James M. Jeffords: “There is only one study which has been considered to have been done in a way that would give you evidence, and that…”

“There is only one study which has been considered to have been done in a way that would give you evidence, and that study did come to that conclusion. The other studies were not really worth discussing. However, again, these decisions were made in a back room, in the wee hours of the night; and obviously we would not be considering an amendment if it had been done well. Furthermore, the great debate, in my mind, of what is more important, reducing the class size from 20 to 18 or having a teacher teaching the class who knows the subject which he or she is teaching--I will bet you 10 to 1 you get better results by improving the quality of the teacher and the qualifications of the teacher than you will by reducing the class size by 2 or 3 or 4 or 5. I do not think anybody would debate that. That is one thing we should consider, the flexibility under the bill--and this may come up--as to whether those moneys could not better be used and should not better be left to the discretion of the school systems to use those moneys to improve the proficiency of the teachers rather than just merely reducing the class size by 2 or 3 or 4. Certainly if we get to her amendment next week, we will consider other options as well. And it may prove to be a productive experience. Hopefully it will.…”