Patty Murray: “I remind our colleagues that the class reduction bill is not a mandate from the Federal Government. It is a Federal…”

“I remind our colleagues that the class reduction bill is not a mandate from the Federal Government. It is a Federal partnership from the Federal Government to our classroom and to our schools that want to reduce class size in the first, second, and third grades. I also let our colleagues know that the California experiment... had teachers who were hired that were unqualified. I agree that we don't want that to happen. That is exactly why in our amendment we require fully qualified teachers to be hired if these Federal funds are used. I point out that a study has shown even in the California class size reduction reform they didn't require fully qualified teachers. Test scores are up and student achievement is improving. Test results have been released in the last week that show student scores are up in those classes because they reduced class size. Reducing class size does make a difference. We target a number of areas in this bill from reading first to technology, to training math and science teachers. We should also target money for class size reduction.”