Blake Moore: “I rise today to express both my support and concern for provisions of H.R. 1, the Leave No Child Behind Act. Since…”

“I rise today to express both my support and concern for provisions of H.R. 1, the Leave No Child Behind Act. Since taking office, President Bush has made education reform legislation a centerpiece of his administration's domestic policy. I sincerely believe that the President has the very best of intentions to address real problems in our nation's schools. The legislation before us today represents a great departure from current federal education policy--a policy that contains more than 50 duplicative programs and funding streams and burdens our administrators with paperwork. H.R. 1 provides unprecedented flexibility to local school districts, while retaining the overall purpose behind federal funding by targeting it to the students and districts that need them the most. It reduces the paperwork burden currently imposed by federal programs so that school administrators have time to do what they were hired to do--educate our kids. I am extremely concerned, however, with the provision of the bill mandating yearly testing in grades 3 through 8.”