Jeff Bingaman: “I also want to speak in favor of the amendment my colleague from Massachusetts, Senator Kennedy, has offered. I commend…”

“I also want to speak in favor of the amendment my colleague from Massachusetts, Senator Kennedy, has offered. I commend him and Senator Harkin, in particular, for the leadership they have shown in trying to maintain an adequate level of funding for education. I am proud to be a cosponsor of this amendment and the amendment Senator Harkin will offer later today. The pending omnibus appropriations bill we are debating on the floor is woefully inadequate when it comes to funding education. Senator Kennedy and Senator Dodd have just pointed out that last year, with great acclaim, we passed the No Child Left Behind Act, and I supported that. I believe there are accountability provisions in that act that will move us in the way of implementing major changes in our educational system and will bring us a long way toward ensuring equal educational opportunity for all children in this country. What we were starting to do with that act, as I understood it, was to work in partnership with States and local governments to see this improvement occur, and part of that partnership was that we would help provide resources to the schools and the teachers so that those children could succeed. The President's budget abandoned that effort. This bill that we have on the floor today--although it is slightly better than the President's budget--also abandons the promise to leave no child behind.”