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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 600) congratulating charter schools and their students, parents, teachers, and administrators across the United States for their ongoing contribution to education, and for other purposes, as amended.

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. 600.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Ehlers).

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 600. This resolution honors and congratulates our Nation's charter schools and the students, parents, teacher administrators, and other individuals involved for their hard work and dedication to providing a quality public education. This week, May 3 through May 7, has been designated National Charter School Week. It is during this week that charter school organizations and others around the United States honor these schools for their continued contributions to education.

The Nation's charter schools deliver high-quality education and challenge students to reach their potential. Forty-one States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have passed laws authorizing charter schools. Since the first charter school law was passed in 1991, almost 3,000 charter schools now serve nearly 750,000 students in 37 States and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Specifically, I am honored to mention the 14 charter schools in Nevada that serve nearly 3,000 students. Nevada first passed charter school legislation in 1997, with our first charter school opening in the 1998-1999 school year. The State charter school legislation was revised again in 1999, lending teachers more room for creativity in allowing charter schools the ability to offer an extended school day, as well as an extended school year.

I commend the charter schools in the State of Nevada and across the Nation for recognizing the immense need for improved education and for their commitment to improving student achievement for students who attend these schools. At charter schools nationwide, almost half the students are considered at-risk or are former dropouts. Charter schools serve significant numbers of minority students, students with disabilities, and students that are from lower-income families. These schools give opportunity and freedom to students and parents who otherwise might not have had the chance to receive a quality education.

Nearly 40 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 across the country. By allowing parents and students to choose their public school, charter schools can stimulate change and improvement in all public schools and benefit all public school students.

In exchange for flexibility and autonomy, public charter schools are held accountable by their sponsors for improving student achievement and for their administration. 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 higher and additional individual goals to ensure that they are of high quality and truly accountable to the public.

Charter schools have enjoyed broad bipartisan support from the administration, the Congress, State Governors and legislatures, educators and parents across the Nation. The fifth annual National Charter Schools Week held this week, May 3 through May 7, recognizes the significant impacts, achievements, and innovations of our Nation's charter schools. Through this resolution, Congress today acknowledges and commends the charter school movement and charter schools, students, teachers and parents and administrators across the United States for their ongoing contributions to education and improving and strengthening our Nation's public school system.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Green).

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Res. 600, a resolution congratulating charter schools across the United States and their students, parents, teachers and administrators of such schools for their ongoing contributions to education.

Charter schools represent a grand experiment which relies upon innovation and creativity found within American society. Since charter schools are often small and independent, they are able to focus on new approaches for teaching and preparing students for their place in our rapidly changing world. Charter schools often deliver high-quality education and challenge students to reach their potential. Charter schools can be vehicles for improving student achievement and for stimulating change in all educational settings including public schools.

Almost 2,700 charter schools serve students across the Nation, and these schools are found in 41 States, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. In Michigan, there are over 210 operational charter schools and even more approved to open during the 2004-2005 school year.

I would especially like to commend one innovative and entrepreneurial charter school pioneer in my district, Mr. J.C. Huizenga. He founded National Heritage Academies in 1995 with a vision to create a network of K-8 schools that offer a common-sense approach to education. The cornerstones of this approach include rigorous academics, a strong virtue-based character development program, active parental involvement, and a high degree of accountability.

Mr. Huizenga and his National Heritage Academies operate 39 schools in 5 States and serve nearly 21,000 students.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting and congratulating charter schools.

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to take a few moments to respond to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) regarding the extraneous comments he inserted in the debate on the previous measure. He commented that the legislature in Ohio and others there agree that No Child Left Behind is underfunded.

Mr. Speaker, I served in the Michigan legislature for 11 years. During all that time, I never met any legislator who ever felt that the Federal Government was properly funding or overfunding anything.

It is the character of State legislators and State legislatures to believe that the Federal Government should be sending them more money. That simple statement about the Ohio legislature is no indication whatsoever of the truth of the situation.

The truth is that Federal funding for education has more than doubled over the past 8 years. The truth is that if we look at the charts of the funding under No Child Left Behind of this Congress and compare it with the funding under the previous program, we are doing extremely well. It is almost an exponential increase compared to the relatively flat funding prior to that.

Similarly for IDEA funding; if we look at the history of that, IDEA funding was struggling along at a few billion dollars per year for a number of years. Since the Republicans took over, we have quadrupled the amount of funding for IDEA to $10 billion in fiscal year 2004.

The facts are, the Republicans have been very generous with the funding of No Child Left Behind and IDEA, and attempts to say otherwise are simply falsifying the facts and I think are for political purposes and should not have been inserted in the discussion of the military schools debate.

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

The gentleman from Michigan makes a valid point. We are spending more on education, but there are more mandates that have been placed on these local schools, and the money that we have given has not equaled the amount that is needed to fulfill the obligations that the Federal Government wants to impose on the local school districts and the States.

I was in the State legislature, too. I know State legislators want more Federal money; there is no doubt about that, and I apologize to the gentleman from Nevada. We are getting a little off the point here, but my point was that here we have a Republican-controlled legislature, we have a Republican State for the most part controlled by Republican- elected officials, soon to become a Democratic State in the fall, but a Republican State controlled, and my point is that the Department of Education in Ohio is not going to throw it back in the Republican Congress' face and criticize them unnecessarily so. So if anything, it was a proper analysis of the funding that was needed.

Back to H. Res. 600. I do rise, Mr. Speaker, in support of H. Res. 600, a resolution congratulating public charter schools for their ongoing contribution to our educational system.

The first charter school opened its doors in 1992 in Minnesota; and since that time, the number of charter schools has grown. While they only educate a small portion of all children that attend public schools, these schools have added to the importance and purpose of our public school systems. The truly great aspect of our

country's educational system is its public schools. Whether it is charter schools or traditional public schools, all of our public schools exist to educate our Nation's children.

America cannot succeed without a robust and successful public school system. Charter schools are one important part of this system.

I do want to say that this is not a resolution of us agreeing to abandon the traditional public schools, abandon funding for the traditional public schools at both a local, State level, and at Federal level. This is not that resolution.

We do want to commend all the hardworking teachers and principals and leaders in the schools and the kids who go to these schools as students who attend. They are great kids. I have had an opportunity to meet with them and speak with them. They are great kids who deserve all the respect and admiration that this body can give them.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).

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

We support this resolution. We appreciate the gentleman's efforts on this. I want to make perfectly clear that we want to show our support and congratulate the public charter schools for their contributions to the system, and say what great students and kids they have, and how we want to support them and their families. This is not a resolution to abandon our traditional public schools, but to show our support for charter schools.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time and for his work in bringing this bill forward and the gentleman on the other side as well.

I strongly support this resolution. The first Federal bill for charter schools was a bill for the District of Columbia only. I worked with Newt Gingrich on this bill when he was Speaker and when he knew that the District of Columbia opposed vouchers. Instead, he worked with me on a charter school bill, and charter schools took off in the District of Columbia as they have in no other jurisdiction today.

The District of Columbia has the largest number of charter schools. I could not be more proud of these schools. They are an alternative public school system. They are accountable to us in the same way that the District of Columbia public schools are.

This morning in the other body in the Senate, a hearing was held on charter schools in our city as a part of the D.C. appropriation. The interesting thing about the voucher fight that took place just a few months ago is that my own constituents who came in to see me, who wanted vouchers, many of them said to me that the reason that they were supporting a voucher bill is that there was such a long line of backlog in the charter schools that they did not believe their children could get into the charter schools.

I then begged the Congress to give any extra money it had to our charter schools since our council had passed a bill in favor of charter schools, our council was giving money to charter schools; and, instead, the Congress decided to make the District of Columbia the only jurisdiction in the United States to have vouchers imposed on it while the Congress itself has refused to impose private school vouchers on the country.

I invite the Congress to visit the charter schools of the District of Columbia and come see what a public school system can do in addressing the need for alternatives to public schools, as I believe there are. There are people who oppose charter schools. I think that is an unacceptable position. If, in fact, the public school the child attends is not satisfactory to that parent, there should be a public school alternative for that parent. That is exactly what the District of Columbia has. A series of public school alternatives, side by side, are our public schools.

I am proud of Arts and Technology, SEED, Friendship Edison, Cesar Chavez, Carlos Rosario, Tree of Life, Capital City, Howard Road, and KIPP to name just a few of the charter schools in the District of Columbia. We have almost 1,400 youngsters attending D.C. charter schools. The next time my colleagues want a voucher, if they come and see the charter schools in the District, they will get cured of that disease.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of H. Res. 600, congratulating charter schools and their students, parents, teachers,

and administrators across the United States for their ongoing contributions to education. This week is the fifth annual National Charter School Week and provides a great opportunity for Congress to recognize and honor charter schools and those involved for the role they play in reforming and improving our nation's public education system.

Charter schools are public schools that agree to improved academic achievement and accountability in financial and other operations, in exchange for increased flexibility and independence. The greater autonomy allows charter schools to focus on increasing academic achievement in each student, rather than bureaucratic paperwork. Charter schools must meet all the same No Child Left Behind achievement goals as other public schools.

Charter schools are adept at meeting the specific needs of the local community in which they are located, especially in low-income communities. Nationwide, almost half of charter schools serve students considered at-risk or who have previously dropped out of school. Charter school students share similar demographic characteristics with students in all public schools, and serve significant numbers of students from low income families, minority students, and students with disabilities.

This being the case, charter schools allow many parents and students freedom of choice that otherwise would not be available, enabling them to improve their lives with a quality education. In addition, increased flexibility allows charter schools to use varied educational methods and techniques while still remaining accountable for results.

Charter schools have benefited from a strong degree of bipartisan support from the local, state, and national levels. This is evidenced by the efforts of both Republicans and Democrats in Congress when they expanded access to charter schools through the No Child Left Behind legislation. In the two years since the enactment of that legislation, Congress and the President have provided at least $200 million dollars annually to assist in the financing of new charter schools and to provide additional aid to existing schools.

It is important for Congress to recognize, through this resolution honoring National Charter Schools Week, the benefits charter schools and those involved have brought to our education system and to our nation at large. I thank my colleague from Nevada, Mr. Porter, for introducing this resolution, and I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.