Rick Allen: “I have got to be frank for a minute. I find it a shame that this amendment is even necessary. When we replaced the No…”

“I have got to be frank for a minute. I find it a shame that this amendment is even necessary. When we replaced the No Child Left Behind Act with the Every Student Succeeds Act, we created the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants program on a bipartisan, bicameral basis. We did this to provide school districts the flexibility they need to use Federal funds as they see fit to meet local needs. It is disappointing that my Democratic colleagues didn't invite Republicans to the table to negotiate in good faith to build on that consensus. Instead, Democrats once again ignored commonsense approaches and impose a top-down, Big Government solution that will have the Federal Government decide how best to address the issues of racial and socioeconomic isolation in American schools. {time} 1415 You know, we have heard story after story of the history of our schools and how we got to this point. The question is, will we continue with this top-down government approach or allow the schools the flexibility to fix this problem. My amendment, on the other hand, offers a commonsense solution that could easily garner an overwhelming majority of votes in this body if every Member chose to focus on the importance of actually addressing racial and socioeconomic isolation in schools and not on scoring political points.…”