Don Nickles: “Mr. President, the Gorton amendment is a pro-education amendment, if you believe people in the local school districts…”

“Mr. President, the Gorton amendment is a pro-education amendment, if you believe people in the local school districts know what they need. Maybe they need more teachers. Maybe they need more computers. Maybe they need to enhance the benefits for teachers that are there so they can keep them there. Maybe they need it for recruitment. Let's give them the flexibility. I, along with several other Senators, met with some Governors and asked them what they wanted, and they said they wanted flexibility and they wanted Congress to help them meet the unfunded obligations of IDEA. I said: What about this proposal that some people have made that says let's have 100,000 new teachers paid for by the Federal Government? That was not their request. They said: No, just give us flexibility; there are hundreds of Federal programs, some of which work, some of which do not work, a lot have mandates; give us the flexibility to work on those programs; give us some of the money without the strings attached; you do not need to tell us we have to hire so many teachers. Frankly, they do not have to hire teachers and have them paid for by the Federal Government. Some States have already taken significant action to reduce class size. I compliment them for it. Some are way ahead of others. Should we punish those States that have moved ahead earlier than other States? I don't think so.”