This is a hearing that I think starts from the premise of a story that isn't true, or an era that doesn't exist.

Principals need to be held accountable for how their whole school does, and that means responsibility for all their teachers.

Well, thank you, Ranking Member Kildee. This is very important to my own history.

We believe that policies that prioritize the credentials of adults over the needs of students are fundamentally backwards.

I commend the chairman for framing this issue in a way that we can learn, in our oversight role, ways that we can successfully achieve that goal and minimize injury and the loss of life to our service members and to innocent people in…

Well, I am acting ranking member. Mr. Cooper has a bout with laryngitis. He has lost his voice, which is a tragedy of significant proportions for the Nation.

This is literally a matter of life and death for our country and for our service members as we go about what we hope will be an orderly and rational withdrawal from Afghanistan.

I think that there is real reason for progress.

No one that I know is for an indefinite U.S. occupation of Afghanistan.

Do you think the economy is large enough to support a viable regime this time around?

I cannot walk past the Capitol dome and not think about Afghanistan.