Todd Rokita: “I stand today in support of parents, teachers, and our communities. I stand in support of local government versus…”

“I stand today in support of parents, teachers, and our communities. I stand in support of local government versus Federal Government. And most importantly, I stand in support of our children and urge my colleagues to pass the Student Success Act. I want to thank the distinguished gentleman from Minnesota for his leadership and the members of the Committee on Education and the Workforce for their efforts in writing this legislation. The Student Success Act is a huge step forward that empowers parents and teachers to make decisions regarding the education of our children while maintaining high expectations and measuring teacher effectiveness. For far too long, Federal education bureaucrats have sucked up needed education dollars and hamstrung our teachers, but they've done little to improve education in our Nation. And now they want what really amounts to a national curriculum. But is there any doubt bureaucratic red tape and a one-size-fits-all approach have left far too many of our children behind? We wrote this legislation because we believe that parents and teachers care for our children more than career bureaucrats at the Department of Education. We trust parents. We trust ourselves. We trust the States and our communities to determine what success is and how best to achieve it. Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the SENSE Charter School in my home State of Indiana.…”