Statement from the House Floor

By Rep. Cynthia McKinney

Well thank you, Mr. Chairman. I kind to want to-I won't take much time, but I want to change the thrust just a little bit, because I want to talk for half a minute about our "Education President." Now, it's my understanding, and I hope you will correct me where I'm wrong and you will amplify what needs to be amplified where we are right. But our education president has under-funded No Child Left Behind by $39 billion dollars.

Now, he's also cut technical education, cut student loans, cut the grants available to students who want to go to college.  So basically, the people who are making public policy in the Congress these days are a bit out of touch with the way the rest of us live.

Our children, and those of us who are still students, rely on the funding that's available in the budget so that we can have the workforce for tomorrow being prepared today. And that's not the case.  But the one thing I just want to say is, it's my understanding that all of these cuts in education can be likened to a student tax. So I'd like for you to amplify on that.

But I'd just like to say that we had a minor, modest victory in the state of Georgia just yesterday. Because the courts in the state of Georgia turned back a legislative initiative put forward by the Republican-controlled legislature and our Republican governor. That was the much maligned Voter I.D. Bill.

This Voter I.D. Bill would have put a two-tiered structure in place for people being able to vote. That was a poll tax and the poll tax was turned back. Now we've got a student tax, a learning tax. Could you please talk to us about the impact of these cuts on the ability of us to prepare our young people for tomorrow's jobs, but also how this becomes a learning tax on young people?