Todd Rokita: “I thank the chairman of Education and Workforce for yielding me time. Well, here we are again, with perhaps the…”

“I thank the chairman of Education and Workforce for yielding me time. Well, here we are again, with perhaps the culmination of this debate that started yesterday afternoon here on the floor and what's been going on in committee now for several weeks and in this Nation for 12 years. Mr. Chairman, it's been 12 years since we've been on the floor debating these issues. I'm encouraged by that fact alone--that some of us had the leadership, responsibility, and the courage to bring some of these issues to the floor for the betterment of our teachers, our parents, and most of all, our students. I rise now in strong opposition to the substitute amendment offered by my colleague from California. I oppose this amendment for a number of reasons. It's more of the same ``Washington knows best'' that's brought us here today. It turns out, as we hear from parents in our districts, Washington doesn't know best. A bureaucrat sitting in an office in Washington, by definition, Mr. Chairman, doesn't know our children and can't possibly know what is best for a student in Indiana or anywhere else in this Nation. Who do you believe, Mr. Chairman, knows a child best? Is it the bureaucrats in this 10- or 11-story rectangle-like building known as the Lyndon B. Johnson Department of Education? Or is it this mother or this father who knows their child? Who do you trust, Mr. Chairman, with your children?…”