Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time. As is always the case in these debates on the floor, we hear a lot of things. Some of them are actually factual; some of them are not. There is, shockingly, some hyperbole that comes along with this. We did hear some things, though, from both sides of the aisle that I think are worth underscoring. One of the speakers on the other side of the aisle talked about how schools and States need continuity--I think was his word--predictability. That is exactly what we do not have now. Right now, this country is operating under the law of the land, which is No Child Left Behind, and under a big, convoluted scheme of temporary conditional waivers which provide no continuity, no predictability, and that is why we are hearing on both sides of the aisle--from coast-to-coast and off the coast, as a matter of fact--that we need to replace No Child Left Behind. I believe that as we replace No Child Left Behind, we need to put responsibility in the hands of parents and teachers and school boards and States, and not in the hands of Washington, D.C. I think that it is not fair to say that there is not a problem. We heard from the ranking member that graduation rates have gone up. On the other hand, they haven't gone up much, and we are still in a position where a fourth, or 26 percent, of high school seniors are proficient in math. That means 74 percent--maybe I need to have a little math here--are not.…”