John Chafee: “today the Senate approved the Goals 2000: Educate America Act. Regrettably, I was not here earlier in the day to vote on…”

“today the Senate approved the Goals 2000: Educate America Act. Regrettably, I was not here earlier in the day to vote on many of the remaining amendments to Goal 2000. As some of you may know, I was at home in Rhode Island attending the funeral of a young police officer, Steven Shaw, who was slain in the line of duty. Goals 2000 is a very important step toward achieving the improvements in education that our Nation's children deserve and that we have been discussing for a decade. Since the issuance nearly 10 years ago of the special report, ``A Nation at Risk,'' our focus has been on what is wrong with education. This bill encourages States, local education agencies, and individual schools to look at what is right in education and to use that as a model for improvement and reform. To help in encouraging this practice, the National Education Standards and Improvement Council will develop national opportunity-to-learn standards, content standards, and student performance standards and assessments. This does not mean that the Federal Government will dictate to schools in Providence and Cranston, or anywhere else in Rhode Island or the Nation, what goes on in the classroom. Rather, the Council will develop guidelines that States receiving grants through this legislation should consider in the development of education reform plans. In other words, the Council is charged with developing standards to stimulate improvement at the local school level.”