Roy Blunt: “I thank the committee for bringing this bill to the floor. I think the fundamental point here is that no school district…”

“I thank the committee for bringing this bill to the floor. I think the fundamental point here is that no school district has to lose money or will lose money under this bill. This is not about school districts losing money. This is about bureaucrats in Washington losing money. This is about bureaucrats at the State level losing money. This is not about school districts losing money. Those people who say this money is going to go from one school district to another are not reading the bill the way the bill has to be read. This is the difference in whether 95 cents out of every education dollar gets to the classroom, or 65 cents out of every education dollar gets to the classroom. This is clearly not something that people who are in favor of the bureaucracy growing would want to be for. It is clearly something that people who are for money being spent in classrooms, on teachers, on education should be for. This is about a teacher who knows every student's name having more to say about how the money is spent. This is about districts that now may not qualify for all 31 of these different grant programs, but is a district that gets to qualify for money, they get to use the money in the way that they understand is best for their district. Even the opponents of this bill concede that the Federal impact they say is minimal. Well, the minimal impact is not what does the job. What does the job is making education work. It is involving families more in the process.”