New Federal Education Subsidy. Republican Majority Leader Richard Armey, the author of this proposal, had to ignore one of his own \"axioms\" in order to introduce this measure: \"No one spends someone else\’s money as wisely as he spends his own.\"
Armey\’s proposal would establish a new $100 million per year federally funded grant program administered by the states for educational choice scholarships. The program would last five years and give parents of primary grade school children $3,500 toward placing their children in the public or private school of their choice — but only if the governor of the state declared their public school an \"academic emergency\" through a series of criteria laid out in Armey\’s amendment. The states would also have to report to the Secretary of Education on the progress of the federal scholarships that they distribute under their political control.
The measure, an amendment to H.R. 2, was rejected by the House on October 21, 1999 by a vote of 166-257 (Roll Call 521). We have assigned pluses to the nays.
