Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from Virginia. Mr. Chairman, there is an enormous amount of misperception about what the Common Core standards are. Frankly, those of us who serve in this body are elected leaders. I urge my colleagues to take the time to educate themselves about this collaborative effort between a number of States that have developed college- and career-ready standards before they decry it based on misperceptions that, unfortunately, exist among the American public. A number of States chose to work collaboratively on college- and career-ready standards. What we at the Federal level want to see is that States have college- and career-ready standards. We want to make sure that a diploma is meaningful. If a Federal investment is made, we want to make sure that States don't define success downward, disguising achievement gaps and making it look like every child achieves expectations by lowering expectations. How they do that is entirely up to them. Let me repeat myself. How they do that is entirely up to them. Many States choose to work together. Some States choose to create their own standards. A project of the National Governors Association had Governors and State education commissioners working together to develop college- and career-ready standards. Other States have chosen to develop their own college- and career-ready standards. That really is an appropriate discussion to have at the State level, but not in the halls of Washington.…”