Bob Schaffer: “it is an interesting thing. What we are really talking about is treating States like States rather than subjects of a…”

“it is an interesting thing. What we are really talking about is treating States like States rather than subjects of a centralized Federal Government. Power was always meant, even by our Founders, to flow from the bottom up, not from the top down, in America. But with respect to the Department of Education, it was about the 1970s when President Carter occupied the White House that we saw the Department of Education begin to take that authority from States. So here we are today on the House floor talking about the liberty and freedom that States deserve and rightfully possess to build schools that reach out to children and talking about that almost in revolutionary terms. We have to wage a small war here in Washington simply to allow States to be treated like States. And my colleague is right, we have seen all across the country great approaches. Governor Jeb Bush in Florida and Lieutenant Governor Frank Brogan in Florida have really led the way at providing real liberty and real freedom to local communities. And they do that based on results. Those States that hold children in the greatest peril, school districts that are failing in Florida, are the first places they have started in Florida to begin to provide educational opportunity to parents. So you have parental choice in those districts.…”