It seems to me, first of all, the most important premise is to establish the fact that for those of us who oppose national testing, our opponents on the other side, that is the President and Secretary Riley and the educational experts and…

I want to conclude by saying that national testing is one of those ideas where the proponents believe that Washington knows best and I suggest they are wrong. Washington does not know best how to educate your children in your school or my…

I simply want to make clear to everybody who might be listening tonight across America that this issue will be decided within the next few days to few weeks here in the U.S. Congress, in the House and in the Senate. If they do not think a…

I want to bring this back home. There is a woman who teaches at Arizona State University in Phoenix, AZ, and in Tempe, AZ, who is a scholar herself and quite an expert in education. Her name is Marianne Jennings. She has written a…

I do oppose national testing. I think it is dead wrong for America. I think when the national testing would be a national math exam for eighth graders, that does not have a single question on it which requires the student to demonstrate he…

It may be well-intended, but it has the potential to be a disaster. If we write one test in Washington and it is bad, we will not be able to change it for decades to come. In a global economy, we will perhaps be handicapped.

It is a basic character of human nature to take possession of your own ideas. If you get involved in your own school and in your own children's education and you start working on making their education better, you are going to work at it…

Reclaiming my time, he has already developed the test, as near as I can see. He proposed it here on the floor of the House in his State of the Union address in January, and now they already have, as I have talked about earlier this night…

Mere coincidence. We are leaping to conclusions. ``These were clearly not fund-raisers.'' They will call them fund-raisers in their database, but that was a goof.

In any free society, we can only survive if people, largely voluntarily, choose to comply with the law. That is, in a democracy, the success or failure of that democracy is dependent upon respect for the law and respect for the government…

Of course. But one last point I want to make on this that is also humorous is that while the news spin was that these were, in fact, clearly not fund-raisers, and indeed nothing in the tape shows the President saying, ``give me the…

Only a lot more expensive. And the fascinating thing is, well, all 44 coffees also happened to be hit under the same computer system for DNC fund-raisers. Now, let me see, the White House spin machine has been saying these were not…

Well, certainly I have not. Indeed, perhaps the first laws enacted in the world are laws against murder, therefore the oldest, certainly laws we ought to respect before any other. The notion that an old law is due less deference than a new…

They would be revealing this information, answering these questions about themselves to be handed over to the school and for the school to use for whatever purpose they chose?

It would keep the power in the hands of the President to create a monument of over 50,000 acres?

I have back home in Arizona right now a 13-year-old daughter who is a freshman at Thunderbird High School in the Phoenix area, excuse me, a sophomore, and struggling to get through her education this year, and to try to get into the best…

I simply want to point out and express my appreciation to the gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. Vento], my friend, for his candor in his remarks in support of this particular amendment. He said, and I quote quite directly, ``This leaves the…

That is scary in and of itself. One of the proposals by the Senate was to give this test writing responsibility to an organization called the National Assessment Governing Board. The idea behind the Senate proposal is we will take it out…

I compliment both my friend, the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Neumann] and the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Souder] for bringing out and emphasizing for all of our listeners the importance of curtailing spending. That is indeed critically…

This is the whole question about who is going to write the test, who is going to decide what our children learn. Like the gentleman from Wisconsin, I trust the parents and the teachers and the administrators and, for that matter, the…

Well, it would be downright dangerous not to teach them 6 times 7 is 42. But Mr. Leinwand goes on, according to this article by Lynn Cheney, and says we should not teach students basic computational skills, addition, subtraction…

I just want to clarify, you are going to read to us from a survey given to students at a public school, not a religious or private or sectarian school, and administered by the school asking these questions of public school students; is…

Our children in America need these basic skills and they are vitally important. If we say to them, as this national math association proposes to say, and they already by the way have on their tests, those written by I think the National…

For a moment, Mr. Speaker, it seems to me the House position is the right position. The House position, the idea of a one-size-fits-all national test is a bad one, and it is not bad because of who writes it. It is bad because of the…

I care very much about their education. And as I said, I resent it when the other side says Republicans do not care about education or Republicans do not care about public education. I care deeply about public education. And as I said, I…