James M. Jeffords: “I remind everyone, the Ed-Flex bill is a very limited bill which is supposed to assist States to manage their…”

“I remind everyone, the Ed-Flex bill is a very limited bill which is supposed to assist States to manage their educational systems better by having a waiver capacity in title I particularly. Just to give some examples of what we run into on that bill, at this point the State of Vermont has found with Ed-Flex--we are one of the six States that has Ed-Flex--to be at a great advantage in making modifications without the necessity of a waiver, and those modifications can be made within the State. What this does is allow, in certain circumstances where we have specific percentages set forth which must be reached or you cannot do certain things--.5 percent is an important one with respect to poverty. Thus, communities that have slightly less than .5--say in our case like .48--it is just impossible for you to do anything even with the next-door school which has .5. And there is no reason why those schools should be treated differently. You have to have waiver authority for that outside of the State. So this bill just makes it so much better for Governors to be able to administer and to be able to take advantage of Federal programs within their States.”