Thomas Massie: “As my colleague from Oklahoma pointed out, Congress lacks the constitutional authority to create what amounts to a…”

“As my colleague from Oklahoma pointed out, Congress lacks the constitutional authority to create what amounts to a national school board of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats. How many are there; 4,000 bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.? My colleague on the other side of the aisle said that basically every school would like to have more money. How could we do that without raising taxes? Quit wasting it in Washington, D.C., on 4,000 bureaucrats who cost us about $100,000 apiece. These bureaucrats make more than the teachers. Yet, they don't teach a single class. They don't write books. They don't help with that. In fact, the Federal Government is responsible for about 90 percent of the red tape that local schools have to deal with and only about 10 percent of the funding. It is time to change that equation. Imagine if we could hire 4,000 more teachers in this country using that money and pay them each $100,000, pay them what the bureaucrats get in Washington, D.C. How many more kids would get a better education? I suspect a lot more kids would get a better education. This was a reelection ploy that was foisted on America by Jimmy Carter and Congress at the time in 1979. It did not work. He did not get reelected. It was not a good idea, but here we are. We are stuck with it. It is time, as I said before, to reevaluate this. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to vote for this amendment to show that we support public education.…”