Henry Bonilla: “today we are considering H.R. 6, the Improving America's Schools Act. If only the bill's title were true. This…”

“today we are considering H.R. 6, the Improving America's Schools Act. If only the bill's title were true. This comprehensive bill is comprehensively bad for America's schools and school children. Let me share my concerns over two of the harmful provisions in this bill: the opportunity to learn provision and the private, parochial, and home school provision. Opportunity to learn standards represent nothing less than another mandatory, unfunded Federal mandate which dictates what States must expend to educate students. These standards are not about education, they are about power, about giving the Washington bureaucracy the power to withhold Federal funds from local school districts that fail to toe the line. Local school districts would have to get Federal approval on the quality and availability of their materials, teachers, and facilities. This power grab violates our Nation's history of local control over education standards. Local control provides a protection that schools will respond to the special needs of its student body. The Federal Government provides less than 6 percent of all money spent on education but wants its fingers in every part of the State and local education pie. This makes the Federal Government the judge, juror, and executioner over local choices like curriculum quality and resource allocations. This is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind.…”