Tom Harkin: “First I thank my friend and my colleague on the Education Committee, Senator Murray from Washington, for always being in…”

“First I thank my friend and my colleague on the Education Committee, Senator Murray from Washington, for always being in the forefront of this battle to make sure our class sizes are small enough so the kids can learn and teachers can teach. Truly, as I traveled around my State and traveled around the country, visiting different schools in different areas, Senator Murray's name has become synonymous with the nationwide drive to get smaller class sizes for all of our kids in elementary school. So I congratulate her for being our champion on perhaps one of the most important steps we can take to ensure success in school. To hear tell from the administration and from President Bush, some would have you believe the most important thing we could do is test, test, test, year after year, as the most important way to assure success in school. I strongly agree with the need to demand greater accountability but if a teacher has 25, 28, 30 or more kids in a classroom, I don't care how many times you test them--you can test them every month, you can take their temperature every month--you are cheating those kids and you are cheating the teacher because that teacher simply cannot give the kind of hands-on instruction that the teacher needs to give to individual students. So the most important thing is not testing.”