Frank Riggs: “I want to tell the ranking member that I respect his views and would submit that perhaps this money, this $200 million…”

“I want to tell the ranking member that I respect his views and would submit that perhaps this money, this $200 million in the bill for whole school reform, would still be better spent meeting the Federal obligation to provide special education services to children with learning disabilities. I would also point out that perhaps, if we really did respect the idea of local control and decentralized decision-making in public education, perhaps if we have to spend the money, we are better off block-granting it back down to local communities. But I do want to point out that through the bipartisan compromise we have worked out, we will be adding language down through the bill, through my en bloc amendment that says, and I think it is important for Members to hear this language, that such approaches, and we have changed whole school reform to mean comprehensive school reforms, we have changed the definitional language, and then we say provided that such approaches show the most promise of enabling children served by title I, the educationally disadvantaged children, to meet challenging State content standards and challenging State student performance standards, which shall include an emphasis on basic academics and parental involvement based on proven research and practices.”