Bob Schaffer: “Flexibility is the desire here. The amendment certainly achieves more of it rather than less of it in relation to the…”

“Flexibility is the desire here. The amendment certainly achieves more of it rather than less of it in relation to the rest of the bill. Flexibility, Mr. Chairman, should be something upon which we all insist here in this Chamber. Flexibility was the cornerstone of the President's plan when he first introduced it, the Leave No Child Behind proposal that we have all seen, that we have all worked off of. But this plan has been left behind by the Committee on Education and the Workforce and in the bill that is before us. What I mean by that is the flexibility component, what is called Straight A's, or as the President referred to it, Charter States, was taken out of this bill. The flexibility provisions are essentially gone. There was another provision dealing with choice, the portability of title I funds, that the President mentions in his plan and that Secretary Paige forcefully advocated before the committee. But that provision was taken out in the first amendment that the committee considered. So at this point, the question becomes, how can we as a legislative body here on the floor reinstitute as much flexibility for States as we possibly can?”