Jeff Duncan: “I would like to express two major concerns I have in regard to education that I hope the President and Secretary Paige…”

“I would like to express two major concerns I have in regard to education that I hope the President and Secretary Paige will take into consideration. First, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Hill) and I started a Smaller Schools Initiative within the Department of Education. We were fortunate enough to secure $45 million in funding for this program last year and $125 million this year. This money is supposed to be for grants and assistance to school systems to help keep small schools open and/or reduce the size of some very large schools. At a smaller school, a young person has a better chance to make a sports team, serve on the student council, lead a club, be a cheerleader or excel or stand out in some other way. Also a student at a smaller school can get more individual attention, and not just feel like a number in some education factory. Actually, very large high schools sometimes breed Columbine-type situations, because while 99.9 percent of students can handle big schools, a few always feel like they have to resort to strange or even dangerous behavior to get noticed.”