Mike Enzi: “We are talking today as if the Federal Government solves all education problems. We are the problem. We provide about 8…”

“We are talking today as if the Federal Government solves all education problems. We are the problem. We provide about 8 percent of the funding for education and we provide over 50 percent of the paperwork for education. We have been attacking this accountability thing with papers that have to be turned in to the Department of Education for years. I have a person on my staff who is a former principal. He was a principal and he took a leave of absence to come back to Washington and take a look at what happens to the forms he fills out. He spent a semester at the Department of Education. When he reported back he said: You know, they actually read all of those documents. They make sure that every 'i' is dotted and every 't' is crossed. He said the big disappointment is then there is no use for the paperwork. Nothing happens with it. There is no accountability. There is no support. There is no help to the schools. We need to do something differently. That is what No Child Left Behind is about, taking a different approach to accountability.”