Burgess Owens: “I want to congratulate the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth, and Families, the gentleman…”

“I want to congratulate the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth, and Families, the gentleman from California [Mr. Martinez], and the chairman of the subcommittee, the gentleman from California [Mr. Riggs], and the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Chairman Goodling], and all the others who have negotiated this piece of legislation. There were some serious differences, and for a moment I thought maybe the children of America would be denied this small effort because of those differences, and I do not think it is good to do that and wait another year while the inaccuracy of the teaching of reading goes forward. I was shocked to learn that most of the teachers in our schools have never been trained to teach reading. There was an article on the New York Times editorial page which said the overwhelming majority of teachers have never been taught to teach reading and there is a need to have some kind of instruction on how to do that. It will improve the job. So the children who will benefit from this need it now. We cannot hesitate and wait. We should go on and do all we can. So this is one more small effort to improve education in America. It is just that, a small effort. This is like dipping from the lake of inadequacy with a teacup. This is a small program. It is $200 million. It may sound like a lot of money out there, but a nuclear submarine costs more than $2 billion.”