Robert Smith: “I am a junior Member of this body, but the perception of what has gone on here with respect to education is utterly…”

“I am a junior Member of this body, but the perception of what has gone on here with respect to education is utterly different than my observation. My observation is that this side of the aisle is anxious to talk about education, not just to throw more resources at the status quo, not to put up roadblocks to real reform but to truly find out ways to make Washington less of a burden upon local education. I have yet to go into a school district in Oregon and ask, 'Where are your problems?' and they don't tell me it usually has to do with some Federal mandate. The truth is, what we are trying to do is empower local folks who understand about educating children and to lower the burden of Washington. This idea of 100,000 teachers is great, but everyone should understand that is about sloganeering; that is about TV ads. That has nothing to do with educating kids. The truth is, we need an awful lot more than 100,000 teachers; We need 1 million teachers; but we ought to trust people locally to be able to make that judgment whether to build a school or to hire a teacher.”