Jeff Bingaman: “I rise, first, to support the amendment by the Senator from Washington regarding class size reduction. This is a very…”

“I rise, first, to support the amendment by the Senator from Washington regarding class size reduction. This is a very important amendment. It is one that will result in $13 million of additional funds coming to my State of New Mexico in fiscal year 2001. It is a very important initiative and one that I hope very much we can adopt as part of this bill. I want to also speak more generally about the legislation that is before us and begin by complimenting Senator Jeffords, the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and the ranking member, Senator Kennedy, as well as our staffs for the fine work that has been done on this bill. This legislation, the Better Education for Students and Teachers Act, contains many provisions that I support and many that I have advocated for some period of time. I am especially pleased with the new accountability requirements that are in title I of the bill and throughout. The bill also maintains several of the most important programs that are targeted to specific problems that we see in my State of New Mexico and many other States.”