Patsy T. Mink: “I rise in support of the Miller-Kildee amendment. I believe it strengthens the basic legislation. I do not feel enacting…”

“I rise in support of the Miller-Kildee amendment. I believe it strengthens the basic legislation. I do not feel enacting H.R. 800 is necessary, but I believe that the Congress is probably hellbent in moving in that direction, and if we are going to do it, then it seems to me that accepting the Miller-Kildee amendment would signal to this country that we are not prepared to abandon the very core necessity for title I, ESEA. I happen to be one of the few legislators here who served in 1965, when the great debate on how Federal aid to education was going to be provided to our communities and our States, led to Congress enacting P.L. 89-10. It was preceded by 25 years of agonizing debate on how to structure this kind of federal assistance to our public school systems. From that time to now we are still struggling with this issue with mounting frustration coupled with our agony that our school systems still cannot produce quality education where all of our children achieve, based upon reasonable standards and assessments, which must be a part of any legislation we accept.”