Patsy T. Mink: “What I think this House needs to bear in mind as we consider this very, very important amendment is that the structure…”

“What I think this House needs to bear in mind as we consider this very, very important amendment is that the structure that we have put forth is a formula which really puts the Federal Government into the position of elaborating very strict standards that the school districts that are eligible for this funding under title I and other titles must meet in order to receive the funding. And then, on top of that, pursuant to the President's recommendation, we have now said that the schools have to test these children in every grade from 3 to 8. Why are we doing all of this testing if we are not going to help these children and the schools meet their requirements of success? Leave no child behind. We cannot test, evaluate, have standards, require the schools to meet them and not come up with the necessary resources. So I urge this House to keep faith with what the President has said, leave no child behind, keep faith with what the bipartisan committee has done in recommending H.R. 1, and it was a very difficult task; there are lots of things that I would like to see in this bill, school construction, smaller classrooms and other things, but we came together with a core agreement.”