Tim Walberg: “I thank the chair and committee leadership for bringing this bill forward, H.R. 2218, for which I urge my colleagues'…”

“I thank the chair and committee leadership for bringing this bill forward, H.R. 2218, for which I urge my colleagues' support. In the Northwest Ordinance, the same language in that ordinance, as well as what was then put into many of our State constitutions, says this: ``Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good governments and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education, shall forever be encouraged.'' I believe this bill, H.R. 2218, does just that. It's a simple bill. It promotes a charter school program that accomplishes three goals. Those being, one, to provide parents greater options for their children's education; two, consolidating education programs and reducing the authorization level; and, three, supporting the development of high-quality charter schools. That's what we're about in education. That's what we ought to be concerned with. This bill accomplishes our goal of modernizing and streamlining the program by consolidating the current programs to one program and one authorization line. The result in savings still affords the taxpayer, the parent, and the educator with even more opportunity for growth of proven charter school models and new innovative charter schools. The bill ensures that charter schools and charter school authorizers reach out to parents to serve students who can benefit from these schools. The legislation supports quality initiatives in the authorizing world without putting any new mandates on the schools.…”