David Obey: “that means that authority over all policy guidelines for this testing is being moved to that board; it will not be under…”

“that means that authority over all policy guidelines for this testing is being moved to that board; it will not be under the Department of Education. In addition, that board is being expanded to include a higher number of local officials, and along the way they exempted home schoolers; they made quite clear that home schoolers were exempted from any testing. Now, in practical terms, the administration has indicated that it will not sign a bill that does not allow them to develop the process or continue the process of developing testing. Now as I said, as far as the committee is concerned, after consultation with the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Porter], I am accepting the amendment, simply to make clear that the administration does need to do a lot more work in talking not only with the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Goodling], but frankly with additional members of my own party. It is no secret that significant members of the Hispanic caucus and significant members of the Black Caucus of my own party support the Goodling amendment. I understand their concerns, but frankly, I believe that even if students are originally learning in another language, I believe that they need to take that test in English by the time they get to around the fourth grade.”