Jay Rockefeller: “perhaps the most effective way to improve the education of America's children is to ensure that they begin their…”

“perhaps the most effective way to improve the education of America's children is to ensure that they begin their education in an uncrowded classroom led by a qualified teacher. This body recognized that fact when we overwhelmingly passed the ``No Child Left Behind Act'' last year, mandating the hiring of qualified teachers by every school in every district. Unfortunately, without our help, America's poor and rural schools may not be able to attract the qualified teachers this legislation mandates and our children deserve. Isolated and impoverished, competing against higher paying and well-funded school districts for scarce classroom talent, they are already facing a desperate shortage of qualified teachers. As pressure to hire increases, that shortage will become a crisis, and children already at a disadvantage in relation to their more affluent and less isolated peers will be the ones who suffer most. Today, I propose a bill that will help bring dedicated and qualified teaching professionals to West Virginia's and America's poor and rural schools, and help give their students the opportunity to learn and flourish that every child deserves. The Incentives To Educate American Children Act, or ``I Teach'' Act, will provide teachers a refundable tax credit every year they practice their profession in the public schools where they are needed most.”