David Obey: “Let me simply say that this debate is supposed to be on the Evans amendment. We have already accepted the amendment on…”

“Let me simply say that this debate is supposed to be on the Evans amendment. We have already accepted the amendment on both sides. There is obviously a little filibuster going on here. As long as there is, let me correct some of the misstatements that have been made on the House floor. With respect to the school reform initiative contained in this bill, this is the exact opposite of control from Washington. What this bill attempts to do is to recognize that a whole group of American businessmen have tried to figure out what it is that makes schools work and what does not make them work. So instead of following their own individual political philosophy, they simply examined all of the research around the country to see what had been proven to improve student performance and what had not. And they simply came to the conclusion that there were roughly seven different models which helped to achieve much greater student performance. The fact is that there are, in addition to a New American Schools Movement, there are a broad number of other efforts around the country to try to determine what works to improve schools.”