Mark Souder: “Mr. Chairman, I have been here wanting to speak on this amendment. While the other side would like to impugn the motives…”

“Mr. Chairman, I have been here wanting to speak on this amendment. While the other side would like to impugn the motives of many of us, which I do not appreciate, the fact is that this is the start of a process this afternoon that I believe undergirds the whole problem with the amendment process with this bill. That is that the purpose of this is an Ed-Flex bill. The purpose of this is to give flexibility to the local level. I remember one time when I was in court for a traffic ticket, I was talking to one man at the beginning, and he said to me, would you help me fill out my form? He could not write his name, nor could he write his address out. All he could do was put the x. I helped with that. I personally believe that one of the fundamental problems we have in this country is writing. If somebody cannot write, they are not going to be able to do the math and science. I remember in working, I was doing economic development with a number of people who were getting laid off from a company who had not done the basic reading. If people cannot read, they cannot do math and science. I do not know anybody in my district, any schoolchildren, any principal, any superintendent, who does not believe that math and science is not one of the critical, if not the most critical, depending upon the school, problems facing that school.”