Thomas E. Petri: “I rise in support of the Tiberi-Castle amendment, which would place academic results instead of rules and regulations at…”

“I rise in support of the Tiberi-Castle amendment, which would place academic results instead of rules and regulations at the center of federal education programs. Since enactment of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act 36 years ago, our approach to helping schools has been very inflexible and heavy-handed. We have set strict regulations as to what communities can and cannot do with federal education dollars, and what priorities they have to set. It has become clear that this approach hasn't worked. After all the billions of dollars spent by the federal government since 1965, we haven't seen a narrowing of the rich-poor educational gap, schools are neither safe nor drug-free, and it seems that much of the ``professional development'' money is wasted. It's far past time to try another approach. I have strongly supported previous proposals to give states and localities more flexibility in the use of federal funds, in return for real accountability, such as the ``Straight A's'' bill in the last Congress and the President's ``Charter States'' proposal in the original version of H.R. 1. I think the Tiberi-Castle amendment is also a step forward in this regard.”