Asa Hutchinson: “as I began my remarks, I was not trying to play dirty pool, or something, as the Senator from Massachusetts has…”

“as I began my remarks, I was not trying to play dirty pool, or something, as the Senator from Massachusetts has suggested. The rules are the rules. The rules allow me to offer a second-degree amendment. As I expressed at the very beginning, I think there is a big philosophic difference as to how we improve education in this country because I don't believe that a Federal program of 100,000 new teachers is the best way to do it. It doesn't mean that I somehow am playing dirty pool. We have a great difference of opinion as to what is the best approach. Everybody stands up and says what we want in this case is to just lower the class size and we are going to have better schools. No one deals with the figures. No one deals with the facts that I have given. I wish somebody would. The Department of Education gives us figures saying from 1955, when the class size average was 27 in this country until the current time when the average size is 18.5 in elementary, 17.3 overall, that we have seen class size drop now by over 10 per class size. During the same 40-year period, we have seen academic achievement decrease. Furthermore, I wish somebody would explain this to me. Here in Washington, DC, we have one of the lowest average class sizes in the Nation--13. Yet, our Nation's Capital ranks near the bottom in academic achievement. If this is the solution, why 100,000? Let's hire 200,000, if the solution to education in this country is getting class sizes down.”