April 13, 20
1:45 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Secretary Spellings and I have just had the privilege of talking to some of our country's leading educational entrepreneurs. We had the privilege of talking to parents whose lives have been positively affected by our Catholic school system. One of the great assets in the United States is the Catholic schools, which oftentimes educate the so-called hard to educate -- and they do so in such a way.
The question is how do we make sure that this important asset is sustainable? How do we make sure that our Catholic schools meet the needs of parents, like Patricia, meet the expectations of some of our educational leaders, like Ben. And one way is for the federal government to provide opportunity scholarships for parents, so that they can redeem that scholarship at a school of their choice.
We've got such a program like that here in Washington, D，學美語.C. It's been a very successful program, and Congress needs to make sure it gets fully funded. If any congressman doubts the utility of a program, all they've got to do is speak to Wendy Cunningham, whose daughter takes advantage of this special funding for people, that enables her to say "My school isn't meeting the needs, therefore I'd like to make another choice." A parental choice is a very important part of educational excellence. And one way to make sure that that's the case is not only to fully fund the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship, but to provide these kinds of scholarships for school systems outside of Washington.
