Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. It is really puzzling why our colleagues continue to misrepresent what H.R. 5 does when the public can read the bill and know the truth. For example, our colleagues have said that H.R. 5 eliminates protections for students with disabilities, low-income students, and students from major racial and ethnic groups. This charge is simply false. The Student Success Act maintains annual testing requirements in reading, math, and science. It also maintains the law's requirement that schools in districts disaggregate and report subgroup data on student performance. This ensures student achievement results for special needs students and other traditionally disadvantaged populations are transparent and parents and communities have the information they need to evaluate their schools properly. Critics of this approach believe in the now widely discredited premise captured in No Child Left Behind that the Federal Government can and should devise an accountability system appropriate for all of the nearly 100,000 public schools in the country. Frankly, Mr. Speaker, that is one of the most widespread criticisms of what we have known as No Child Left Behind, which was really a reauthorization of this bill several years ago. It is puzzling to me that they continue to criticize what is bad about what exists and yet say they want to do it again. It doesn't make any sense. H.R.…”