John Tierney: “I oppose this amendment because it endangers education funding for sort of a political exercise here. This amendment…”

“I oppose this amendment because it endangers education funding for sort of a political exercise here. This amendment would actually require State legislatures to approve every single grant program from the Department of Education before States receive the money. So taking the authority from the local communities, local education agencies, putting it back into the State malaise of legislative process is overly burdensome on States, creates a mountain of unnecessary paperwork, and delays students and schools from receiving the much-needed funding. And when the shortsighted State legislatures may refuse that funding, this amendment would take the money and send it back, returning it to the deficit, as opposed to its intended use, which is the education of disadvantaged students. I sometimes wonder if my colleagues remember why the Federal Government is involved in education K-12 at all, and that is the mandated addressing of a shortage of attention to disadvantaged students. This is just another attempt by the majority to slash education funding. Mr. Chair, it's not the time to play politics now. Now is the time to increase our investment in education and in our children so that we can be competitive and so that they can have an opportunity moving forward. This amendment is simply a distraction to the very real and very big problems that this entire bill, H.R. 5, has, and it lets students down. H.R.…”