On the recordFebruary 27, 2015
I thank the chairman for his leadership throughout this entire push. What do I mean by push? Madam Speaker, I mean the fact that for the last 7-plus years No Child Left Behind--the current Federal law of the land with regard to K-12 education in this country--has gone unrenewed. And for many of us, in a very real sense, that is just as well. Because after a decade of living under No Child Left Behind, and more importantly, our children being taught under No Child Left Behind, we realized where its shortcomings are and where we need to go next. So we have worked on this product. And unlike the Democratic substitute, Madam Chair, that we are just now hearing about, this product has been 4 years in the works. In fact, it is so well-tuned and so well-reviewed that it passed this House in the last Congress. Now, finally, with a Republican Senate, we have a chance to move real reform that puts power back in the hands of our parents, teachers, local leaders, and local taxpayers so that we can again make the child the most important thing in the school. We are sort of shooting with real bullets here. Again, we can get a product to the Senate. We can get that product to conference and then to the President's desk. So we are not talking in thin air here. Yet this Democratic substitute really does just that.…
