On the recordJuly 14, 2015
I begin my remarks by commending Ranking Member Murray and Chairman Alexander on a tremendous due diligence effort to see to it that we finally answered the question that States have been asking for 7 years; that is, when are you going to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act? When are you going to end the day when 82 percent of all educational public school systems have to get waivers from Washington to teach children the way they want to teach them? When are you going to see to it that money can flow to the States and flow to the student from those States, not everything flow from Washington to the student. It is about time we fixed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. In my lifetime, I have been in elected office for 38 years. I have been in every legislative body I can legally be elected to, and I have served on the Education Committee in the Georgia House, the Georgia Senate, the U.S. House, and the U.S. Senate. I don't know a lot about a lot of things, but I know a little bit about public education. In fact, in 1996, Zell Miller, whose seat I now hold in the Senate, called on me to take over the Georgia State Board of Education when Georgia had a major crisis. So I learned under fire. I learned the following: Children rise to expectations, and in an absence of expectations, children sink. That is why gangs attract kids from broken families, because they seek some kind of recognition, and the gang gives it to them.…
