Tim Walberg: “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, since No Child Left Behind was put in place, the Federal Government has dictated…”

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, since No Child Left Behind was put in place, the Federal Government has dictated how States and school districts spend money, gauge student learning and school performance, and hire classroom teachers. Frankly, Mr. Chairman, it isn't working. Washington bureaucrats, no matter how well meaning they are, will never have the personal understanding of the diverse and special and unique needs of students than the teachers, administrators, and parents who spend time with them. Mr. Chairman, I stand here today because I have to speak for Erin and Moses. Erin is my daughter-in-law and the mother of my four grandchildren. Moses was a student who tested her teaching ability and her passion for teaching. Erin came to teach in a fourth and fifth grade classroom for special needs students in Cicero, Illinois. Freshly minted out of her educational training and master's program, she came in with a passion for teaching. She came in because she was sent in that classroom as a full-time, continuing substitute because the teacher of that classroom had gotten up one day, had walked out of the classroom, and had never come back. Erin was given the opportunity of a lifetime of teaching these students, and she began to invest her life into those students, especially in one young student, a fourth grader by the name of Moses. Moses came from a difficult situation.…”