Burgess Owens: “the Republicans are attacking the lowest wage earners in America, the people at the very bottom, on two fronts. First…”

“the Republicans are attacking the lowest wage earners in America, the people at the very bottom, on two fronts. First, they deny them an opportunity for an increase in the minimum wage; an in this legislation, which this rule concerns, they are attacking people and preventing them from getting an education by stealth assassination of a concept called Opportunity to Learn. They have usurped the role of the authorizing committee and they have ruled out Opportunity to Learn standards in this legislation. Opportunity to Learn means that the Federal Government will collect information, it is all voluntary, collect information about what our school systems are doing to guarantee that children have an opportunity to learn. How are they providing decent books, decent buildings, decent science labs, qualified teachers who can teach science? How are they doing this? This is strictly voluntary. Nevertheless, after 6 months of debate, the authorizing committee decided to do this, and now in a few meetings the conference report tells us that Opportunity to Learn standards are stricken. That is against the rules, it is illegal, but it will prevail because they have the votes.”