Patty Murray: “the amendment we are now going to vote on simply continues our commitment to reduce class sizes for the first through…”

“the amendment we are now going to vote on simply continues our commitment to reduce class sizes for the first through the third grades across this country. Because of the work we have done in the past day, 1.7 million children are in smaller class sizes. We have a commitment. We should keep our commitment to continue to reduce class size. The underlying bill simply block grants the money. That will hurt our neediest and most disadvantaged students who will lose under that kind of proposal. School boards are meeting today to determine who they will keep as teachers and whether they will be able to make a commitment in the hiring of teachers. We should make this decision now so those school boards can make the decisions for the coming school year rather than once again negotiating this in October when the President has said he will veto a bill that does not keep the commitment to reduce class size. I urge my colleagues to vote for this amendment today and prevent school boards across the country from having to wonder all summer long if we are going to keep our commitment.”