Pete Sessions: “the Harkin amendment does not do the job. I urge its defeat. It has the pretense of improving the law, but it does not…”

“the Harkin amendment does not do the job. I urge its defeat. It has the pretense of improving the law, but it does not in any way. Under the amendment, the schools would not be free to set uniform discipline provisions for all students. The double standard that now exists would continue to exist. Our amendment does not completely remove the double standard, but it makes substantial progress after providing a hearing to that student to ensure they are treated fairly. Even if the bad behavior that a school seeks to address in the classroom has no relation to the child's disability, the school would be forced to keep that disruptive or even violent student in the classroom. If a child, for example, were blind, and if there were an excellent blind school nearby, the Harkin amendment would deny the school and the parent the right to agree--it would take both of them agreeing--to accept the average daily allowance for that student and apply that to that school, if the parent wanted to make up the difference and get the kind of high-quality education that might not be available in that school. I believe this is a concern for children. I believe it is compassionate in every way. It simply tries to give our beleaguered principals, teachers, and schools more options to deal with a very real problem. I thank the Chair. I urge defeat of the amendment.”