5 years there
will be an additional $28 billion added
to the budget because of this particular
piece of legislation.
1999 Ron Paul 107:8 I ask my colleagues, give it serious
thought. This does not deserve passage.
Note:
1999 Ron Paul 107:1
Madam Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. Here, Ron Paul thanks The Honorable William F. Goodling of Pennsylvania.
