Patty Murray: “It is about keeping a commitment all of us made when we voted to pass No Child Left Behind. We told our schools…”

“It is about keeping a commitment all of us made when we voted to pass No Child Left Behind. We told our schools, essentially our children, our communities, our families across this Nation that we were going to put in place accountability; that we wanted our students to learn, we wanted them to achieve, and we wanted them to be able to go on and get the skills they needed to be out in the job market. The best thing for Microsoft and Boeing to be competitive is to have an educated workforce of young people who have the skills they need to come in and do the kinds of jobs to be competitive in an international marketplace. When we passed the No Child Left Behind Act, we said we were going to put those standards out there, but that was a two-pronged promise, and the other promise was to fully fund No Child Left Behind. I have been amazed, sitting on the floor all morning listening to the other side say: We never intended to fully fund No Child Left Behind. I am shocked.”