Congratulating charter schools across the United States, and the students, parents, teachers, and administrators of such schools, for their ongoing contributions to education, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time. I am impressed with what she had to tell us about the school in her district. I want to thank the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Porter) for introducing this bill. This is an area in which the Congress has been working and working very well in the last several years.

Actually, the first Federal charter school bill was passed for the District of Columbia. It was passed on a home rule basis at a time when the District was in financial trouble. Speaker Gingrich was here at the time. He recognized that the District had strongly opposed vouchers, and instead of trying to impose it on us, as he had the power to do, he worked with me, with the task force. We called in school board members, people from the community, and designed the first charter school bill, and I am here to report on how well that bill has done for the District of Columbia.

We have got 40 charter schools. Imagine one city having 40 charter schools. Twenty percent of its children are almost in charter schools' waiting lists. We are told in the gentleman's bill that 70 percent of the charter schools have waiting lists. The District is a large part of that, I fear. Actually, too many of our children are in substandard or overcrowded facilities because they have rushed to take advantage of these charter school facilities so quickly. I am going to a press conference on Thursday at the Thurgood Marshall Charter School in our poorest ward, Ward 8, located in the Congress Heights United Methodist Church. They have added a grade each year. They are just popping out of their facilities and need the resources to get into more facilities. Actually, I appreciate that this House and the Senate appropriated 20 million extra dollars for the District as a reward for expanding so rapidly because they did not want these children in substandard facilities and wanted to make room for the children on the waiting list.

Compare what the District has done to Maryland. Our former colleague, now Governor Ehrlich, was able to get one lousy charter school bill out and it is very toothless. He is very disappointed with it. In Virginia, they have no charter schools.

But, Mr. Speaker, no good deed goes unpunished. Despite the fact that the District of Columbia has set the pace for charter schools in this country, a member of this body, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Flake) who comes from as far as away from the District of Columbia as one can get, elected by nobody in the District of Columbia, has authored a bill to impose vouchers on the District of Columbia, although this town as long as 20 years ago voted 90 to 10 against vouchers. The gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Flake) needs a lesson in federalism and democracy and equality. How many charter school districts are there in his Arizona School District?

In the District of Columbia we have a virtual alternative school system, and yet we have got at our bus stops now national voucher people paying people in the District of Columbia, with bright T-shirts and slick literature, to pass out literature for vouchers in the District of Columbia. Why here? Why not go to Maryland and Virginia, where they do not even have charter schools?

We are no trophy. We may be a majority black school system, we may be the Nation's Capital, but we do not need to be anybody's guinea pig for their experiments. The people of the District of Columbia have voted with their feet. They have sent their children to our charter schools, and I challenge any Member of this body to have anything like the number of charter schools per capita that we have.

The administration, which has said it will not impose vouchers on anyone, is trying to give the District some money it already has coming to it to entice us to in fact accept vouchers. We cannot do that without a majority vote of our council; and I can tell you one thing, you are not going to get that.

Every other district under the President's bill may choose whether or not the money goes to private or public schools. This is America, after all. That is the way it always has been. But they are trying to impose vouchers on the District of Columbia, despite its stellar record in producing charter schools.

Indeed, before the Leave No Child Behind Act was ever a figment in anybody's imagination, the District for years and years, and I am a native Washingtonian, has allowed people to transfer out of their districts in order to get away from bad schools.

Actually, I have something in common with my Republican voucher friends: I believe it is untenable to leave a child in a neighborhood school that is not educating that child. But I believe that child must be in publicly accountable schools; and that is why the District has stepped up to the plate, not simply against vouchers, but with a real alternative for our children. And the least efficient way to spend the little bit of money in the President's budget, it is $9 million, is to give it in $3,000 tranches to a very few kids, as opposed to helping us expand our charter schools, helping us get more of our kids out of the facilities that are sub-standard, helping us do repairs for the facilities in which they find themselves.

There is one education pot, my friends; and that is why in the States that have had voucher referenda, and half of the States in the United States have, how come not one has won? Not one has won because everybody knows where that money is going to come from, out of that one pot; and they want to make sure that their public schools get every thin dime that the Federal Government gives, and that is exactly what we in the District of Columbia are going to insist upon.

The Leave No Child Behind bill is hideously underfunded, and the testing regime will mean that there are going to be massive dropouts in districts like

my own. Yet we want to give this money away. You might want to do that in some other districts, but you are certainly letting those districts choose. We are going to insist that we be treated like the first-class Americans we are.

The hypocrisy of it all, of trying to impose vouchers on the District, is that the Leave No Child Behind bill in committee had an amendment for vouchers for the Nation, defeated in committee. Then they tried on the floor, defeated on the floor. We are in the minority, so we could not have defeated it. Republicans defeated it, because they know that vouchers are not wanted in their districts, and they know it because they have not been able to pass a single referendum anywhere in the United States of America. So they come to the defenseless District of Columbia.

Mr. Speaker, we are going to fight back, especially since we have got an alternative school system that none of the rest of you could even stand up beside us on.

Charter schools are a bipartisan way to approach this matter, and we are going to insist that we be a part of the bipartisan consensus. We are going to especially insist upon it every time you try to impose anything on us, because District residents are in Iraq as I speak, as they have been in every war fought in the United States since the Revolutionary War; and we just paid our Federal income taxes at the rate of second-per-capita in the United States. And I will be darned if anybody is going to treat us unequally in the face of our meeting our first-class obligations to our country and to the Federal Government.

We play by the rules. We are not requesting to be treated as second- class citizens. The rules of the Congress say if you want the money to go to charter schools, it will go to charter schools. If you want the money to go to private schools, it will go to private schools. If you want the money to go to alternative public schools, it will go to alternative public schools. There is no way in the world to have that as a principal position for every district in the United States and not for the 600,000 people who live in the Nation's Capital.

Mr. Speaker, I ask Members to remember to capture the bipartisan spirit of this bill, to remember that the District of Columbia deserves your compliments for being ahead of all of the rest of you in producing alternative schools for our children, and not the punishment of the imposition, undemocratically, of your solution on a district that you do not represent and which cannot vote you in or out.

This bill in one of its paragraphs says: ``Whereas, charter schools can be vehicles for improving student achievement for students who attend them, for stimulating change and improvement in all public schools and for benefiting all public school students.'' That is the spirit of the bill, that is the spirit we are trying to meet, and I ask Members to support me in the work that my district is doing to meet the very spirit encompassed in this bill today.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in support of this resolution. I want to thank the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Porter) for introducing House Resolution 204.

We all know that parent choice is important. It is important within the public school systems of our country, and I have long supported, and my children attended, magnet schools that resulted as a part from the integration decisions of the 1970's. We have many successful examples, and from my home district of San Diego, Gompers Secondary School of Science and Math, and the School of Creative and Performing Arts are examples of standout schools and special interest schools. The magnet school movement has led to the charter school movement, and the difference that we see, however, is in governance and in meeting numerous guidelines.

In 1992, California was the second State to adopt provisions that allowed school districts to authorize charter schools. San Diego Unified School District has been a strong supporter of these developing schools. Some 14 have been approved with varied missions. Important to the success of these charter schools are a number of factors. High among them is parent involvement, a clear philosophy of education that seeks to meet the State and local standards. A committed core of well- qualified teachers and above all also community support from a board of directors, the expertise of retired educators, health professionals, financial experts. All of them have been involved in many of our charter schools. What we also find as so important is that those charter schools feed back to other schools the most successful innovations that they have begun.

One unique charter school that I would like to share today is that of the Preuss School in San Diego. It was established in the fall of 1999 on the campus of the University of California San Diego. Its mission, to provide an intensive college preparatory curriculum to low-income student populations and to improve educational practices, grade 6 through 12. Its goal of which they are meeting and beginning to really show very, very strong record, is to graduate students competitively eligible to enter the University of California and other selective institutions. They will have their first graduating class in 2004 and 2005, and we look forward to that.

I wanted to share a little bit about the student body and how the students come together for that program. All the students come from low-income families. None who enter may have had a parent or guardian who graduated from a 4-year college. Race in this school is certainly not a factor in admissions. It is true only 13 percent are Caucasian, and the Hispanic student population is about 54 percent.

One of the obstacles often in charter schools is traveling to the campus. All the students who go there must find their way there, and for some it is a very long distance. The student body president who travels from Imperial Beach takes the trolly to San Diego and transfers to a school bus; it takes him about an hour and a half to travel each way, a route ordinarily that would take about 25 minutes.

The results are quite astounding. Students rank number one in the county for their pass rate on the language arts section of the High School Exit Exam in 2001 and 2002. 100 percent of the students at this school have passed a language arts exam, and 91 percent are in the math portion. The academic performance index of ten out of ten in 2000 and 2001 ranks the highest possible. Over 112 students passed the

Golden State exam in Spanish as second-year students. Awards in the science fair, robotics, essays, and scholastic competitions abound.

So how did all this happen? It happened from the dedication of the principal and the staff. It happened from a group of extraordinarily hard-working students that found that sometimes when they separate from their own communities that they find a community of students who care, as they do, about receiving a high-quality education. They have supportive parents, obviously because these students have worked hard to get to the school, who value the education that perhaps they did not have; and university support, the support of student mentors and professors who assist with courses and projects, and an administration that provides the circumstances for success.

It also has community financial support. University Regent Peter Preuss and others enabled a wonderful school that would be built on the UCSD campus because they believed that being on a university campus such as UCSD would enable all the students who participate and help out in that school to have easy access to it. We all know, as I mentioned, that transportation is a necessity for all these low-income students, and they are working hard to assure that in the future.

The challenges for most charters are providing appropriate school buildings, and we know that that is appropriate to a well-rounded education. When they have easier transportation, perhaps the charter would be a true choice for many of the families. They work to maintain the parent and community support and also to have the support of the district administrations because we know that school districts and school district boards must nurture these alternatives and help them address them when they run into difficulties and even work to disband them when they fail. But above all they need to be engaged and they are engaged in sharing their successes.

Mr. Speaker, we, in fact, are a diverse people, and our children learn in diverse and different styles. Parents value the opportunity to focus the kind of education that will help their child grow. Public school charters offer the kind of choice that will enrich our children's educational growth, and we may be able to learn a lot from them about how children succeed.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I want to just make one or two brief points again. What we are talking about here is parent choice, and we know that parent choice is critically important within the public school system. I applaud my colleague from the District of Columbia, because she knows her district well and she knows that the parents have come forward and said that we have some good ideas about what will benefit our children and we want to work with the experts; we want to work with people from our community who are willing to come together and define and build on an idea that we have about how children succeed in school.

I applaud that, and I applaud the fact that there are so many charter schools within her district. I hope that my colleagues will have an opportunity to visit, and I hope to do that very soon. I know there is a charter school today that was celebrating its civic education program. They have young people there who are really learning what we hope all children throughout this country will learn, their responsibility as citizens. They are learning that, and they are learning that to a degree that probably is not seen in many of our schools throughout the country, and that occurs in a charter school.

Mr. Speaker, I applaud my colleagues today. I thank them for bringing this resolution forward, for congratulating charter schools within our public school system.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 204) congratulating charter schools across the United States, and the students, parents, teachers, and administrators of such schools, for their ongoing contributions to education, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H. Res. 204.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise today in support of H. Res. 204. This resolution honors the Nation's charter schools, their students, parents, teachers, and administrators for their outstanding education of our children. This week, from April 28 through May 2, charter school organizations are honoring the schools for their ongoing contributions to education.

I am pleased to honor the 13 charter schools in Nevada that serve nearly 3,000 students. The legislation I co-authored was passed in the State of Nevada in 1997 and was revised in 1999, lending teachers more room for creativity and the ability to offer and extend school days as well as the school year. This Friday I will have the opportunity to showcase one of them: The Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy located in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Academy's curriculum focuses on technology and college preparation while introducing cultural activities and expanded involvement in community affairs. Currently the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy instructs grades 3 through 5 and will add one grade level per year through to grade 12. I commend the school and principal Wayne Tanaka, as well as the other charter schools in the State of Nevada for recognizing the immense need for improved education and their commitment to improving student achievement for students who attend these schools.

The Nation's charter schools deliver high-quality education and challenge students to reach their potential. Thirty-nine States, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico have passed laws authorizing charter schools. Now almost 2,700 charter schools serve nearly 700,000 students in 36 States, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. In exchange for flexibility and autonomy, these public charter schools are held accountable by their sponsors for improving student achievement and for their financial and other operations. Charter schools respond to the needs of America's communities, families and students, while promoting the principles of quality, choice, and innovation. Charter schools must meet the same No Child Left Behind student achievement accountability requirements as other public schools, and often set even higher standards in additional individual goals to ensure that they are high quality and truly accountable to the public.

Charter schools can be vehicles for improving student achievement for students who attend them, for stimulating change and improvement in all public schools, and for benefiting all public school students. These schools give parents new freedom to choose their public school. Nearly 70 percent of charter schools report having a waiting list, and the total number of students on all such waiting lists is enough to fill another 1,000 average-size charter schools. Students in charter schools nationwide have similar demographic characteristics as students in all public schools and serve significant numbers of students from families with lower income, minority students, and students with disability. In the majority of charter schools almost half the students are considered at risk or are former dropouts. Charter schools have enjoyed broad bipartisan support from the administration, the Congress, State governors and legislators, educators, and parents across our Nation.

Through this resolution, Congress today acknowledges and commends the charter school movement and charter schools, students, teachers and parents across the Nation for their ongoing contributions to education and improving and strengthening the Nation's public school system.

The fourth annual National Charter School Week is held this week April 28 to May 2, 2003. It recognizes the significant impacts, achievements and innovations of the Nation's charter schools. I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I also would like to applaud this bipartisan effort in recognizing those moms and dads and professionals across this country for their efforts in making sure that every child has a great education, to commend our staff and all of the Members who have cosponsored it, and the majority leader for scheduling this today.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, as a member of the House Education and Workforce Committee, as well as co-chair of National Charter School Week, I strongly support the H. Res. 204, legislation honoring National Charter Schools Week.

Public schools are America's commitment to providing a high quality education for every child. I am dedicated to ensuring that all children have the opportunity to receive a quality education regardless of what public school they attend. This includes charter schools, which are models of successful education reform and one of the fastest growing education innovations working to improve our public education.

As a National Co-Chair of Charter Schools, I would like to take a minute to celebrate the first decade of Charter Schools in the United States. Traditionally, charter schools are independent public schools, designed and operated by educators, parents, community members and others. Since the first charter school began operation in 1992 in St. Paul, Minnesota, the number of charter schools has grown to nearly 2,700, serving 500,000 students around the country.

I am proud to say that we currently have 128 charter schools operating across the state of Wisconsin. In my congressional district alone, we have 20 charter schools presently and that number grows each year.

Just last week, I took the opportunity to visit the LaCrosseroads Charter School in my hometown of La Crosse, Wisconsin, and was impressed by all of the wonderful things that have been accomplished there in just the past several years. The interests, involvement and stewardship of these charter school students extend well beyond La Crosse and reach out beyond the borders of this country with their active participation in the Red Cross School Chest Program. For this program, LaCrosseroads students have been collecting school supplies for Red Cross distribution to children in other countries, who are unable to attend school because of war or natural disasters.

Charter schools have consistently been at the forefront of my priority list, and I am pleased that Wisconsin is one of seven states with over 100 exceptional charter schools. I have consistently advocated for increased

funding for Charter Schools and supported the Charter School Facilities Financing Demonstration Program during consideration of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001.

Mr. Speaker, I recognize that charter schools give parents options when determining the best public school in which to enroll their children. Thus, we must ensure that all our students reach their highest academic potential, which may require attending a charter school that provides a model better suited towards an individual student's needs.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 204, which congratulates and encourages the charter school movement throughout our country in its continued efforts to educate our children and serve our communities.

Charter schools are a modern-day public education story. This is because they foster the key ingredient in successful schools: the active participation not only of teachers and students, but of whole communities. When the entire community--from parents, to business and community organizations, to whole neighborhoods--has a critical role in making schools function, the results are amazing.

In my state of Hawai`i, charter schools have been the most exciting development in public education in decades. The 25 charter schools currently allowed by state law have succeeded despite institutional opposition in bringing into education whole communities, often those whose participation has been lacking. They, like their counterparts across the nation, deserve our recognition.

But for these very reasons, they also deserve their fair share of resources from federal and state governments. I have a particular charter school in my district that illustrates this point perfectly.

Kanu o ka` Aina New Century Public Charter School (KANU) is located in the town of Kamuela on my home Island of Hawai`i. It has 150 students, 85 percent of which are Native Hawaiian. It is Hawai`i's first indigenous K-12 public charter schools. The level of commitment to this school from the community is awe-inspiring.

But it also faces major challenges. The school's director says that KANU's biggest challenge is funding equity and school construction funds. For the fiscal years 2001-2002 school year, KANU received $3,492.87 less per student than other public schools.

Because KANU has to make due with fewer funds, it cannot save money on the side for construction of new buildings to accommodate its growing population. KANU needs both federal and state resources for construction funding, but it is finding these resources scarce and, when found, hard to access.

KANU and Hawai`i's other charter schools, both existing and future, need their federal government to be clear and unequivocal in its continued support for the concept of charter schools. They also need full parity in funding between traditional public schools and charter schools. H. Res. 204 is welcome and needed, but these great words must be partnered with action.