Joe Pitts: “I rise in support of the Graves amendment. Since I came to Congress, I have been working to promote this idea of getting…”

“I rise in support of the Graves amendment. Since I came to Congress, I have been working to promote this idea of getting 95 cents out of every Federal education tax dollar to the classrooms of America. I applaud my friend from Missouri (Mr. Graves) for offering this amendment today, an amendment that puts children first in education. Several States have reported that, although they receive less than 10 percent of their education funding from the Federal Government, more than 50 percent of their paperwork is associated with those Federal dollars. In 1998, the Department of Education paperwork and data reporting requirements totaled 40 million 'burden hours,' the equivalent of 19,300 people working 40 hours a week for 1 year just to comply with Federal programs. Instead of spending money on bureaucracy, I believe that Federal dollars are better spent directly in our Nation's classrooms, on things like textbooks, computers, maps, teacher aids, microscopes, other classroom aids, things that help teachers teach and children learn. Local schools are best suited to make decisions about allocating resources. They understand their students' background, the needs. They can respond to them most directly with proven methods of instruction. This amendment sets a standard to reduce bureaucracy and ineffective spending, gets more money into the hands of a person who knows a child's name. We must prioritize the way we spend our education tax dollars and put children first.”