Political Quotes

“I rise in strong support of the amendment. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the Armey amendment to exempt all nonpublic school teachers from the certification requirement included in H.R. 6, the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Congress is at it again--placing more Federal mandates on schools which do not even receive Federal funding. One of the major problems faced by our public schools is meeting the multitude of unfunded mandates imposed on them by the Government. Now we want to do to our private and home schools what we have done to the public schools. Teacher certification, besides creating a bureaucratic nightmare, tests the skills of parents, not students. If the Armey amendment fails, 99 percent of home schoolers may not be able to teach their own children. Because this provision requires that secondary teachers are certified in every subject they teach, even certified parents would not be allowed to teach their own children in a variety of subjects. The Federal Government must reverse this trend of intruding on local school districts, and learn that the bureaucrats in Washington, DC do not help our children learn how to read and write. I encourage all of my colleagues to join me in supporting the Armey amendment.”