Political Quotes

“I first want to thank Chairman Alexander for working with me on the Every Child Achieves Act. He has been a great partner in getting us to this point with this bill. This process started when he and I agreed that No Child Left Behind is badly broken and needs to be fixed. Our bill, the Every Child Achieves Act, is an important step forward to do just that. The current law overemphasized test scores. Our bill will give States flexibility to use multiple measures, not just test scores, to determine how well a school is performing. Our bill also eliminates the one-size-fits-all provisions of No Child Left Behind that have been so damaging for our schools and our districts. Instead, it allows our communities, our parents, and our teachers to work together to improve schools and ensure that every child can get a well-rounded education. Our bill maintains Federal protections to help students graduate from high school with the tools they need to compete and lead in the 21st century economy. This is a good bill. I will keep working, of course, to make it better--even after our vote today--in conference. I hope we can continue to build on the Senate's strong bipartisan work. I will continue to push to strengthen the accountability measures in our bill and address inequality in schools. But today I urge my colleagues to vote to pass the Every Child Achieves Act that will give all students the chance to learn and grow and thrive. Let's fix No Child Left Behind.…”