Joe Cunningham: “Let me give another classic example of where the Federal Government can run amok in writing standards or tests. The…”

“Let me give another classic example of where the Federal Government can run amok in writing standards or tests. The ranking minority member, he was my chairman when the Democrats were in the majority and then he became my ranking member when I was chairman of the committee when we took over in 1994 the majority. But he was outraged as a history teacher for the Federal Government producing history standards that spoke more on Madonna than they did the Magna Carta. They demonized veterans and liberalized hippies and liberals in different fields. They demonized in another area the Enola Gay which is right up here in a museum, they demonized American veterans and our military and wanted to apologize to Japan which caused many, many deaths. The gentleman from Texas, Mr. Sam Johnson, got that particular individual fired. But when the government takes over, they want their liberal agenda to fit into these exams. That is the whole difference. We want to empower the parents, the teachers, the local communities and the families to empower them to establish what is important to them, not some liberal bureaucrat here in Washington, D.C.”