Byron Dorgan: “First of all, it is not so much a criticism as a determination of what is necessary to make this legislation or make…”

“First of all, it is not so much a criticism as a determination of what is necessary to make this legislation or make this new law work. The State plans that were submitted to the Department of Education for approval deal almost exclusively with how states measure yearly progress for the school districts themselves. These plans that have been approved do not deal with the definition of ``highly qualified'' teachers. If you take a look at what has been discussed and described, including the discussions around the provisions in the underlying law itself, there is enough to cause concern that ought to require us to talk about it at this point. Because if we don't do that, we will head towards 2005 and 2006, when the deadline exists with respect to the issue of highly qualified teachers, and we will find we have put in place a bureaucratic juggernaut that will cause chaos in school districts all across the country. It is very important for us to discuss this now.”