Mark Souder: “for six years this Congress has insisted and held firm that there should be no national test. We have heard it said that…”

“for six years this Congress has insisted and held firm that there should be no national test. We have heard it said that the heart of the President's proposal was to find a national test. I do not believe this is true. The heart of the President's proposal is this: Find out what schools were performing, then provide assistance for two to three years to help them improve. Then if they did not improve, give the parents and the children the flexibility to find a school that does improve. Mr. Chairman, we have taken out the final thing, which was the heart of the proposal, to give the parents flexibility. Now we say if your school is failing, you are trapped. Furthermore, there is nothing to say that the State tests and the local tests are not sufficient to know whether the schools are accountable. This amendment says we trust the local teachers, principals, and school boards. We trust our governors. We do not need a national test coming out of Washington, which is one national standard that potentially will reach into every school, into private schools and home schools. Mr. Chairman, we heard it is only reading and math. But the truth is it can go anywhere. It can be anything because once Washington gets control of this test, we do not know where it is going to go. We will no longer have the local control that we currently have.”