Pete Sessions: “with regard to the quality of teachers, that is where we need to focus. Senator Mack has offered this amendment as a…”

“with regard to the quality of teachers, that is where we need to focus. Senator Mack has offered this amendment as a breakthrough to try to have some merit pay. I am telling you, I have taught. My wife has taught. We have been active in schools. Everybody who knows anything about education, who has had children in school, knows that some teachers give so much more and are so much more valuable than others who have maybe lost their enthusiasm or just do not have the capability. That is quite clear. To say to those exceptional teachers, who are being sought by high-tech computer companies and chemical firms, that we cannot pay them any more money, that they have to receive the exact same pay as somebody who does not perform as well, is not good policy, not if we care about learning. But if we care about bureaucracy, if we care about the educational establishment in Washington--if we care about that --if that is who is jerking our chain, then we do not give more pay to people who do better, then we do not give more pay to people who give their heart and soul to it, as I know they do. I have been a member of a supper club in the city of Mobile for a long time, over 25 years. Three of those people are full-time career teachers. I know how hard they work. I know how concerned they are for their children. Some teachers are just not that way. So why is that proposal so threatening? It would not be mandated.…”