Dick Durbin: “I was startled--I think the Senator from Washington, as a former classroom teacher, was surprised as well--when a…”

“I was startled--I think the Senator from Washington, as a former classroom teacher, was surprised as well--when a successful program to reduce class size that put thousands of teachers in classrooms across America was not funded in this legislation. In my home State of Illinois, we will lose up to 1,200 teachers; nationwide, 29,000 teachers. It strikes me as not only odd but maybe a little bit embarrassing that we are saying to the American people as we start this new century, the first thing we will do for education----”