Honoring the contributions of Catholic schools.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 492) honoring the contributions of Catholic schools.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H. Res. 492.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of House Resolution 492, offered by the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Vitter). This resolution honors the contributions of America's Catholic schools, which are dedicated to not only educating their students academically but to developing their moral, intellectual, physical, and social values.

January 25 through the 31 is Catholic Schools Week, an annual tradition jointly sponsored by the National Catholic Education Association and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and it is in its 30th year.

The purpose of this resolution and Catholic Schools Week is to celebrate the vital role that Catholic elementary and secondary schools play as they provide a values-added education with high standards of quality and excellence to many of America's children.

As President George W. Bush noted earlier this month in recognition of the National Catholic Education Association's 100th anniversary, ``Catholic educators share the basic conviction that every child can learn,'' a principle that we are extending to public education through the No Child Left Behind Act.

The President also pointed out that high expectations that characterize Catholic education have provided students with overwhelming results. More than 99 percent of students participating in Catholic education graduate from high school and the majority of those go on to college.

As a product of Catholic education from elementary school through my education at Xavier University, I have found that my foundation in Catholic education has helped me strengthen my sense of purpose in life and prepare me to achieve my goals. My home State of Ohio has more than 500 Catholic schools, including my alma mater, Moeller High School. In Ohio, the Catholic schools serve more than 180,000 students, including more than 56,000 students attending 135 Catholic schools in the archdiocese of Cincinnati that is part of my district.

I appreciate the great work being done by Catholic schools, their administrators and teachers, as well as their parents and volunteers. And as the President noted earlier this month, ``Catholic schools carry out a great mission, to serve God by building the knowledge and character of young people.'' I commend my colleague from Louisiana for introducing this resolution, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Hoekstra), the chairman of one of our subcommittees of the Committee on Education.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley).

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Vitter), the author of the resolution that we are considering.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of our time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank all my colleagues who have come to the floor today to help us celebrate Catholic Schools Week. As I said, not only am I a graduate of Catholic education, but so are my 11 brothers and sisters. If it were not for the commitment of my parents to send us to Catholic schools,

I do not think that we would be what we are today.

I cannot really go on much further in talking about Catholic education without admiring the work of Cardinal McCarrick here in Washington, D.C.

While there are many Catholic schools here in Washington, there are 13 very special Catholic schools here in Washington called the Consortium Schools that are in low-income neighborhoods. They are 95 percent minority, 80 percent non-Catholic. Cardinal McCarrick and the volunteers at the consortium have worked to keep those 13 schools open for the benefit of those children in those neighborhoods.

Last year, Senator Kennedy and I worked to help raise money to keep these 13 schools open. I made a commitment to go see all 13. I made it to four. I have got nine more to go. But there is amazing work that is going on at these 13 schools here in Washington where we all know the condition of the public schools. I just want to take a moment to thank Cardinal McCarrick and those at the City Consortium Schools for the work they are doing to help minority and poor children here in Washington, D.C.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, today, in honor of Catholic Schools Week (January 25-31, 2004), I would like to recognize the contributions of Catholic schools to the academic and moral education of children in Guam and throughout our nation. Also, I would like to thank my colleague, Mr. David Vitter, for his steadfast support of Catholic education in our country and for introducing House Resolution 492, honoring Catholic Schools Week.

Guam has a long and rich history of Roman Catholicism dating back to the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. The island eventually became an important stop along the Spanish Galleon Trade Route, eventually bringing Padre Diego Luis de San Vitores, who was on his way to the Philippines, to Guam.

Padre San Vitores would return to Guam in 1668, with a party of missionaries to bring Christianity to the people of Guam. They established a mission in the village of Hagatna which later became the site of the first Catholic Church and is now the seat of the Archdiocese of Guam. From these humble beginnings, the Roman Catholic faith has continued to grow, expanding its ministries to meet the changing needs of the faithful.

Recognizing the need for quality education rooted in the moral values of the Catholic faith, the first Bishop of Guam, Bishop Appollinaris Baumgartner invited the Religious Sisters of Mercy from North Carolina, the Stigmatine Fathers of Massachusetts, and the School Sisters of Notre Dame from Wisconsin to come to Guam where they eventually opened schools in villages throughout the island. Today, members of these Orders, as well as members of the Dominican, Franciscan, Jesuit, and Marist Orders continue to teach our children in the Catholic education system.

Guam's first Chamorro Bishop, Archbishop Felixberto Camacho Flores, made Catholic education a priority increasing the number of Catholic schools, expanding programs and improving school facilities.

Today, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hagatna remains committed to serving the people of Guam. Under the direction of the Most Reverend Anthony Sablan Apuron, OFM Cap, DD, Metropolitan Archbishop of Hagatna, the Catholic schools on Guam have remained committed to providing a quality academic education, grounded in faith and emphasizing service to humanity.

The contributions of the Catholic school system to the people of Guam are reflected in our local leaders in the clergy, government, and private-sector who are alumni of the Catholic schools. I am confident the influence of the Catholic schools will continue to have positive benefits for the people of Guam.

I would like to recognize and commend the Catholic schools in Guam for their commitment to instilling the principles of academic knowledge and sound moral values in the daily lives of our children. Those offering a secondary curriculum include: the Notre Dame High School in Talofofo, Father Duenas Memorial School in Ta'i, and Academy of Our Lady of Guam in Hagatna. Additionally, those offering an elementary and middle school education include: Bishop Baumgartener Memorial School in Sinajana, Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Agat, St. Anthony School in Tamuning, Saint Francis School in Yona, San Vicente School in Barrigada, and Santa Barbara School in Dededo. Finally, those offering a nursery school education include: the Dominican Child Care Development Center in Sinajana, Infant of Prague in Ta'i, Maria Artero in Hagatna, and Mercy Heights in Tamuning.

Finally, I want to recognize all the students, parents, teachers and administrators of Catholic schools in Guam and across the nation for their significant contributions to our society, both inside and outside of the classroom.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner) for bringing in resolution to the floor and to my colleague from Louisiana (Mr. Vitter), hopefully our next Senator from the great State of Louisiana, for proclaiming the importance of Catholic parochial education in our society and in our lives.

As a product of Sacred Heart School in Lake Worth, I remembered returning to that very classroom where the shock of my life at that time had been the assassination of President John Kennedy. We were in 4th grade. We were asked to pray and pray for our nation and for our assassinated president.

And after September 11th when I was equally shocked as the Nation was watching in horror the events unfolding in New York City, I returned that classroom for solace, for comfort, and for guidance.

Catholic education was a lot to me and to our family. My father started at Sacred Heart himself as a teacher, went on to Cardinal Newman to be a coach and earth science teacher, and then went on to the public school system where he retired from a school for troubled children.

Through his leadership and our parents' guidance and the church's blessing, it has meant a lot to all of our family as we learned life's lessons.

I recently attended St. Ann's school in West Palm Beach. Their students undertook on their own initiative an effort to send memorabilia and messages to our troops in Iraq. They gathered and worked together to do handiworks and crafts and essential items, care packages, if you will, to our troops only to find that nobody would take the packages. Not UPS, did not fly there, not FedEx. There was no way to get all of their hard work accomplished. They called our office. Thanks to the hard work of our staff, they repacked the boxes, asked the Department of Defense for permission and were able to load those packages on to a flight heading to Iraq.

I recently went to the school and thanked the children for their extraordinary efforts and thinking of our troops first over the holiday period. And they read for me a number of the letters that were sent back by our personnel in the field. It was heartwarming to see the interaction between soldier and student.

Ave Maria is a new university contemplated and soon to be constructed in Ft. Myers, Florida, the first Catholic university to be built in the country in 40 years. I commend our community for being lucky to have a Catholic University soon in our presence.

Catholic schools are important to the fiber and foundation of our Nation. They give every child a chance to pray in class, which is a unique and novel thing, one I welcome and urge other non-parochial schools to participate in. Because, after all, after September 11th the one thing that lifted the soul of the Nation and gave us courage to fight on in the days ahead was, in fact, our collective prayer, our willingness and wishes for a better world for all Americans and all inhabitants of the world.

So I salute the author of the amendment, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Vitter), our colleague, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner), the chairman, and all who will join with us today in, again, saluting the importance of Catholic education in our daily lives.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of House Resolution 492, which recognizes Catholic Schools Week and honors Catholic schools for the important role that they play in educating America's children.

Catholic schools will provide a high quality and innovative education for over 2.5 million students this year, serving a diverse group of students from many social and economic backgrounds. Catholic schools educate racially and ethnically diverse students, children who live in inner cities, urban and rural communities, children who are not Catholic, and even students with disabilities.

These schools excel not only in bringing students with different needs and backgrounds, but they also graduate 99 percent of their student population and send 97 percent of their student body to post- secondary institutions of higher education.

This academic excellence is coupled with very low per-pupil expenditures which stems from the Catholic's Church's willingness and commitment to invest in students and in local communities. Over 84 percent of Catholic schools provide tuition assistance to their students to enable low income parents to send their children to these high-achieving schools.

Catholic schools have demonstrated a commitment to teaching every child believing that each child can and will learn. When school choice initiatives have become the law in States and communities across the country, Catholic schools have opened their arms and their doors to parents and children seeking alternative educational options.

My home State of Michigan has the ninth largest Catholic school enrollment in the country, with 320 Catholic schools educating more than 88,000 students through preschools, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools and after-school programs. In my Congressional district, I have many large and small Catholic schools in urban and rural communities, some schools that specialize in elementary educations and others that educate students during their middle school and high school years.

Catholic schools are widely recognized for their academic distinction. However, I am proud to praise their achievement in meeting the needs of the entire student. Catholic schools build character in our young people and seek to educate the spiritual, intellectual, social, and cultural components of each person while developing an attitude of servant leadership among their students.

Through their insistence on teaching children values, Catholic schools challenge students to live moral and compassionate lives. By insisting on high academic standards and innovative teaching methods, Catholic schools are models of academic excellence for all teachers and schools in this Nation.

I join my colleagues in recognizing Catholic schools week and in congratulating the schools, students, parents and teachers in West Michigan and throughout the Nation for their ongoing commitment to a high-quality education for all of our children.

I would also like to thank the Catholic educational system for the fine work that they did in shaping our chairman, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner).

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Res. 492, a resolution honoring the contributions of Catholic schools and supporting the goals of Catholic Schools Week.

The accomplishments of Catholic schools and their tremendous impact on students and communities throughout the nation is evident in the Fifth Congressional District of Illinois, where schools like St. Ferdinand Catholic Elementary, St. Patrick High School, and Notre Dame High School for Girls provide a quality education while instilling values that will serve their students throughout their lives. These schools provide strong academic curriculums and engender significant parental involvement. They not only teach students the importance of academic achievement, but also provide a balanced perspective on life that promotes responsibility, justice and social service.

Catholic schools also promote ethnic and racial diversity. Increasing numbers of children in Catholic schools in my district come from our minority communities. Students in Catholic schools achieve exceptionally high graduation rates, with increasing numbers advancing to higher education and giving back to the community through volunteer service.

It is also important to recognize that the Catholic school experience fosters more than just scholastic excellence. It provides spiritual guidance to students by encouraging fundamental ideals and an appreciation for family values, community service, and faith in their own lives. This, in turn, shapes Catholic school students into leaders of tomorrow.

I want to take this opportunity to applaud the recent accomplishments of two teachers at a Catholic school in my district--Mother Theodore Guerin High School in River Grove, Illinois--who have been recognized for their outstanding service to their students and to their community. Sister Adelaide Ortegal received the Dr. Nathan Jones Special Achievement Award last October. This honor is awarded to educators for their outstanding work with African-American students. Sister Ortegal has taught Art for thirty years and is the sponsor of the African- American Club at Mother Guerin.

I also want to recognize Mary Stephany, a social science teacher at Mother Guerin who has been chosen as an Ambassador to Chicago's Field Museum for 2003-2004. In this role, Ms. Stephany will be a liaison for her school, serve on education advisory committees to the museum, and mentor other teachers.

I thank these two outstanding individuals as well as all of the dedicated Catholic school teachers in my district for their love of learning and their devotion to their students.

Mr. Speaker, I support this important resolution and encourage Catholic schools in my district and across the United States to continue contributing to the development of strong moral, intellectual and social values in America's young people. I thank my colleague, Representative Vitter, for introducing this resolution, and I thank the National Catholic Educational Association and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for their sponsorship of Catholic Schools Week.