George Miller: “on the point of the Goals 2000, which unfortunately has become a political football, it has become a political football…”

“on the point of the Goals 2000, which unfortunately has become a political football, it has become a political football in Washington, DC, but not in the States. In the States where it was originally designed by the Governors and brought to the Congress with recommendations made, it is being embraced now as, again, parents hunger to know that their children are going to have to meet world class standards; that this education is the very best education; that we should not accept the dumbing down of education, we should not accept a second-class education; that our children not only deserve the very best education, but in fact the world's economy requires that they be given that. Now we just see that swept aside in a fit of ideology, in just an absolute fit of some kind of extreme ideology that says that the Governors should not have a right to apply for this money, to upgrade the quality and the class. These standards that are being developed are being developed with private sector associations. The American Electronics Association wants to be able to develop standards and have them incorporated so a young student can take that and go anywhere in the United States and work, and the employer will know that that certificate, that diploma, means that that person is qualified to do that job and to enter that industry, and to participate in that. What do we have today? We have in many instances diplomas that do not mean anything.…”