Political Quotes

“There were a lot of problems in No Child Left Behind, and one of them, of course, is this top-down idea that the Federal Government can run education. This is a relatively simple amendment. We are shrinking the time that this bill, which is a very hard-worked on bill, shrinking the time before we revisit this issue from 6 years back down to 3 years, from 2021 back down to 2018. One of the reasons why I think our forefathers did not want Federal Government involved in a lot of things is we move so slowly. Back home, my local superintendent can change policy daily. My local school boards meet every other week. My State superintendent can change policy daily and probably changes rules every few months. We knew there were big problems with No Child Left Behind back in 2002-2003. Eleven or 12 or 13 years later after the problems were very apparent, we still have not amended that bill, which is why this is a good amendment right now. As hard-worked on as this bill is, we know a year from now, a year and a half from now, people will say: Oh, I wish you would have done that, I wish you would have done something else. I don't think it is too much to ask that we revisit this legislation 3 years from now, well after our local school boards or well after our local State legislators will have met many, many, many times. I reserve the balance of my time.”