Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, accountability is one of the keys to improving our Nation's education system. There is no doubt about that. Accountability is so important that the President has made it one of the three cornerstones of his education reform package along with flexibility and parental empowerment. This is not a new issue. In 1994, Congress passed the Improving America's School Act. In that bill, testing was required to be implemented by the year 2001. Our students would be tested once in grades 3 through 5, once in grades 6 through 9, and once again in grades 10 through 12. The deadline was 2001. But so far, only 25 of the 50 States have met that mandate. Here we are before we have any results from that mandate, we are going back to our local schools, and we are going back to the States and saying, oh, by the way, we were not serious about the mandate that is going into effect for this school year. We are going to give a new mandate that significantly changes the Federal accountability standards that one must meet. Forget about the work that one has completed over the last 7 years. Forget about the money that one has invested. Here is a new process and a new system and a new set of requirements that one needs to meet. What my amendment does is let us give the mandate for 2001, let us give it a little bit of an opportunity to see exactly what the results and what the impact is.”