Byron Dorgan: “The Senator from New York is correct. There is a circumstance in the markup document that we saw today, and that we took…”

“The Senator from New York is correct. There is a circumstance in the markup document that we saw today, and that we took action on this afternoon, that says there will be money available, if authorized. But, of course, the authorization committee is not going to be on the floor reauthorizing elementary and secondary education. It sets up a circumstance where they know and we know they will not continue this program to reduce class size. How do you reduce class size? You hire additional teachers. We don't have a large role in education at the Federal level. Most of elementary and secondary education is handled locally. Local school boards, State governments, and others decide the kind of education system they want. What we have done is establish national objectives. One of our objectives is to say we can improve education, we know how to improve education, if we can devote more resources to teachers in order to have more teachers and reduce class size. Walk into a classroom bursting with 30 children. Then ask yourself, does that teacher have the same capability to affect each of those children's lives that a teacher who is teaching 15 children would have in the same classroom? The answer is, no, of course not. That is why this is so important. There is nothing much more important in this country than education.”