James Hill: “if we listen to the debate on the left, we would think that only bureaucrats in Washington care about the kids, but I…”

“if we listen to the debate on the left, we would think that only bureaucrats in Washington care about the kids, but I can tell my colleagues that there are teachers and parents and school administrators in Montana that care more about the kids in Montana than anyone here in Washington. The debate here today, Dollars to the Classroom, is a simple debate. It is not a new idea, Madam Chairman; it is about taking dollars from the bureaucracy and giving it to our schools. Cutting the overhead is what we call it in business. But those who are defending the status quo, the establishment, say that we cannot reform education. They say that we should measure success by how many people we put to work in Washington. They say we should measure success by how many forms we require people to fill out or how many filing cabinets we put them in. The establishment says that we will measure our success by how much activity we generate. Reformers say, no, that we can measure our success by how well our kids are doing. Our kids can do better and need to do better, and we can do that by trusting local teachers, local school boards and holding schools accountable to their parents. Sending more dollars to the classroom will begin the process of shifting the emphasis away from Washington to our home towns, to our local schools, and to our kids. I urge my colleagues to support Dollars to the Classroom.”