Byron Dorgan: “But is it not also correct--I continue to ask a question of the Senator from Washington, Mr. President--when we had this…”

“But is it not also correct--I continue to ask a question of the Senator from Washington, Mr. President--when we had this discussion yesterday, there was a proposal that perhaps a second-degree amendment would be offered, and they said: Well, we will offer some money that is in the form of kind of a block grant--they do not call it that--where they send some money back to the school districts and say: By the way, do what you want with this because we don't have any goals or aspirations with respect to how it ought to be used. In other words, they say: Let us retreat from this program of reducing class size by hiring more teachers and improving education that way; let's decide we will send money but have no national goals. Isn't that the case with respect to what was attempted yesterday before you decided to withhold your amendment for the floor of the Senate, that the second-degree amendment would have said: OK, we will provide some money, but we want to back away from the commitment of reducing class size as a part of solution to improve education?”