George Miller: “I do this because we have got to make sure that, for the quality education that we know our economy and American society…”

“I do this because we have got to make sure that, for the quality education that we know our economy and American society and the world economy are going to demand of our children and the children, future graduates, of our systems of higher education, that we have got to provide them with quality education. No longer can we have a situation where barely a quarter of the applicants in New York who were seeking a teaching position on Long Island could pass the high school graduation English test. We can no longer accept that. Teachers deserve to have professional status. They deserve to have professional pay. I believe this goes a long way toward helping that situation out and providing some accountability for schools where taxpayers invest billions of dollars. Again, I want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. McKeon), the subcommittee chairman, and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling), chairman, for all of their help and their effort and their counsel in coming to an agreement on this amendment.”