Patty Murray: “I commend my colleague from Montana, Senator Baucus, for his work on education and his understanding that this is a key…”

“I commend my colleague from Montana, Senator Baucus, for his work on education and his understanding that this is a key issue we need to address from the Federal level. Too often today we hear from people who say, ``No, this is a local issue, this is just a State issue.'' Of course it is; it is absolutely a local issue; it is absolutely a State issue. But we have to do our part, too, whether it is passing the Ed-Flex bill so we can reduce some of the bureaucratic regulations or whether it is providing additional resources for those districts to shrink class size or working with teacher-training and technology. These are things we have to address, and I thank my colleague from Montana for his work on this. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about an amendment I will be offering shortly on the Ed-Flex bill, which is going to be on the floor probably in the next several minutes. The amendment I offer is one that many of my colleagues have come to the floor to talk about and to support, because it is an issue that parents and teachers and community leaders and business leaders truly understand when it comes to the issue of education. That is the fact that too many of our classrooms are overcrowded; too many of our teachers are trying to teach to classes with 30 or 35 students. They are not giving students the individual attention they need in order for them to learn the skills that we need them to learn, whether it is reading or writing or math or science.”