Pete Sessions: “Education is a very important thing in this country. The title of the original education program proposed by President…”

“Education is a very important thing in this country. The title of the original education program proposed by President Bush, No Child Left Behind, is a powerful phrase. As the Senator from Ohio explained, this nation does not need to allow children to fall behind. We need to know what is going on. We need to find out how they are doing. President Bush has proposed, and this Congress has passed, larger increases in funding for education in the last three years than we saw in the previous eight. We have had a tremendous increase in education funding from the Federal Government, but the problem was, and the challenge and the important impact of No Child Left Behind is, that we are not just going to put money into systems that are not operating effectively and efficiently; systems that are allowing children to fall behind. Parents wake up, and their child is in the ninth or tenth grade and cannot do basic reading or basic math. They drop out of school, become a discipline problem, and the child's life is not what it ought to be. They will not reach the full potential that they ought to reach.”