Trent Lott: “if I could briefly comment on the process we just went through and where we are with regard to this bill, Ed-Flex, the…”

“if I could briefly comment on the process we just went through and where we are with regard to this bill, Ed-Flex, the education flexibility bill, that is the underlying bill. It has broad bipartisan support. The President is for it. He had suggested we should pass it last year. We did not get it done, but he went before the National Governors' Association and called again for this legislation and says that he supports it. The National Governors' Association--all 50 of the Governors--supported a resolution in support of this bill, education flexibility. Twelve States have this flexibility now. My State is not one of those. It has been working quite well, I understand, in Massachusetts and in Maryland and other States where they now have this option in those 12 States. The rest of us want it. I just came from Chester, PA, earlier today, and Pennsylvania does not have this education flexibility. They would like to have it. They desperately would like to have it. The Governor of that State said: Please, give me this option. Let's waive some of this paperwork and the regulatory requirements. Let's have this option so we can give schools the flexibility, at the local level, to make these decisions to where the funds can best be used but results based. We need to see the proof that it actually is working. And all of that is included in this legislation.”