Chaka Fattah

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, is there some list of which religiously affiliated schools would be eligible?

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, that is my question. I would not understand that there are any accrediting procedures for religious schools now in the District. And if there are, I would be interested in knowing that.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I was going to offer an amendment, but I decided due to the lack of time not to offer it at this time.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Let me say to the gentleman from Virginia that I think it gives some example of the weakness of the proposal when we have to go to, well, they gave some contract and it is being investigated. The Defense Department has given out contracts that have become fraudulent. So I do not see us privatizing our Nation's defense because of some malfeasance with one particular contract. Let us not get into anecdotal situations. Let us deal with the reality, which is the public school system is a public good. It is important to the entire community. It is not just about educating one child; it is about what we see as the need to promote values for the entire community. When you privatize public education, you create very parochial, selfish interests. This school in Florida in which the principals have now been indicted with these terrorist leanings, this is not some joke, this is not some example of a red herring. This is reality, in the news today about what has happened when the State of Florida provided public dollars to private institutions. There have been similar scandals in other places around the country, and there will be, I guarantee you, because the majority will probably have its way, when this program gets set up there will be scandals here because of this program. That is not what makes it bad, because some people will use it improperly. What makes it bad is what it says about the public spirit of our actions, which is that we would rather take 2,000 children and siphon them off into private schools, rather than repair a school system that can provide for 70,000 children, which really should be our goal. We are going to build 1,500 new schools in Iraq at the cost of billions, but here we are scrapping on the floor of the House about $10 million for the District of Columbia, our capital city. It is a question about what our priorities are. I would hope for the District quality teachers, smaller class sizes, updated textbooks. That is what I believe the solution is, not vouchers.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Let me just make a couple of comments. A basic understanding of how the city government operates is that the mayor is the executive. City policy is designed by a consensus between the council and a majority and the executive through statute. There is nothing that prevents the D.C. Government at any time from instituting a voucher program if it wants to. There does not exist a political consensus in the District; that is, the legislative body, which we should have great sympathy for as we are a legislative body, does not agree with this policy. So to say, well, you have got the city's support because you have the mayor, ask us if you have the full support of the city government when you actually do not. It is important that as we say that we come with great concern about the plight of the children in the District and that we want them to have the same opportunity that our children have, let us give them the same opportunity that the constituents of the gentleman from Virginia have. That is, they have quality schools with fully-qualified, credentialed teachers. Let us take these dollars and provide that here in the District. They have schools that have updated curriculums and adequate libraries and school counselors for all of the children who are presented to the schoolhouse door, not taking a few children, siphoning them off and helping them, and forsaking the rest to a District that by his own statement is not living up to what we would hope it would live up to. So this question of diverting public dollars for a private school and schools is a very important one about what we really believe. If we want to truly help these children, let us do for them what we are doing for other children, and that is provide quality public schools in the District of Columbia so that these children and future generations of them can benefit because we already know that that works. It works right in the gentleman from Virginia's (Mr. Tom Davis) district. It works today. Vouchers have not been proven to work anywhere in the country, and why experiment on the future life chances of these children here in the District? Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Watson).

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I want to make a couple of points. One is that it is true that the mayor has come out in favor of this approach, assuming that there would be dollars for our public schools and charter schools, in what we now call the three-prong approach. The three-prong approach is not what is before us at all, and I sincerely believe the chairman when he says that we hope in conference that we can address that. But the vote before us today is to do nothing additional for public schools, nothing additional for charter schools and solely and singularly take dollars and to provide them to private institutions. I personally think that private school choice is wonderful and if people want to make private choices, I think they should pay for them privately. This is a public enterprise and we have to make public choices. If we have got 70,000 children in a school system that lacks fully-qualified teachers, we should take every penny we can find and get them fully-qualified teachers; that if they lack libraries, we should get them libraries, and so forth and so on. We know what we need to make public schools work. They work right outside of the District of Columbia today, in Fairfax County, in Alexandria. They work. You put quality teachers in the classroom, you put a limited class size, you give them updated textbooks, and kids learn. Why do we not do that in the District? Why do we not give to them what we provide to other children rather than give them some unproven, newfangled idea that nobody has any indication will work? The gentleman who just spoke, my colleague from Florida, Florida just had an embarrassment where they had vouchers going to some outfit who, it is at least alleged, was involved in terrorism activity. When you have these uncontrolled, unregulated vouchers, you can have everything from the David Duke Academy getting dollars to anything that anybody else can dream up. We need to be careful as we go forward because all we are looking forward to here is for some kind of embarrassment. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes, even though I only promised him 2\1/ 2\, to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cardin).

Mr. FATTAH. Reclaiming my time, it is well known that the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham), unlike many other Members, has sought and stayed on this committee and has made a real contribution at the waterfront, and I am aware of his efforts in terms of this particular type of cancer. I would tell him in terms of the sewer system and the infrastructure in the District of Columbia, there are tremendous needs. I understand the President will be down soon with a $13 billion request to rebuild the sewer system in Iraq with taxpayer money. Maybe there might be a few pennies left that we can do something more to help in our own capital city; but Members should not hold their breath because I am sure we will be told there is not enough money to address these domestic concerns. The question of vouchers is an important one, and I am going to yield to the Member who has the most to say about this. As the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham) said, really there is not a lot of disagreement because if somebody wants this, it should not be outlawed. But the question here in the District of Columbia was there was a referendum. The voters have spoken. They do not want vouchers. Mr. Chairman, I yield 8 minutes to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) to address the bill and any particular concerns the gentlewoman wants to beyond that.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, could we have an audit of the time? We will not have audits of these private schools.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and let me start by thanking the chairman of the subcommittee, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Frelinghuysen). This chairman, I think in the ways most remembered of Julian Dixon, has taken the helm and worked hard, been sensitive to the issues arising here in the capital city. He has been out and about visiting and visibly showing the concern of the Congress for the plight of the city's neighborhoods. I think he most appropriately understands and appreciates the work that the city's leadership, the Mayor and the council and its delegate, the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton), have done to rescue the city from its fiscal constraints from years ago. Mr. Chairman, I worked with the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis) in creating the financial control board, which was modeled after the PICA Board that we instituted in Philadelphia that I sponsored in the legislature then, and it has worked well here in the District. The district is now on its own and has done a tremendous job in righting the ship. The chairman understands and appreciates the superb leadership that superintendent Paul Vance has brought to the school district and the board of education here in Washington, D.C., and I just want to thank the chairman, thank his staff, particularly Carol Murphy, who has shepherded at the helm the work of the majority staff, and I would also like to thank Rob Nabors on the Democratic appropriations staff and William Miles from my personal staff that have worked on D.C.-related matters. We come here today with a bill in which there will be a lot of attention on what we disagree on, and we disagree on one item, that of vouchers; but I do not want that to overshadow the fact that this bill, absent that one disagreement, is a very significant accomplishment and it is owed solely to the leadership of the chairman and his capable political skills and bringing to a consensus how we should address a whole host of issues affecting our capital city. This is, I think without disagreement, in the world's only remaining superpower, the wealthiest country in the world, this is our capital city, and it is a symbol in every important way to world visitors, foreign leaders, and to those who look upon this Nation as to where our priorities are. So it is important work that the Congress does. And as we seek to promote democracy in other places, I know that we hope one day here in the District that American citizens who pay taxes and who are dying on foreign battlefields will have democracy here in the District and be able to have on the floor of this House not just a voice but a vote. Mr. Chairman, today I commend the chairman for this bill. I think it addresses the critical issues in important ways. He has fought for an allocation that some may have some issues with, but it is representative of approaching what we need to address the District's problems; and I thank him and his staff for their work. Mr. Chairman, I hope we can enter into the general debate and move through this bill, have a passionate discussion about the question of vouchers but not overlook the fact that we have broad agreement here on the direction of what our fiscal responsibilities are to the District of Columbia. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume to thank the gentleman from California for his comments and his work on the committee, and indeed it is because of the leadership that he has brought that a great deal of progress has happened in terms of the waterfront.

Mr. FATTAH. I yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens). (Mr. OWENS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, if the gentleman would yield for 10 seconds on that point. The gentleman says here in section 9, notwithstanding any other provision of the law, the school could employ, the participating school may employ anybody that they believe----

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, so it is the gentleman's intention that there would be created, because there is none now, lists of what would be approved, accredited religious schools?

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I am not trying to be argumentative.

Mr. FATTAH. Well, as I would understand the facts at the moment, that is why I am asking, there is no accrediting process for religiously- affiliated schools K to 12 in the District today, and there is none that is created by your language?

Mr. FATTAH. So the gentleman understands that there is a list or that somewhere in this language it gives the Department authority to create such a list?

Mr. FATTAH. Which one is it, the former or the latter?

Mr. FATTAH. So are there certain religious affiliations that would be acceptable and others that would not?

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time, all of the lawsuits on this matter, or at least the vast majority, have been about the Federal prison system, in which the courts have been, I would say, very lenient in determining what is a religion, and all manner of groups with any number of, I think, what most of us would consider problematic beliefs have been determined to be religions for purposes under the definition by the Federal courts. So would that be the same in terms of how this would operate?

Mr. FATTAH. I read the list of the educational standards, all related to education, and I think the gentleman has done a good job on that. I am just concerned about this particular issue, and I guess so that the record can be clear, your position is that there is no restriction in the authorizing language as you have written it?

Mr. FATTAH. I want to enter into the Record a report from California, not the earlier report I referenced from Florida, of a school that was set up under the laws of California that received millions and millions of dollars to educate children, and it has now been determined that they were funded and founded and set up by a Pakistani terrorist organization. I want to enter this into the Record, because I think what the concern is here is that if those who believe in witchcraft, those who have antisocial racial views, any number of people who claim to be a religion can set up a religiously affiliated school and benefit through the largesse of this $10 million and pretend that they are educating children, segregate them, as I understand under the gentleman's authorizing language by sex or any other manner, hire only those who believe what they believe, discriminate against anyone else, and determine their own curriculum, that I have a concern about, even if we agree that this was the way to go, that this kind of loophole would be useful to us at this time in our Nation's capital. [From ABC News I-Team] Baladullah Nov. 8.--The ABC7 News I-Team has learned that millions of your tax dollars are headed this year, to a group that is connected to an organization founded by a Pakistani terrorist. You are paying for a new system of charter schools, started by the members of an Islamic village in the Sierra foothills called ``Baladullah.'' Dan Noyes has Part Two of this I-Team investigation. The ABC7 News I-Team has learned that millions of your tax dollars are headed this year to a group that is connected to an organization founded by a Pakistani terrorist. You are paying for a new system of charter schools, started by the members of an Islamic village in the Sierra foothills called ``Baladullah.'' Dan Noyes has Part Two of this I-Team investigation. Some of these charter schools are here in the Bay Area. We want to be clear from the start that this is not a story about the Muslim faith. It is about one group of people living just a few hours from the Bay Area, who have ties to a mysterious Pakistani sheik. The U.S. State Department has listed Pakistani sheik Sayyid Mubarik Jilani as the founder of a terrorist group that has committed dozens of crimes across the country--firebombings, fraud, and assassinations. And in a recruitment tape, Jilani offers to train any American who will join his cause. Sheik Jilani: ``We shall be helping Muslims wherever they are oppressed, and we wish that you'd extend your cooperation with us in any manner suitable to the cause.'' Jilani also established ``Muslims of America'' to help spread his version of Islam. Late last year, the group moved its headquarters to a village in the Sierra foothills called Baladullah--along with the mobile homes, the airstrip, and the U-Haul franchise. Male Teacher: ``We move the decimal point in the divisor. How many times to the right?'' The compound has a new charter school. It's a way for the state to provide an alternative form of education, paid for with your tax dollars. Sharon Brooks, Assistant Administrator: ``We're teaching our children because we want them to be doctors and lawyers and judges and architects. We don't want them to be ditch diggers.'' Student: ``The administrators would not discuss their connection to Muslims of America or Sheik Jilani. So, we asked their attorney about the charter school.'' Doug Hurt: ``It is one small site, it has 25-50 kids at any given time.'' Dan: ``Is that it?'' Dan: ``How about the eleven other campuses for the charter?'' Doug Hurt: ``What interest is that of yours?'' This year--under the name ``Gateway Academy''--the village opened twelve charter schools up and down the state . . . including one in Oakland and in Sunnyvale. All the schools are chartered through the Fresno Unified School District, where officials had expected Gateway to run just a few schools in the area. All those satellite schools came as a surprise. Jill Marmolejo, Fresno Unified: ``They're running along doing their business and then informing us after the fact, so we told them in the future, before you open any satellites you have to get it approved through us.'' Jill Marmolejo says it appears Gateway Academy has done nothing illegal by opening schools across the state, but it has put a tremendous strain on Fresno School District inspectors. They now have to travel hundreds of miles, to check up on the schools. Jill Marmolejo: ``We're not specialists in Oakland, we're not specialists in Pomona, so we're relying on them to do the right things.'' And to do the right thing with millions of your tax dollars. Gateway Academy reports it has 1,200 students now, so they will receive more than $5.5 million this year. And that's on top of more than a million they spent last year, setting up the charter schools. Jonathan Bernstein: ``We have serious concerns about this group.'' Researchers at the Anti-Defamation League have been tracking Sheik Jilani for almost 20 years, and now, they are worried about Baladullah's charter schools. They have no evidence that your tax dollars are headed from a village in Tulare County . . . to the terrorist's base in Pakistan. But, in general, the ADL is concerned about where the charter school money is going. Jonathan Bernstein: ``We feel like these funds can land up in the hands of extremists.'' The lawyer for Baladullah says the people here are not extremists. And, he denied any direct connection between the village and Jilani--or even the group the sheik founded, Muslims of America. Doug Hurt: ``In that they are Muslims and they live in America, I would say so, but are they formally connected, is there an entity, no, not as far as I'm aware.'' But the president and treasurer of Muslims of America list their home address as Baladullah. And the secretary of Muslims of America--Khadijah Ghafur--is also the president of the charter schools. That connection between the schools and Jilani's group troubles the principal at the branch in Sunnyvale. Mazhar Jamil: ``I am surprised. This is the first time I have heard anything like this.'' Mazhar Jamil has run a school on this site for six years-- he has just signed on with Baladullah's Gateway Academy. But now, he says he has to rethink that relationship . . . because of the ties between the schools, the village, and the sheik. Mazhar Jamil: ``We have no connection or desire to be affiliated with anything like that.'' We want to emphasize that Muslims of America has not appeared on any terrorist watch list. Sheik Jilani has, along with his group al-Fuqra. Gateway Academy is the only charter school in the Fresno district that has more than one location, and most of them are outside the county. As a result of our reports, Fresno Assemblyman Mike Briggs plans to introduce a new bill, so that a group can open charter schools ``only'' in the county where they live.

Mr. FATTAH

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, the HOPE VI program, which received a very significant allocation last year in this bill, has only a $50 million allocation. Part of the rationale for not aggressively supporting what is the most successful neighborhood revitalization program and the largest in our country is that there is in the pipeline some projects that have not moved as quickly as we might want them to. I met with the officials at HUD, and my staff has interacted with any number of people since we have become aware of this problem, and I am convinced that part of the problem, which was identified by the GAO in a study done, is that HUD has backed away from and withdrawn services and support, including the use of expediters to move these projects through the pipeline. So I have offered an amendment to substantially increase technical assistance from $500,000 to $5 million to help move these projects through the pipeline. Hopefully, as we go between now and conference, because a lot of Members are very interested in HOPE VI on a bipartisan basis, we would like to see this subcommittee find a way, and I know that the chairman and my ranking member would work with us on this, to try to see how we could have a greater commitment to seeing this program move forward. It is also up for reauthorization. But I think at a minimum, at least at this moment, the one thing that the House should do is to substantially increase technical assistance and say to HUD that we want the communities around this country that receive HOPE VI grants to have the type of expertise that they need to be able to make those projects go and to go as quickly as possible so that we never again have any rationale offered that projects previously funded that are desperately needed are not moving as quickly as some might want them to. I have talked both with the majority and the minority, Mr. Chairman, and I believe this amendment might find acceptance.

Mr. FATTAH. I yield to the gentleman from New York.