Roy Blunt: “the question today is, should we send more dollars to the classroom? This does not seem like it would be a tough…”

“the question today is, should we send more dollars to the classroom? This does not seem like it would be a tough question, but it is a question that we are struggling with on the House floor today. Who knows your child's name better? A teacher who knows that child or a bureaucrat in the beltway in Washington or even in the State capital? Our opponents on this issue say that we are already meeting the 90 percent standard. Well, if that is true, let us pass this resolution and ensure that we meet this standard in the future. But we have studies that suggest that we are meeting a 65 percent standard. The difference in the 65 percent standard and a 90 percent standard is about $1,800 for every classroom in America. Every elementary school principal, every secondary school principal can count the number of rooms in their building, multiply that by $1,800; that is the difference in what we are talking about here today. Mr. Speaker, this is the difference in whether we buy microscopes or not; whether we buy computers or not; whether a classroom has an overhead projector or not; whether there are chemicals for the chemical lab or tools for the shop. And Dollars to the Classroom can increase teachers' salaries, rather than create another form for teachers to fill out.”