On the recordMarch 3, 2010
I thank the gentleman from Minnesota. Truly, the examples that were given here today of children who have lost their lives, children who have suffered is untenable. There is nobody in this body that I can imagine who would think this is appropriate. Of course it is not. Our hearts go out to the families, all of us who have raised children, had children go through school. I have a great fear of something like that. But there was also a fear that our Founders had. There was a fear of even coming together for the Constitutional Convention because they were afraid that it would allow for a Constitution that would set in motion a Federal Government that would continue to take away the powers of the people in the local government and the State government. So the only way they were able to come together on this Constitution was to assure the people there that if they would pass the Constitution, they would put together 10 amendments to make sure that the Federal Government would never do the very things we're doing here. There is no State that would put up with this knowingly. Every State would say, This is ridiculous; of course we don't want children killed in school. But what gets me is during my first 2 years here when we were in the majority in this body, I was one of the few Republicans that said No Child Left Behind is not appropriate.
