Political Quotes

“this is an amendment which does two things. One of them is it deals with the practice, either formal or informal, of social promotion, and authorizes a remedial program of $500 million a year for a program of competitive grants. The second part has to do with school report cards. This amendment would authorize $500 million a year from the year 2000 to 2004 for competitive grants to school districts to help provide remedial education for afterschool and summer school courses, for low-performing students who are not making passing grades. Mr. President, the purpose of the amendment is to provide Federal incentives and Federal help to those school districts that abolish and/or do not allow social promotion. As a condition of receiving these funds, school districts would have to adopt a policy prohibiting social promotion for students; require that all K through 12 students meet minimum achievement levels in the core curriculum defined as subjects such as reading and writing, language arts, mathematics, social sciences, including history, and science; test student achievement in meeting standards at certain benchmark grades to be determined by the States for advancement to the next grade; and, finally, provide remedial education for students who fail to meet achievement standards including tutoring, mentoring, summer, before-school and after-school programs.”