Cass Ballenger: “I rise in opposition to H.R. 6 and urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this bill called the Improving America's Schools…”

“I rise in opposition to H.R. 6 and urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this bill called the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994. We would be hard pressed to think of a more inappropriate name for a bill that is nothing more than a power grab by the education bureaucracy. It is amazing that Washington still does not get it. True education reform must be driven locally, by parents, teachers, local administrators, and the community as a whole. It is ludicrous to think that the Federal Government can successfully reform our failing public education system by setting a single uniform model for reform when our schools, school districts, and communities are as varied as the East is from the West. An article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal bears witness to the fact that the education unions are unwilling to allow true education reform. They would rather maintain the failing status quo. Every time a truly innovative idea is brought up, the teachers' unions intimidate the majority in this body into imposing conditions that limit the success of reforms. Unwilling to relinquish their power to parents, principals, local administrators, and the communities in general, the education establishment maintains a vice-like grip on our schools. H.R. 6 will do little to improve America's schools.”